The incentive is that the salary for a tenured professor is a sinecure. At that point you can just produce bullshit and maybe cash in on speaking fees and publi

The incentive is that the salary for a tenured professor is a sinecure. At that point you can just produce bullshit and maybe cash in on speaking fees and publishing. Source: TFA. But that's loserthink. The freedom to fuck around and (probably) never find out is considerable. And if you're actually inclined to apply yourself that 100-150k a year plus your grad students basically means you're your own y combinator year after year every year. Tenure is HUGE. It's worth way more than the equivalent salary in industry.