Scientific work has many flaws. It's hopelessly paid, requires exceptional intellectual immunity with chances of getting a -5-10% grant, An 8-hour day of work for 5 days a week is fiction- sometimes a week of work is 70 hours.
But it besides has advantages. It is clear that it is interesting and requiring lifelong learning. In this note, however, I wanted to draw attention to something else. Well, all scientist has a large number of friends and acquaintances around the world.
In my case, the statistic look something like this:
Germany: 20 people, Italy 15, French 10, Czech 10, Chinese 10, nipponese 10, English 5, Americans 5, Portuguese 5, Spanish 5, Lithuanian 5, Greek 5, and more. Together, more than 100 people from different countries of the world. erstwhile we meet at various conferences we are genuinely excited, we drink beer/wine together, we talk about families, about the world, and, of course, about our research.
I fishy that if we did a statistic of abroad knowledge, it would be 0.1 friends from abroad. IMHO, this is 1 of the reasons for the popularity of PiSu or Confederacy. People live around Poles, and if they travel abroad, almost exclusively touristic, and no closer acquaintances are made.
I think it would be worth considering how to increase the interaction between people from different countries. There are a variety of programs in Western Europe (from school children to pensioners) in which we do not participate. I urge Ministers of Culture, Education, abroad Affairs to do something useful in this area.
Michał Leszczyński
