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> Most are more interested in driving academia/science forward or generally on other social goals as long as they have enough to pay for the house and car. I d

> Most are more interested in driving academia/science forward or generally on other social goals as long as they have enough to pay for the house and car. I don't know about you, but my impression is that people who ended up in academia are mostly there because it seemed like the path of least resistance. They were indeed not optimizing for wealth, but optimizing for comfort by not making the scary decision of quitting the track they've been on their whole life.

kome 2y ago
Given how hard it is to stay in academia nowadays, I wouldn't say it's the 'path of least resistance.'
- rpozarickij 2y ago
  People tend to cling to what is familiar even if it causes hardship/suffering. Switching into a new and unfamiliar area often looks harder than doing something you've been already doing.
beej71 2y ago
I'm only a single data point, but I always wanted to teach at a university. I just didn't for the first 50 years of my life because the pay outside was so much better. But then I finally made the scary decision to quit the track I'd been on my whole life and started teaching at a university full time. And I've never been happier. What a great, fulfilling job, to see my students run off and start careers in high spirits. I'm not rich, but I have enough money for my modest lifestyle, and you'd have to pay me a VERY large salary (say $2 million per year) to trade my remaining life for some lousy product du jour.
sausagefeet 2y ago
> are mostly there because it seemed like the path of least resistance This is true of pretty much every profession. Academics get a lot of heat because there is some silly feud around elitism and common people but the reality is most people in every career are there because it's easy. I'm a software developer by trade, not because I went through hardship to become one but because I happen to really enjoy writing software. I'm just lucky it happens to be lucrative.

kome 2y ago

Given how hard it is to stay in academia nowadays, I wouldn't say it's the 'path of least resistance.'

rpozarickij 2y ago
People tend to cling to what is familiar even if it causes hardship/suffering. Switching into a new and unfamiliar area often looks harder than doing something you've been already doing.

beej71 2y ago

I'm only a single data point, but I always wanted to teach at a university. I just didn't for the first 50 years of my life because the pay outside was so much better. But then I finally made the scary decision to quit the track I'd been on my whole life and started teaching at a university full time. And I've never been happier. What a great, fulfilling job, to see my students run off and start careers in high spirits. I'm not rich, but I have enough money for my modest lifestyle, and you'd have to pay me a VERY large salary (say $2 million per year) to trade my remaining life for some lousy product du jour.

sausagefeet 2y ago

> are mostly there because it seemed like the path of least resistance This is true of pretty much every profession. Academics get a lot of heat because there is some silly feud around elitism and common people but the reality is most people in every career are there because it's easy. I'm a software developer by trade, not because I went through hardship to become one but because I happen to really enjoy writing software. I'm just lucky it happens to be lucrative.