To use Lee Smolin's (her ex-husband) terminology [1], she was clearly a Seer, not a Crafstperson.<p>The Seers-Craftspeople problem is not unlike the innovator's dilemma and the big-corp/startup.
The Perimeter, of all places, was about fostering Seers.
Einstein is the canonical Seer, and it is generally accepted that Einstein today would have been, at the beginning of his career, even less welcomed by the scientific community (before his 1905 papers, he was unable to secure several faculty positions, etc, went to work in the patent office).<p>Maybe Milner/Zuck can come up with something to help fund the Seers, à la startup incubator, thinking long-term, in the sense that 1 successful unicorn in a portfolio of 100 would be worth it, and you could have 15+ years to think without any pressure to publish.<p>Apparently the odds of finding some at the Perimeter have diminished in the last few years.<p>Maybe YC/Thiel/Musk want to take up this challenge, à la OpenAI.<p>Maybe hope lies in guaranteed basic income. (À la Buchheit: "we don't need more jobs, we need more Steve Jobs.")<p>[1] Smolin, Lee - The Trouble with Physics, Chapter 18 "Seers and Craftspeople"
If you look at her Inspirehep page, she has a citation count of 1193 only [1]. For someone who got a PhD in 1998, that's definitely below par. Also her major work is on causal dynamical approaches to quantum gravity - an endeavor not with many successes and currently not considered to be very fruitful by most high energy physicists. I don't think she would have been able to get tenure in any major research university.<p>[1] <a href="http://inspirehep.net/author/profile/F.Markopoulou.1" rel="nofollow">http://inspirehep.net/author/profile/F.Markopoulou.1</a>
>> She wears her hair in a tousled pixie-cut, and on this spring day, a green knit sweater and blue scarf with a pattern of fish-like scales.<p>Ah, alright. I was wondering what she was wearing.<p>(is your sarcasm detector working?)