Mediocracy vs Meritocracy | John Ioannidis | TEDxAcademy

John Ioannidis speaks about Mediocracy vs Meritocracy in a TEDx event in Athens 2015.

Dr. John Ioannidis holds the C.F. Rehnborg Chair in Disease and Prevention at Stanford University, where he is a professor of medicine, of health research and policy, and of statistics. He is also Director of the Stanford Prevention Center at Stanford University School of Medicine. Before joining Stanford in 2010, Dr. Ioannidis chaired the Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology at the University of Ioannina School of Greece since 1999 (permanent professor since 2003 and in holidays since August 2010). He was born in New York in 1965 and he was raised in Athens. He graduated first his class at the College of Athens (1984) and he soon manage to receive prizes like the first prize of the Greel Mathematical Company in 1984.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Hello.

My subject is Mediocracy vs Meritocracy

and I have to start
by saying that, personally,

I understand that I have to be
ashamed for my profession.

What I am doing has absolutely
no respect in Greece.

I am neither a drug dealer,

nor a human trafficker,

not even a politician.

I am doing something way worse.
I am a scientist-researcher.

To prove to you
how disrespected this is in Greece,

this is the GDP portion
for research and technology.

Countries that wish to produce wealth,
that want to be wealthy,

they invest in research and technology.

Israel for example.

We have so much wealth
that we don't need it,

so we are nothing like
the ex-soviet satellites that give 2%,

we are not like the lost countries

where just 1% will led them
to bankruptcy sooner or later,

we are at 0,6%,
in the bottom along with Uganda.

Still, there is a huge difference
between Uganda and Greece.

In Uganda 0,6% goes
to research and technology.

(Laughter)

(Applause)

Just to let you know
how disreputable I am,

I spent half my career
as a professor in the University Ioannina.

For twelve years I received
hundreds, thousands invitations

to give talks, interviews abroad.

In Ioannina and in Epirus
there are, maybe,

dozens of TV stations, radio stations,

news stations, on-line,
for news and what's happening.

No one ever asked me to tell:
"What are you doing, in a nutshell?"

My name appeared once
in a local newspaper,

I think it was on page 27,

underneath an advertisement
about toilet and kitchen supplies.

The Panhellenic Championship of Fencing
wrote one line about me,

"An athlete of the Modern Sports
Association of Epirus competed,

John Ioannidis, visibly exhausted,

poorly prepared and mostly lost."

So, I have a second capacity
and the moment you will hear about it

you will be very angry and mad,
it is even more disreputable.

I am a doctor.

When I had just came back with my family
to Greece from America,

we found ourselves a lovely romantic night
somewhere on a beach in the Ionian Sea,

but it was late and we had to find
a place to spend the night, to sleep.

We managed to find a small hotel.

''Any vacancies?"
"Yes, sure"

"May I see?"
"Sure"

"Very nice. What is the price?"

The hotel manager looks me in the eyes,
"What do you do for a living?"

I replied, "I am a doctor".

"A doctor? Thieves, crooks,
all you think of is money under the table.

If you are a doctor,
double price, triple price".

He was about to kick me out.

Since then, I decided
not to say I am a doctor.

I could not say that I am a researcher,

how can someone understand
what is the meaning of a researcher.

So I was saying, "I work in a lab".

And some other romantic time,
again on a lovely beach in the Ionian Sea,

some other very nice lady

who rented us beauftiful rooms
by the sea, asked me,

"Mr John, you work in a lab, right?

In Ioannina, in a jewelry lab?"

(Laughter)

I have a third capacity

and since you already think
the worst of me and what I do,

but since we are at this point now,
let's give it away, even if it just 4%.

(Laughter)

(Applause)

This is the worst of all.

I am making an effort to place
myself in the intellectual world.

I write literature, I write poetry.

Now, when you hear "I write poetry"

you think of some ministers
who write poetry,

some politicians using poetry

in speeches that fascinate the masses.

