Because it requires expending too much energy seeking out collaborations. When I expressed a wish to work with Tarjan, it was a goal inextricable from that of gaining admission to Princeton, where he works. “Why not collaborate with him anyway?” is a question that does not make sense to me – how can I do so when I’m consumed by research at Temple? Even if I had the time, why would he be willing to work with me, considering that he was probably an integral part of the reason that I was rejected? I also don’t relish the idea of working to grant any sort of glory to an institution that refused me the education required to attain my research goals – something I’ve already done for UPenn because my group is collaborating with researchers there.

I need to find the time to work on my own research problems and make significant discoveries, as I did when I was at Monmouth. Perhaps most researchers can endure devoting their time to others’ problems. Perhaps most researchers simply view research as a job; a system in which to work. Perhaps most researchers view interacting with the research community as half the fun.

I am not most researchers. Ideas themselves compel me and I would give much to cut myself off from those who have obstructed my pursuit of those ideas.

I am afraid I was born into a scientific environment approximately four hundred years too late. My scientific philosophy aligns much more closely with that of the 17th century than the 21st.