Motivation again...

On yesterday's post, a fellow graduate student commented - " I would say my motivation for being a 'scientist' is just basic curiosity...... it gives me some sort of fundamental satisfaction when I understand why and how things work - not just related to science, but everything."

You can read more about Chinmay's work here.

He goes on to say "If at all there's any ego behind it, it's not that I myself am personally capable of understanding things, but that human intelligence in general has evolved to be capable of figuring out the universe that generated it."

I agree. There is undoubtedly pride in the fact that human beings as a species have the ability to comprehend nature in all its glory.
But the fact remains, science today as an industry is built on a healthy competition. This competition, unlike in Newtonian times, isn't geared much towards individual glory, as it is towards individual accomplishment. To get ahead, nay, to survive itself as a scientist one needs to be productive in ones output. This productivity is rewarded in multiple ways - by more grants, by better jobs, and yes of course a little recognition.

Now, if indeed, I were for example a multi-millionaire, (or at least didnt have to worry about making a livelihood) I could spend all my time pursuing what stimulated my intellect. Certainly then, ego would have little part (ideally anyway!). But since, I do have to make a living at this, this implies I have to be good at it, and of course this implies being better at the job than a significant number of other scientists. Whether I am or not, is debatable. But if I didn't have the confidence (or ego) to believe I was, then I probably wouldn't be doing this.