Reminds me of Steve Paxton, an amazing dancer who passed away recently. He led a project called “Contact Improvisations”, which became a movement form called Contact Improvisation. He taught some classes and many others contributed. 50 years later, it’s still going strong. But, he didn’t embrace this role of “Contact Improv guy” that was really available to him. He just kept doing other stuff, even as this community exploded.
I think that’s partly the nature of pure researchers. They usually have something more interesting to them than what they got famous for, and they probably don’t want to lead an organization. This is different from BDFLs like Guido van Rossum and Rich Hickey. Neither type is good or bad, and I appreciate them all.
It's almost by definition that if you get popular for something, it is not the thing you're most interested in or best at - because you're an expert in the craft and for something to be popular it has to be at least somewhat approachable by non-experts.
I think that’s partly the nature of pure researchers. They usually have something more interesting to them than what they got famous for, and they probably don’t want to lead an organization. This is different from BDFLs like Guido van Rossum and Rich Hickey. Neither type is good or bad, and I appreciate them all.