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“The reason that university politics is so vicious is because stakes are so small.” Henry Kissinger Many things kept me out of academia but the number one was

“The reason that university politics is so vicious is because stakes are so small.” Henry Kissinger Many things kept me out of academia but the number one was not wanting to spent my life arguing with people who do little else. The politics in these orgs are insane and it would be of no surprise that the petty assholes are also misogynistic. But take away the misogyny and they’re still petty assholes which while less bad still isn’t very good. I’m not sure how to fix it. I think this structure of research org is not destined to last anyway so the point is probably moot. Perhaps we will see an era of independent scientists.

eesmith 2y ago
> Kissinger Misattributed to him. https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_Kissinger#Misattributed https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_Kissinger#Misattributed It points out https://archive.org/details/americanuniversi0000unse_w2i7/page/30/mode/2up?q=stakes https://archive.org/details/americanuniversi0000unse_w2i7/pa... from 1970: "We can no longer use our little joke that campus politics are so nasty because the stakes are so small. They are now so nasty because the stakes are so large."
- cjbgkagh 2y ago
  Thanks, I quickly googled where it came from and looked no further. Some of academia is important, and I did try to do important things while I was there. That was the main thing I was fighting over, the permission to do important things. Often it would take me far longer to get the permission than to do the thing. I did find that the bulk of the people preferred to squabble and the bulk of the research doesn’t work, and the bulk of the research that does work buried. And since so much work is buried a lot of research is simply rediscovering what already should have been known. I think the selection criteria bias on what we know from the fruits of research gives a false sense of what it is like to be a researcher.

eesmith 2y ago

> Kissinger Misattributed to him. https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_Kissinger#Misattributed https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_Kissinger#Misattributed It points out https://archive.org/details/americanuniversi0000unse_w2i7/page/30/mode/2up?q=stakes https://archive.org/details/americanuniversi0000unse_w2i7/pa... from 1970: "We can no longer use our little joke that campus politics are so nasty because the stakes are so small. They are now so nasty because the stakes are so large."

cjbgkagh 2y ago
Thanks, I quickly googled where it came from and looked no further. Some of academia is important, and I did try to do important things while I was there. That was the main thing I was fighting over, the permission to do important things. Often it would take me far longer to get the permission than to do the thing. I did find that the bulk of the people preferred to squabble and the bulk of the research doesn’t work, and the bulk of the research that does work buried. And since so much work is buried a lot of research is simply rediscovering what already should have been known. I think the selection criteria bias on what we know from the fruits of research gives a false sense of what it is like to be a researcher.