I realize that the use of poetry
in Modern Greece is a bit like this.

What does a politician mean
by the following in his speech?

"Freedom requires virtue and boldness",

"I have not enjoyed
enough Frappé coffees, I need more".

"Small people that fight
without swords and bullets"

"When I am not lying,
I am bored to death".

"Die hard"

--I am not sure if this one
is from Pindar or Stesichorus,

or maybe another poet, Mimnermus,
perhaps another post modern American --

"Thank you for re-electing me
triumphantly,

while I completely destroyed the country."

(Applause)

So, mediocracy, meritocracy.

You lost my train of thought;
now I will take a poll as well.

I am not a surveyor,
but let's do one, everybody is doing one.

So, raise your hands, who knows,
who has heard him speak,

or has read a text written
by Paul Alivisatos at Berkeley.

Huh, no...

Nick Peppas in Texas?

I don't see anyone, my glasses are dirty.

Tom Maniatis in Columbia?

I don't see anyone.
Sorry, am I boring you?

Who knows Lakis Lazopoulos?

(Laughter)

Not too many hands raised,
but I heard answers, so...

So, all these are top Greek scientists.

They are scientists
that are the top of the top.

There are some, a random sample,
of the 100 best Greek scientists.

Most top Greek scientists

are abroad.

Almost 3% of the top
scientists in the world,

based on objective facts,

based on the impact they have
on the international bibliography

--you may go to the Google Scholar base

and see how many times
each one is mentioned

by other scientists for his work --

3% are Greeks.

As a population we are 0,2%,
but 3% of the top scientists are Greeks.

Population 15 times fuelled by science.

Almost 90% of them
are not in Greece at this moment.

10% insists on staying here,
to struggle and be rolled over,

be crushed on a daily basis.

Some of them were not born in Greece,

because their parents had emigrated
as economical emigrants,

as scientific emigrants,

as emigrants because
they were sick of it all, or whatever.

Most of them grew up in Greece,
but they had to leave.

Many tried to come back,
most of them had no luck.

Some of them they made it and most
of them offered a lot to this country.

Most could not make it. Why?

The answer is that
competition is very hard.

This is what goes on
in Stanford, my university.

If we open a position, the average number
of people that apply for it is 300.

This is nothing.

In Greece, if there is an open position
there is one candidate.

(Laughter)

At least that was before
the crisis of 2010.

The rest, if they wanted to show interest,
they were thrown out the window,

several ways, cut their heads off, throw
them in the sewer, I don't know what.

There are no positions at the universities
after the beginning of the crisis,

because the budget for the universities,

but also the hiring of new professors
and staff are practically almost zero.

You can't get a position
even if you are the prime minister's wife!

(Laughter)

(Applause)

So what's going on.

The Greek universities' budget,

to explain to you what's on, how much
the country is investing to meritocracy,

I found this image
on some sport news:

''Olympiakos paid 17,4

--millions euros even during the crisis--

to transfer players, Atletico
gave 112...Spanish...presentation...''

The Greek universities,
the entire university of Crete

plus the one in Patras, in Ioannina,
if I put them all together,

the annual budget is way cheaper

than the Olympiakos
annual budget for transfers.

So, what is going on?

We don't have new professors.

We only have the old professors,
eternal professors.

At the same time, we also have
eternal students involved in politics.

The combination of the eternal students
and the eternal professors

leads us to perfection.

(Laughter)

So, where do we stand?

(Applause)

Where do we stand.

I told you there are many
top Greek scientists

who know their fields very well

and they can help society,
if they are given the chance to say

what they know or not know,
what we can do or we can't do.

There are plenty of professors.

The voice of the specialists
and the scientists has to be heard.

That's what I am saying,
that's what I want to say.

''How dare you, Mr Ioannidi, listen
to the specialists and the scientists,

meaning that we should bring
even more academics to upset us?

