4 ms·

Seeking an ‘exit plan’ for leaving academia amid coronavirus worries

25 points by zekrioca 6y ago

mesozoic 6y ago
Probably best to accept it now we need a reboot of the higher education system (if not the entire one).
- duckMuppet 6y ago
  Didn't they just fire a Michigan State University prof for having a different opinion? Honestly, just drain the system as much as you can.
  - throwawaysea 6y ago
    Yes. See https://quillette.com/2020/07/01/on-steve-hsu-and-the-campaign-to-thwart-free-inquiry/ https://quillette.com/2020/07/01/on-steve-hsu-and-the-campai.... The professor’s own blog has links to many other articles covering this absolutely unjust situation: https://infoproc.blogspot.com/2020/07/wall-street-journal-moral-panic-at-msu.html?m=1 https://infoproc.blogspot.com/2020/07/wall-street-journal-mo... He isn’t the only one either. A Princeton professor who wrote a paper about protests is facing protests (https://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Protesting-of-a-Protest/249129 https://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Protesting-of-a-Protes...). Now a large number of professors at Princeton, mostly from the humanities, signed a petition asking for an end to academic freedom and a committee to review every publication for “racist” content. The students who signed onto a letter defending academic freedom are now being cyber bullied (https://www.thecollegefix.com/princeton-students-cyberbullied-called-racist-for-their-open-letter-defending-academic-freedom/ https://www.thecollegefix.com/princeton-students-cyberbullie...). Now crazed and radicalized students at Harvard are trying to cancel Steven Pinker. Yes, that Steven Pinker (https://www.thecollegefix.com/far-left-scholar-activists-attempt-to-cancel-famed-harvard-professor-steven-pinker/ https://www.thecollegefix.com/far-left-scholar-activists-att...). The entire higher education system in America has been turned into a propaganda machine that radicalizes young minds and is hostile to any ideas they don’t agree with. It is dangerous for society and completely incongruent with fundamental academic principles. We need to defund it all and start over with a much more decentralized system.
alpineidyll3 6y ago
Like looking for a plan to breathe! The vast majority of people are not academics. Only someone who has truly been institutionalized should find it terrifying to find meaning and hope without academia.
- newen 6y ago
  After years of having been in academia, it really is pretty shitty outside of academia.
  - nightowl_games 6y ago
    Can you elaborate on this? I've been inundated with stories of how shitty it is in academia.
    - newen 6y ago
      No intellectual stimulation, no peers at your level. Academia is challenging, fun, motivating, and you can always find interesting people to talk to. It’s really boring in the real world.
      - DoingIsLearning 6y ago
        Without wanting to pass judgement I would expect that you are suffering from a narrow sample size. I have had _very_ different experiences outside academia, depending on factors like the peers within the team, type of business, company size, city, culture/country, etc. In all of these, I found places that were a lot worse and depressing and places a lot more interesting and motivating when comparing to academia. There literally is a whole world out there, perhaps you just haven't found the right place for you yet?
        willis936 6y ago
        My experience in industry is primarily IEEE 802.3 meetings, which is industry but all academic types. I currently work in academia. I can say that the productivity focused nature of high end industry is focused, but suffers from inefficiencies in administrative and ego-shaped overheads. In the sexy research areas you don’t have to waste time on all of the things related to scaling up that industry does. To get back to the topic at hand: industry can have rooms with stimulating conversations. Academia can have rooms devoid of interesting conversations. I’d put my money on the organization that focuses on intellectual discovery to be the one that garners more interesting discussions on average than the organization that is driven by profit.* * Academia is still certainly sick with money and corruption problems at all levels right now.

25 points by zekrioca 6y ago

mesozoic 6y ago

Probably best to accept it now we need a reboot of the higher education system (if not the entire one).

duckMuppet 6y ago
Didn't they just fire a Michigan State University prof for having a different opinion? Honestly, just drain the system as much as you can.
- throwawaysea 6y ago
  Yes. See https://quillette.com/2020/07/01/on-steve-hsu-and-the-campaign-to-thwart-free-inquiry/ https://quillette.com/2020/07/01/on-steve-hsu-and-the-campai.... The professor’s own blog has links to many other articles covering this absolutely unjust situation: https://infoproc.blogspot.com/2020/07/wall-street-journal-moral-panic-at-msu.html?m=1 https://infoproc.blogspot.com/2020/07/wall-street-journal-mo... He isn’t the only one either. A Princeton professor who wrote a paper about protests is facing protests (https://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Protesting-of-a-Protest/249129 https://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Protesting-of-a-Protes...). Now a large number of professors at Princeton, mostly from the humanities, signed a petition asking for an end to academic freedom and a committee to review every publication for “racist” content. The students who signed onto a letter defending academic freedom are now being cyber bullied (https://www.thecollegefix.com/princeton-students-cyberbullied-called-racist-for-their-open-letter-defending-academic-freedom/ https://www.thecollegefix.com/princeton-students-cyberbullie...). Now crazed and radicalized students at Harvard are trying to cancel Steven Pinker. Yes, that Steven Pinker (https://www.thecollegefix.com/far-left-scholar-activists-attempt-to-cancel-famed-harvard-professor-steven-pinker/ https://www.thecollegefix.com/far-left-scholar-activists-att...). The entire higher education system in America has been turned into a propaganda machine that radicalizes young minds and is hostile to any ideas they don’t agree with. It is dangerous for society and completely incongruent with fundamental academic principles. We need to defund it all and start over with a much more decentralized system.

alpineidyll3 6y ago

Like looking for a plan to breathe! The vast majority of people are not academics. Only someone who has truly been institutionalized should find it terrifying to find meaning and hope without academia.

newen 6y ago
After years of having been in academia, it really is pretty shitty outside of academia.
- nightowl_games 6y ago
  Can you elaborate on this? I've been inundated with stories of how shitty it is in academia.
  - newen 6y ago
    No intellectual stimulation, no peers at your level. Academia is challenging, fun, motivating, and you can always find interesting people to talk to. It’s really boring in the real world.
    - DoingIsLearning 6y ago
      Without wanting to pass judgement I would expect that you are suffering from a narrow sample size. I have had _very_ different experiences outside academia, depending on factors like the peers within the team, type of business, company size, city, culture/country, etc. In all of these, I found places that were a lot worse and depressing and places a lot more interesting and motivating when comparing to academia. There literally is a whole world out there, perhaps you just haven't found the right place for you yet?
      - willis936 6y ago
        My experience in industry is primarily IEEE 802.3 meetings, which is industry but all academic types. I currently work in academia. I can say that the productivity focused nature of high end industry is focused, but suffers from inefficiencies in administrative and ego-shaped overheads. In the sexy research areas you don’t have to waste time on all of the things related to scaling up that industry does. To get back to the topic at hand: industry can have rooms with stimulating conversations. Academia can have rooms devoid of interesting conversations. I’d put my money on the organization that focuses on intellectual discovery to be the one that garners more interesting discussions on average than the organization that is driven by profit.* * Academia is still certainly sick with money and corruption problems at all levels right now.