3 ms·

I'll push that it is also "stop treating academia as such high stakes as we treat it." We have "raised the bar" so much that you are basically thrown out with

by taeric 3y ago

I'll push that it is also "stop treating academia as such high stakes as we treat it." We have "raised the bar" so much that you are basically thrown out with failure. If you make it life or death stakes, expect people to fight appropriately. At some level, that will be pushing the data harder than it has a right to be pushed.

vacuity 3y ago
The classic: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” - Upton Sinclair Except possibly even more high stakes than that, since academics' very reputations are on the line.
- ohnonononohno 3y ago
  REM: sunk-cost-falacy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hat_puzzle https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hat_puzzle Gödel's incompleteness theorem (philosophical); 'Theorem states that no consistent system of axioms can be listed by an effective procedure, capable of proving all truth' (-; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistemic_logic https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistemic_logic Hint: HN in 2016 regards...
fullshark 3y ago
The only way to do this is to admit fewer PhD students, which probably should happen. There's only so many professorships, and some will always be more coveted than others, leading to those stakes.
- taeric 3y ago
  I could posit a few other ways. Could also make it so that we aren't financially dependent on wild success, for example.
- pas 3y ago
  It's probably not the absolute number of PhD students that's the problem. It's the crushing despair of uncertainty, the publish-and-eventually-still-perish incinerator, the cult of positive results, the completely ridiculous inefficiency of the actual work (because it's done mostly by inexperienced grad students, and by the time they know what's up they are already off to some godforsaken postdoc or worse, or leave academia for good if they are lucky). Not to mention the whole tenure system is questionable. Yes, it's good that at least a few percent of academia has job security, but the selection process is full of perverse incentives and arguably society could get better results if tenure was for 10 years and based on a lottery.

by taeric 3y ago

vacuity 3y ago

The classic: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” - Upton Sinclair Except possibly even more high stakes than that, since academics' very reputations are on the line.

ohnonononohno 3y ago
REM: sunk-cost-falacy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hat_puzzle https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hat_puzzle Gödel's incompleteness theorem (philosophical); 'Theorem states that no consistent system of axioms can be listed by an effective procedure, capable of proving all truth' (-; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistemic_logic https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistemic_logic Hint: HN in 2016 regards...

fullshark 3y ago

The only way to do this is to admit fewer PhD students, which probably should happen. There's only so many professorships, and some will always be more coveted than others, leading to those stakes.

taeric 3y ago
I could posit a few other ways. Could also make it so that we aren't financially dependent on wild success, for example.
pas 3y ago
It's probably not the absolute number of PhD students that's the problem. It's the crushing despair of uncertainty, the publish-and-eventually-still-perish incinerator, the cult of positive results, the completely ridiculous inefficiency of the actual work (because it's done mostly by inexperienced grad students, and by the time they know what's up they are already off to some godforsaken postdoc or worse, or leave academia for good if they are lucky). Not to mention the whole tenure system is questionable. Yes, it's good that at least a few percent of academia has job security, but the selection process is full of perverse incentives and arguably society could get better results if tenure was for 10 years and based on a lottery.