How many academics can
poor Greek society handle?''

You need to advertise
a jacket with a stripe?

An academic.

You need to fill the air time
in a morning TV show?

An academic.

You need someone to ambiguously
absorb the few remaining funds?

An academic.

You need someone
to destroy the university,

to violently throw out
the few excellent specialists left,

to eliminate the flaw of the excellence?

An academic.

(Applause)

Not exactly.

I told you that there
are a lot of other scientists

and there is no need to look
in politicians or party leaders

or anything else, but just
to show you what is going on,

this is data by Google Scholar

about the nine professors ministers
of Education, Economy and Health

during the years 2004 till 2014,
when Greece bloomed.

I had to set a benchmark
at the side of the slide,

I picked Mr Nanopoulos
who has 60.000 citations,

he is a giant in science.

He doesn't have the most citations,
he is within the first 50, 50 to 100.

There are others with six times more,

but I had to find someone
really excellent, as a comparison.

The median of all those professors
is about 250 citations.

Change in January of 2015, 13 professors
are ministers by one government.

The have the very same median,
you can't even plan this.

23 professors were candidates
on the statewide ballot on September 2015.

We are going towards the wrong direction.

The median is 95 citations.

Fourteen professors were
ministers in September 2015.

We reach 65 citations.

We haven't reached zero yet,
there is still space, we' re almost there.

Shouldn't we take all those
top scientists...

And I used Mr Nanopoulos,
not for any other reason,

but because the rest 99 as you saw,
you had never heard about them,

while why do you know Mr Nanopoulos?

Probably because he was the face
on the Lexus advertisement.

So we must take the 100 or the 1000 best

and make them ministers, party leaders,
fashion designers, pop-stars?

What should we do with them?

No, no way.

We simply must gave them
the opportunity to share what they know.

To inform the society,
to educate the society.

Make the ghosts
of the unreachable illusions,

that we all may have, disappear.

This is not the return
of the legendary "Marble Emperor", right?

These are simple people,
they just do their work,

they know a couple of things, we have to
give them a place, a chance in society

to be heard as well.

If we allow the specialists to talk, will
all of our problems be solved immediately?

We will pass from Hieronymus Bosch's
"Hell" to ''The School of Athens''

where of the great philosophers
and specialists are included

and Heaven will exist in sky and earth?

I can promise you that
this is not going to happen.

Miracles do not happen overnight.

They happen much faster
than this actually.

When a student
at my university decided that

''Lessons are fine,
but I want to start a company'',

and two years later he built Google,

the miracle had happened.

Another guy in the same
neighbourhood that I live, built Facebook.

Another one in the same
neighbourhood built Yahoo.

A third one built
Hewlett Packard, Apple.

We need to give the chance
to brilliant people,

to innovative people,
to people with ideas,

in the mood to experiment
and to offer, to change our light bulbs

literally.

Will everything be perfect?
No, it will not be perfect.

Scientists, even the most excellent ones,
make mistakes, a lot of mistakes.

They simply know how to admit
they might be mistaken

and they know how to warn others
for the chance of the mistake.

They don't have a big mouth.

They say, "That is what I know,
this I do not know, this may change soon".

So someone may move with a strategy

that most things and new ideas
that are going to be heard,

might eventually not move forward.

But if we could bring even one Google
to Greece, would it be bad?

Or one Facebook?

Of all the ideas you will hear today
in this TEDxAcademy,

starting from microRNA to robotics,

to experience from systems
from NASA's scientists,

from social scientists,
from the 30, 50, 100 ideas

maybe one of them can work out.

Give a chance to those
50 ideas, let them be heard,

so that one of them will finally work out.

The opposite solution?

The opposite solution,
the alternative, might be it:

maybe we should listen to drug dealers,

or maybe we should listen
to the illegal immigrant traders,

maybe we should listen
to the politicians.

Good luck!

(Applause)

Thank you very much.

(Applause)