On his way to Stockholm to receive a Nobel Prize in 2013, he said the following in an interview:

💬 He wouldn’t expect to make a breakthrough today.

Why? “Because of the expectations on academics to collaborate and keep churning out papers.” "It's difficult to imagine how I would ever have enough peace and quiet in the present sort of climate to do what I did in 1964." He would (almost certainly) have been fired if he wasn’t nominated for the Nobel in 1980.

Why? He wasn’t ‘productive’ enough. But his university then decided that he “might get a Nobel prize - and if he doesn't we can always get rid of him". When he retired in 1996, he didn't like how science was done: “It wasn't my way of doing things any more”. “Today I wouldn't get an academic job. It's as simple as that. I don't think I would be regarded as productive enough.”

My thoughts: Today, people like Peter Higgs wouldn’t go beyond PhD/postdoc. He was one of those romantic scientists who dreams of becoming another ‘Max Planck’ or ‘Marie Curie’ but doesn’t know the reality of academia. And I am lost currently ps help...

Also I think There is science AND there is academia.

Academia has become “enterprise-centered” and metrics-oriented. It has advantages. But it’s fiercely competitive. Science requires perseverance and time. It’s about discoveries.

Entrepreneurship and $$$ is only a byproduct.