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Uugh. Do you think that aspiring professor is being irrational (in the sense of adopting a clearly suboptimal plan for overall happiness)? If I were doing tha
by CoastalCoder 3y ago
Uugh. Do you think that aspiring professor is being irrational (in the sense of adopting a clearly suboptimal plan for overall happiness)?
If I were doing that, it would almost certainly stem from an unhealthy fixation.
- jvanderbot 3y agoI don't know. If you ask a professor, they say it takes tenacity and grit, and accepting compromises regarding where you life, what work you do, etc. But that's a sampling problem. If you listen to that too much, you end up like this person. The 9X.YY% of those who want to be a professor probably had all that, plus a healthy dose of realism to get out while the getting is good. The absolute worst part of all this is that very few profs seem all that happy. Kind of like CEOs, but I think being a wage-earning, low-to-moderately successful founder has a higher likelihood of panning out than being a wage-earning professor by a long shot.
- tho234uii32o434 3y agoFrankly, most 'hard-workers' aren't doing the innovative work. Tenure-track faculty have barely any time to breathe given all the hassle they have to go through. It's mostly done by grad students who are still learning the ropes. Ofc. this is different in places like Math depts. where it can't work the way it does in CS/EE.
- jvanderbot 3y agoI think they'd say that constantly writing grants, publicizing, and coaching is the work they do now to keep those grad students fed, productive, and equipped. At least in my lab, the advisor was very attentive to make sure we were all doing our best work, even if he wasn't doing the work himself.
- paulusthe 3y agoYes.