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I worked in academia a few years, and moved to industry during my PhD (which I completed). There were strong political jousts, like everywhere else. This was u
by BrandoElFollito 5y ago
I worked in academia a few years, and moved to industry during my PhD (which I completed).
There were strong political jousts, like everywhere else. This was unfortunately coupled to an inherent lack of money (and low salaries), and enormous egos that were growing as people were getting higher diplomas or positions.
This is one of the reasons that made me left because I saw that either I jump into the cage and bite my way up (putting actual research on the side), or always get sided.
The time where I was finishing my PhD and working at the same time (and therefore I was completely independent financially) was great - I could just flip the finger to the fights and concentrate on research and on teaching (which I loved and still love very, very much).
Academia is no different that other groups of people with common or conflicting interests.
- ZephyrBlu 5y ago> There were strong political jousts, like everywhere else. This was unfortunately coupled to an inherent lack of money (and low salaries), and enormous egos that were growing as people were getting higher diplomas or positions Sayre's Law: "'In any dispute the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the issues at stake.' By way of corollary, it adds: 'That is why academic politics are so bitter.'" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayre%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayre%27s_law
- cratermoon 5y agoWasn't there an adage going around that when something like "lock a group up people in a room with a ham sandwich and by the end of a day they'll be arguing about which side of the sandwich is best"?
- JackFr 5y ago“The reason that university politics is so vicious is because stakes are so small” ― Henry Kissinger
- dctoedt 5y agoYes - Sayle's Law. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayre%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayre%27s_law
- agumonkey 5y agoDid you find people with similar mindset in that 'zoo' ?
- BrandoElFollito 5y agoYes. I would say that the population was made up of people who wanted to do politics, the ones that wanted to do research without interfering with anyone, and the ones who left for industry because they wanted to at least be well paid and not look at each euro back and forth. I would say that the second population was good to brilliant, but somehow unfit for the real world (that was theoretical physics, mostly). The latter was usually quite good, and especially aware of their capacities. The first one was a disgrace to science. I had exchanges at levels I am ashamed of (a professor told me once that my field (modelization, that was in the early days of neural networks) has nothing to do with science and is for wimps. To what I told him that it indeed requires a minimal amount of intelligence, so some just do not get it). "Quelle ambiance, quelle ambiance" as we say in France - we had a few more of these exchanges, between the God Of The Dept and the slimy PhD subhuman that I was :) In retrospective, that was a good training.
- agumonkey 5y agoOh happy to see that France is involved in the latest dirty politics tech :) ce.qui-ne-te-tues-pas-te-rends-plus.fr
- BrandoElFollito 5y agoI am afraid I do not understand your comment
- agumonkey 5y agoAh, nevermind, my joke bombed