How comes?

Because there is a never-ending enmity between the spirit of culture and the
spirit of business.  We won't deny that relationships matter and we won't deny
the importance of money and networking. What we deny is the absolute domination
of these things over the (scientific) world.  We'll strike on the mentality that
places them as the center and only meaning of life.  The business and networking
interests dominate today the (science and culture) spirit, while it should be
the other way around, as was meant long ago.  This way of thinking, by reversing
the natural relation between business and spirit, gradually depletes all our
strength, all power, all faith in any higher meaning and all hope. People who
walk on this way may at best seem to expand quite rapidly for some short time,
but all remains artificial; like plants that grow in artificial greenhouses,
their long-term fruit does not have enough substance to endure.  It's only
towards the end of their career that many (managers) make it quite clear that
they do not care (at all) about the work ever accomplished in a life time (in
their company). This is mainly because they do not care about what they produce
but about the reward they get in return.  In such cases, the money-fueled
motivation may easily run out of gas with no chance of standing the test of
time.  We find our moral strength only in the strong faith that, by placing
ourselves in the original harmony of life that subordinates business to spirit,
we can fight the odds and win against our evilly disposed nature and, in turn,
against the evilly disposed modern world.

We live in the confidence that, unlike our network or business interests of the
day, this creed will last forever.

And we'll be again reunited. 

================================================================================

Fate is against us
But I wish for this night to last for a lifetime
Cause I've never felt so young before.

================================================================================

One day we'll be again reunited. 
Even if few and scattered, we'll be a team of a new kind.
A team that will never be broken: a unity of steel.
Even if we end up in hell, we will still stand united. 
We won't be able to turn the tide, but we'll be the last men standing.
One day you'll understand. 

Daniel Cosmin Porumbel, 2022-06-24, 
looking forward to v2 on that great sunny day, that great solstice of 2027-06-24

   a) Guess 2024-04-13 
   Any visible coagulation forbidden on Earth
================================================================================

Many may ask: why go beyond the technical ideas to discuss such philosophical
aspects that can not help us on our concrete work ? Answer: too many people
never think that their work may have any higher meaning beyond the material
utility. How many great researchers do not have enough stamina to remain
strong in the long run? How many great people lose faith when they no longer
have any promotion in sight (nor other stimulating reward)? A better philosophical 
understanding may help one defeat such problems by casting light
on the more idealistic meanings behind all arts and sciences.  Except the very few
(scientists) who achieve fame, fortune or any other kind of (pseudo) glory, most people
work without realizing that they are also the representatives of a sublime
creative force without which the world would become dry and empty.  If we
completely ignore such things, if we are given a wrong philosophical framework
and wrong motivations, then our work is eventually doomed. And this is surely
deeply rooted in the "prevailing philosophy" of the age and it was very well
described by A. Schopenhauer almost two centuries ago:

"Woe to the time when in philosophy impudence and nonsense supplant insight and un-
derstanding for the fruits assume the taste of the soil in which they have grown. What
is loudly, publicly, and universally praised, is read and is thus the mental pabulum of
the generation that is arriving at maturity ; but this has the most decided influence on
its lifeblood and subsequently on its creations. Thus the prevailing philosophy of an age
determines its spirit, and so if there now prevails a philosophy of absolute nonsense ; if
absurdities invented and advanced under bedlamite twaddle pass for great thoughts, then
the result of such sowing is the pretty race of men such as we now have before
us. They are [...] and devoid of any urge for anything lying beyond material,
including political, interests."


==============================================================================

The following extracts are from 'On Philosophy at the Universities' by A. Schopenhauer


All this is only a scene from the play which we have before us at all times and in all arts and
sciences, that is to say, the old conflict between those who live for the cause
and those who live out of it. For the first ones, it is the end in view to
which their life is the mere means; for the second ones,  it is the means and the
source of well-being, enjoyment, and domestic happiness in which alone their
true earnestness lies, since it is here that nature has drawn the boundary to
their sphere of activity.  Whoever wishes to see examples of this and become
more closely acquainted therewith, should study the history of literature and
read the biographies of great masters of every kind and in every art.  He will
then see that it has been so at all times and will understand that it will
always remain so.  Everyone recognizes it in the past, hardly anyone in the
present.  The illustrious pages of the history of literature are at the same
time almost invariably the tragic. In all branches of knowledge they show us
how, as a rule, merit has had to wait till the fools had stopped fooling, the
merry-making had come to an end, and all had gone to bed. It then arose, like a
ghost in the dead of night, to occupy the place of honour that was withheld
from it, yet ultimately still as a shadow.


Here, of course, it is clear that, in order to pay absolute homage 
to truth and really to philosophize, so many conditions have to 
be fulfilled, but there is also one that is almost indispensable, 
namely that we stand on our own feet and recognize no master.

All help that is offered to philosophy from outside is, by its nature, suspect.
The interest of philosophy is of too lofty a nature for it to he capable of
entering into a sincere alliance with the activities of this evilly disposed
world. On the contrary, it has its own guiding star that never sets; we should,
therefore, give it full play without assistance but also without hindrance. We
should not let the serious pilgrim who by nature is endowed and ordained for
the elevated temple of truth associate with a fellow who is really concerned
only with a meal and a good night's lodging; for it is to be feared that such a
man will push an obstacle in the path of the pilgrim in order to be after these
amenities himself. 

...This is one of the main obstacles to mankind's progress in every sphere. Now in
such circumstances how can there be progress in that sphere where not even
plenty of brains, diligence, and tenacity of purpose are enough, as in other
branches of knowledge, but quite special gifts are required even at the expense
of personal happiness ?  For assuredly the most disinterested sincerity of
purpose, the irresistible urge to solve the riddle of existence, the
earnestness of deep thinking that strives to fathom the innermost essence of
things, and a genuine enthusiasm for truth—these are the first and
indispensable conditions for the hazardous enterprise of stepping up once more
to the ancient sphinx with another attempt at solving its eternal riddle, at
the risk of falling head-long into the dark abyss of oblivion whither so many
have already gone.  Further harm that is done in all branches of knowledge by
the activities of unauthorized interlopers is that a temple of error is
erected, and superior minds and upright characters have to toil and moil at its
subsequent demolition, sometimes throughout their lives; and so it is in
philosophy, in knowledge that is most general, most important, and most
difficult!


...but this is because the investigation of truth does not interest them. On
the contrary, what does interest them are their salaries, the guineas they
charge, and their tides as privy councillors. It is true that philosophy also
interests them in so far as they earn from it their daily bread. They are what
Giordano Bruno has already characterized as "sordidi e mercenarii ingegni, che, 
poco a niente solleciti circa la veritdf si contentano safier, secondo che
comunmente e stimato il sapere y amici poco di vera sapienza y bramosi di fama
e nputazion di quella, vaghi d'afiparire, poco curiosi d'essere", translated as:
Sordid and mercenary fellows who pay little or no heed to truth; they are 
content with knowledge that is ordinarily regarded as such and have little love for 
genuine wisdom. They crave for the reputation and prestige that are furnished by 
wisdom; they desire to appear something and are little concerned at being 
something.

-----
The whole text is on the internet and it explains very well the conflict between
a genuine quest for the truth and the business-like pursuit of prosperity popular
in academia.  You'll find a way to find the full text if that speaks to you.