I admire many people who attempt this path, simply for making the attempt. If academia is the intellectual equivalent of “taking a job”, monkish independent scholarship is like starting a business—greater personal risk, greater upside for the world in the unlikely event you excel. One dis-analogy: you usually don’t earn much money. Off the top of my head, a partial list of monkish independent scholars whose writing I’ve found useful: * David Deutsch * [[David Pearce]] * [[Brian Tomasik]] * Gwern * Alexei Guzey * Erasmus guy * Constantine I think there’s a useful grouping here. Key features I have in mind: 1. Funding does not come from an academic institution, a “mainstream” national agency, or an established think tank. 2. Significant focus on novel insight generation, and/or the construction of a novel world view (as opposed to popularisation or advocacy) 3. Primary activity is research and scholarship; they are monk-ish in their devotion; they don’t have significant “worldly” activities in their present, past or plausible future. Condition (3) omits a lot of people. Worldly intellectuals (e.g. Paul Graham, Nassim Taleb, Tyler Cowen) seem importantly different from the cluster of people that I have in mind; same goes for e.g. independent journalists; some bloggers seem like borderline cases (e.g. Scott Alexander). I probably admire and trust the worldly intellectual (“kings who become philosophers” in Taleb’s phrase) more in general, but nonetheless I think there’s a valuable role for un-worldly monkish thinkers with the courage to chart their own path. I particularly admire those for whom academia clearly was a viable option. Many people in this category have personal eccentricities, sometimes clear pathologies, that limit their options. Eccentricities are often to be welcomed, perhaps doubled down on. Pathologies, insofar as these are intractable burdens deserve our patience and respect, but I would venture that at least 1/5 intellectuals need someone to shake them by the shoulders and help them cultivate greater awareness, discipline and determination. The “dysfunctional genius” trope should be lower status than it is—I suspect that too many see dysfunction as a sign of genius, and therefore give themselves and others a pass.