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I really wanted to get into academia because I had the perception that you got paid for thinking smart thoughts and occasionally writing about them, but when I

by patio11 14y ago

I really wanted to get into academia because I had the perception that you got paid for thinking smart thoughts and occasionally writing about them, but when I actually tried academic research it seemed to be about 80% politics/grantwriting and 20% research delivery, so I went into private industry. If you have sufficient reputation to have a sinecure from Google, that's certainly an option for subsidizing research. Even if you don't, a lot of research in our field is not terribly expensive to do, and the materials/collaboration required to do it are within the grasp of e.g. anybody who runs a business which gives them sufficient scheduling flexibility. You can even get published in Real Academic Journals (TM), which surprised me.

SagelyGuru 14y ago
Certainly, during a lifetime in academia, I have observed that the most successful professors are not the ones who work on what they like (with very few outstanding exceptions) but instead are those who learn to like what they must work on. Where 'must work on' is defined pretty much by what is described in this well informed article. The funding trends and the ability to anticipate them so as to be amongst the first in the line being the most important. Knowing the right people certainly not to be neglected. Ability to do any kind of useful or worthwhile science a long way down the list. This undesirable trend has been lately exacerbated by the race for the funding and the attendant unhealthy over competitiveness. Academia is now a very different world to what it used to be, where a fellow would get enough ad-hominem funding, on the strength of his proven ability and membership of an elite college. Indeed, without that, the phrase 'academic freedom' has lost most of its meaning. I believe that 'academic whoredom' would much more fittingly describe the current state of affairs.
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by patio11 14y ago

SagelyGuru 14y ago

Certainly, during a lifetime in academia, I have observed that the most successful professors are not the ones who work on what they like (with very few outstanding exceptions) but instead are those who learn to like what they must work on. Where 'must work on' is defined pretty much by what is described in this well informed article. The funding trends and the ability to anticipate them so as to be amongst the first in the line being the most important. Knowing the right people certainly not to be neglected. Ability to do any kind of useful or worthwhile science a long way down the list. This undesirable trend has been lately exacerbated by the race for the funding and the attendant unhealthy over competitiveness. Academia is now a very different world to what it used to be, where a fellow would get enough ad-hominem funding, on the strength of his proven ability and membership of an elite college. Indeed, without that, the phrase 'academic freedom' has lost most of its meaning. I believe that 'academic whoredom' would much more fittingly describe the current state of affairs.

deleted 14y ago
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