i got a bachelors degree in the sciences but instead of pursuing research and grad school i immediately left that field after graduation for working in the arts. my reasoning was actually pretty similar to what you describe here. i went through a "skeptic"/new atheist/rationalist phase, tried to go deep into understanding the epistimological biases of my particular field of study, and eventually felt like the issues were more cultural than knowledge/fact-based. that's not to say we don't need a huge revamp of how we teach critical thinking and the scientific method in the USA- we definitely do! but after i graduated i felt I could have more impact in changing circumstances via fostering the creative imagination in the cultural sphere rather than siloed into some extremely specific research within an institution.
10ish years later, the jury is still out on whether that was a sound decision (lol). if I had stayed in that field I would probably be either a highly paid data scientist or an extremely low paid academic researcher. i've done a lot of cool things since within arts/culture but there's maybe even larger issues in promoting creative pedagogy/thinking in the USA compared to scientific literacy.
That's rad, and I am pleased I hit on a element of truth with my idea. I did the opposite. I was going for sociology until I discovered all the questions were answered people just don't want to do them. Now, I am trying to go for nursing.
I am really curious, do you feel comfortable sharing any of your work or your methodology?
i got a bachelors degree in the sciences but instead of pursuing research and grad school i immediately left that field after graduation for working in the arts. my reasoning was actually pretty similar to what you describe here. i went through a "skeptic"/new atheist/rationalist phase, tried to go deep into understanding the epistimological biases of my particular field of study, and eventually felt like the issues were more cultural than knowledge/fact-based. that's not to say we don't need a huge revamp of how we teach critical thinking and the scientific method in the USA- we definitely do! but after i graduated i felt I could have more impact in changing circumstances via fostering the creative imagination in the cultural sphere rather than siloed into some extremely specific research within an institution.
10ish years later, the jury is still out on whether that was a sound decision (lol). if I had stayed in that field I would probably be either a highly paid data scientist or an extremely low paid academic researcher. i've done a lot of cool things since within arts/culture but there's maybe even larger issues in promoting creative pedagogy/thinking in the USA compared to scientific literacy.
That's rad, and I am pleased I hit on a element of truth with my idea. I did the opposite. I was going for sociology until I discovered all the questions were answered people just don't want to do them. Now, I am trying to go for nursing.
I am really curious, do you feel comfortable sharing any of your work or your methodology?