Business is cool but what about Science?

Business over the past decade has become cool again. Entrepreneurs are now in the same league as Bollywood and Cricket. They run podcasts, have their own television shows, are talked about by the media, the government. Its entered pop culture. Society finds it very acceptable if you tell them you're an entrepreneur. But what about the Science and the Arts?

Science has its respect and society views it favourably but it's not cool. Not only is it not cool, Its viewed with a little suspicion here and there. Religion can accommodate merchants and the industrialists but it cannot accommodate all forms of Science and Arts. It's a challenge to their system. Is that one of the reasons why it's not cool?

Besides doctors, I don't see a lot of shows, podcasts by non-tech engineers, scientists. A part of it also lies with those interested in Science themselves, they aren't the types who will do shows, podcasts, try to increase their perception and status, to go after fame, they will right in papers, journals and focus on their work? In a way it's good but they aren't influencing the culture and the young minds.

People are proud of what the ISRO has achieved but is there any impact on young minds to choose a path of science? Has it influenced culture in anyway where we value scientific progress, discovery, innovation? Science has contributed more towards a better life than we realise and we need to have more heroes from here.

From Claude 4 -

I particularly agree with your point about the structural differences in how these fields engage with public attention. Entrepreneurs are essentially in the business of selling - whether it's their product, vision, or themselves. Public engagement is built into their success model. Scientists, by contrast, are trained in a culture that values skepticism, precision, and peer validation over mass appeal. There's almost an inverse relationship between scientific rigor and the kind of confident, simplified messaging that works well in popular media.

The religious accommodation point is astute. Business operates within existing social frameworks - it's about exchange, relationships, hierarchy - concepts that translate across cultural systems. Science, especially when it touches on fundamental questions about reality, often requires people to update their worldview rather than just their economic behavior.

But I think there's also a missed opportunity here. When science does break through culturally - like with figures such as Carl Sagan or Neil deGrasse Tyson globally, or when ISRO missions capture public imagination in India - it shows there's genuine appetite for scientific wonder and discovery. The gap isn't necessarily in public interest but in the pathways between scientific work and cultural engagement.