On Wed, 31 Mar 2010 18:25:13 -0700 (PDT), brent
wrote:

On Mar 30, 2:08*pm, Jim Lux wrote:
Bill wrote:
On Mar 29, 10:08 pm, Jim Lux wrote:
Lord Rayleigh was an amateur: nobody was paying him to do his work.

Are you talking about the Professor of Physics at Cambridge?

3rd Baron John Strutt

During the time he managed his late father's barony from 1873 to 1879,
he did some research. The Theory of Sound was published in 1878.

Then, after he left the Cavendish Lab at Cambridge in 1884, he continued
his research at home.

For all I know, Cambridge didn't pay him either.. he was definitely a
"man of means" and sort of typifies the "gentleman amateur"

Antoine Lavoisier or Joeseph Fourier would be other examples. Both had
"jobs" that paid well and didn't require a lot of their time, so they
could spend their spare time and cash on science/engineering.


Thanks for that information Jim.

when amateurs get bored out of their mind of the activity in question
they can take a break from it. Professionals cannot. They must
soldier on until they get interested in their livelihood again.

I believe that the "quitting (or resting) is not an option" is what
makes professionals so much better than amateurs in almost all cases.

That has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the persons
work. If they no longer enjoy it, and many never did from the start,
they chose the wrong field. Generally when a person becomes bored
with their work, or dissatisfied the quality of their work suffers.
With nearly 35 years of working I saw a lot of that.

If you are a professional who is bored out of their mind, quitting and
going back to college to pursue a different field certainly is an
option.

That is what I did after working over 26 years.
I originally enjoyed the work and had fun on the job. Did that make me
an amateur professional? I chose the line of work because I loved
doing it. OTOH there were those who figured I must not be doing my
work because I appeared to be having "too much fun". After changing
professions and jobs I ended up working for and with people who were
not so narrow minded and understood. When I retired it was as a
project manager with good people working for me and good bosses above
me.

I still loved the work, but I had reached the point where I was seeing
too many people working until they dropped at work, or retiring and
dropping within a month or two. OTOH I saw more than a few who didn't
know any thing other than work. I decided I wanted to go play.

I also love retirement (does that make me an amateur retiree?) , but
it could pay better.

Can there even be such a thing as an amateur soldier?

Sure...they don't last too long though.


73

Roger (K8RI)