As Samantha Bryton said in her article about high schools, the system is broken. But it’s not only our education system; it’s also the scientific sector. They both have the same essential problem, and this problem is rewarding results.
It does sound like the natural way to go about things, awarding the best results. But we see this as a problem most starkly in education. Students are so focused on getting As and 100%’s that cheating is the biggest epidemic in our schools. If you don’t get caught, it does not matter how you got your results. What matters is that you brought it. There is this insane pressure and standard that only the best of the best should be allowed at the top. Through rigorous college courses and testing, these people that skip the work because they’re so focused on the results are usually weeded out. It may seem like a good system since those that don’t do the work eventually don’t get the rewards of a good career. But might they have had that chance at the top career they wanted if our system was a little bit different? It's quite possible that if students are not so focused on getting good grades and instead work their hardest to learn the material and focus on fewer things at a time, they could make it into the top of their fields. We're not encouraging learning; we're pushing for results.
In scientific research, the motto is publish or perish. In other words, get groundbreaking results quickly or have your career die. While I’m not saying that this leads to a ton of false scientific findings, it does not help to ensure their quality. The only real rewards come when the scientist meets the goals of their industry, university, company, or government. There are no direct incentives for proper technique or passion-fueled exploration from the overseeing financial powers. The only thing you are rewarded for is finding the answers people want, fast. And once you do this, you have some job security. If you don’t publish, you have no job security. While there are many measures in place to ensure that false results never see the light of day, there are other biases in the system that affect publishing and limit the scope and creativity of scientific research.
The way we run education and science is deeply, deeply flawed. We only reward the end results and that incentivizes the wrong behavior. It sends the message that process is not at all important. It only elicits the fastest work we can give, the work that passes for the best. With a system like this, we're limiting what we can collectively contribute to society.
