[jleyank]

I don't know whether he was a "good" or "bad" student. He was certainly a disinterested one, as there wasn't great overlap between what he thought about and what they were trying to teach. He must have been an effective one, however, as he picked up the information needed to solve problems in many fields, expand physics, and have a "typically European scientist" level of culture.

For those in science, most dream of having a career that can compare to his 1905.

[kragen]

Most? You can think of an exception?

[jleyank]

Some do science to teach, and many do science to cure a particular problem. The first set is probably orthogonal, but while most people won't equate a successful drug launched to market as 1905-like, those trying to cure a disease would disagree.

Different strokes for different folks. Hell, some probably do science for the bucks, as being an academic with the hot med/bio topic can result in serious coin.