Hey everyone,

I just wrote about something that might surprise you on Bloomberg Opinion: Why universities actually need to be full of oddballs, contrarians, and people who drive the rest of us nuts.

Sure, colleges have always been hotbeds of activism, and that rubs some people the wrong way. But before you write them off, consider this: universities are the engine of American innovation. Nobel Prizes? Medical breakthroughs? Google’s search algorithm? All thanks to people who were a little… different.

Take Judah Folkman. His research was so out there that his own hospital forced him to resign. Luckily, Harvard’s tenure system protected him, and he went on to revolutionize cancer treatment. Or Katalin Kariko, whose work on mRNA was dismissed for years—until it led to the COVID vaccines.

The problem? We actually don’t have enough of these people anymore. Universities are more professionalized than ever, making it harder for truly radical ideas to thrive. And now, with political attacks and research funding cuts, we risk weakening the very institutions that produce the breakthroughs we all benefit from.

Crazy ideas change the world. If we make universities hostile to the weirdos who come up with them, we lose out. Big time.

My question to you: If universities stop making space for the misfits and contrarians, where will the next generation of game-changing thinkers come from?

-Gautam

Mukunda in the Media

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