What is the "alternate career path" the author mentions but never explains? I didn't get that part.
According to their CV, on the same site, they became a developer at the Wikimedia foundation.
Mourning and moving on: rituals for leaving a career (2014)
21–30 of 132 posts
Re: Mourning and moving on: rituals for leaving a career (2014)
#22Reminds me of Sabine Hossenfelder's "My dream died, and now I'm here" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKiBlGDfRU8
Not to highjack this topic, but she was recommended (like to many others of you no doubt) quite a bit in my Youtube feeds over the last few months; and the first few videos I watched seemed to be solid enough. Yet as I watched a few more, I couldn't shake the feeling that she's so out of left field that she's not just a 'quirky renegade' anymore, but rather a quack who dresses up her quackery with just enough 'real'…
As an expert in at least some of the things Sabine makes videos about (string theory), Sabine is a contrarian who, if you are not otherwise an expert on what she is talking about, it would be best to avoid.
Sabine, like many contrarians, takes advantage of the fact that there are smart and convincing criticisms of many mainstream ideas, and she does her best to rely on those criticisms. However like all contrarians she presents a biased and exaggerated view of things in order to stoke engagement, and unless you are an expert it can be difficult/impossible to determine whether the view she is giving is balanced.
This is a classic issue with string theory critics, because string theory has many legitimate problems with it, but many of the critics are intellectually dishonest and you probably shouldn't listen to their criticisms on principle (but even I must admit it's quite hard to find good quality intellectually honest criticism of string theory which is digestible, so these contrarians tend to be the only loud voice).
In Sabine's case it is not so bad, because it is clear from some of her other positions that she is basically a crank. MOND and superdeterminism are basically crank physics at this point but she supports them purely because she is a contrarian. On this evidence alone you should not trust anything she says on any other subject, otherwise you're falling for a kind of Gell-Mann amnesia.
Re: Mourning and moving on: rituals for leaving a career (2014)
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
Leaving academia is like this. It's very sticky and scary to leave. I remember how devastating it was for me. I think it's because there's a very strong sense of a missed dream, and that you can never return.
Out of curiosity, why can't you return?
Cults sometimes don't allow returnees.
Re: Mourning and moving on: rituals for leaving a career (2014)
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
Leaving academia is like this. It's very sticky and scary to leave. I remember how devastating it was for me. I think it's because there's a very strong sense of a missed dream, and that you can never return.
Out of curiosity, why can't you return?
Academia tends to have fairly linear career paths. You do a doctorate, then maybe do a post-doc, then become a lecturer / assistant professor, etc. If you don't follow the path you end up without the track record (publications, funding, etc.) you need for promotion and will be passed over for other candidates who look more likely to succeed. There are many more applicants than positions in most fields.
If you're not on this career path, there is basically no alternative in most institutions. You can be an adjunct, or lab assistant, or other low-level employee forever but this will lead nowhere. This is particularly a problem in the US, where the tenure track system gives you seven years of grind to achieve tenure, and if you fail your academic career is basically over.
(Things are changing. Some institutions have, for example, teaching track positions.)
Re: Mourning and moving on: rituals for leaving a career (2014)
#25Reminds me of Sabine Hossenfelder's "My dream died, and now I'm here" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKiBlGDfRU8
Not to highjack this topic, but she was recommended (like to many others of you no doubt) quite a bit in my Youtube feeds over the last few months; and the first few videos I watched seemed to be solid enough. Yet as I watched a few more, I couldn't shake the feeling that she's so out of left field that she's not just a 'quirky renegade' anymore, but rather a quack who dresses up her quackery with just enough 'real'…
I'm not a physicist so I can't answer that question, though personally I trust in her expertise and really loved her book Lost in Math, but many of her most recent videos and tweets are not about physics at all but instead about nuclear power, capitalism, climate change, not having children, trans athletes, AI and so forth. The lure of punditry...
Re: Mourning and moving on: rituals for leaving a career (2014)
#26Reminds me of Sabine Hossenfelder's "My dream died, and now I'm here" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKiBlGDfRU8
Not to highjack this topic, but she was recommended (like to many others of you no doubt) quite a bit in my Youtube feeds over the last few months; and the first few videos I watched seemed to be solid enough. Yet as I watched a few more, I couldn't shake the feeling that she's so out of left field that she's not just a 'quirky renegade' anymore, but rather a quack who dresses up her quackery with just enough 'real'…
>So my question is - just how serious should she (and others like her, who denounce 'mainstream' academia as much as those other fringe groups who go on and on about the corruption of 'mainstream' media) be taken? Anyone have an opinion on this?
I know nothing about her but the video on her experience in academia is spot on. It's a pretty common experience among STEM academics. You will face the point where you have to compromise your academic "purity" and curiosity for trendy topics to survive. This also implies publishing "bullshit" papers and "bullshit" grants. Only certain types of people make it through that.
Re: Mourning and moving on: rituals for leaving a career (2014)
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Leaving academia is like this. It's very sticky and scary to leave. I remember how devastating it was for me. I think it's because there's a very strong sense of a missed dream, and that you can never return.
I feel the need to point out that it's not difficult for people whose identity is not centered around their jobs, since I see that disconnect in the comments. I found the author's take full of the pageantry that I often associate with people who make big deals out of fairly inconsequential things, but before I begrudge the author their take, I have to remember that my career is of relatively little importance to me.…
I agree for most jobs, but academia is different. It's so wildly different to other careers, that it does feel more like a calling, and is far easier to identify with. Especially if you are a first generation academic, you are doing something considered wildly more prestigious than anything anyone before you has done.
That is, I think it's relatively easy to dismiss your career as not that important if you have a normal job. But I think it's inherently much harder if you are an academic for many reasons.
Re: Mourning and moving on: rituals for leaving a career (2014)
#28Seems a bit dramatic
The process in my mid-20s of realising I was not going to have the career I'd expected since my mid-teens was pretty rough. I eventually dusted myself off and pivoted, but it might have been healthy to mourn (although I can't imagine myself summoning my friends to a gathering for that purpose - but good for her, sounds like she had a sense of humour about it)
Re: Mourning and moving on: rituals for leaving a career (2014)
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
Leaving academia is like this. It's very sticky and scary to leave. I remember how devastating it was for me. I think it's because there's a very strong sense of a missed dream, and that you can never return.
Out of curiosity, why can't you return?
Well, for one, people usually leave for systematic issues with academia that won't just magically be fixed over time.
Second, it's very difficult to get back in anyway, you will have a publication gap and with the extreme increase in publish and perish it's hard to imagine it being a good choice. Here in Germany, getting any permanent academic position is a pipe dream even for the extremely motivated. This ties back into the first point.
Re: Mourning and moving on: rituals for leaving a career (2014)
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Leaving academia is like this. It's very sticky and scary to leave. I remember how devastating it was for me. I think it's because there's a very strong sense of a missed dream, and that you can never return.
Out of curiosity, why can't you return?
Not OP, but in general to be hirable in academia you need to demonstrate a constant flow of papers and grant proposals.
Being 'out of the game' for a couple of years means you have not published or applied to grants within that time. At best, you might be looking at restarting at the bottom of the ladder until you've reasonably caught up in numbers to climb back up again.
And it's not even just a case of "computer says no" because of automated metrics. In the UK at least, government initiatives like the REF mean that the university will actively avoid hiring you because by definition you would be costing the university money. (and conversely, you have an advantage for being hired if you demonstrate the right REFfable metrics, even if you weren't the most suitable candidate at the interview, because this automatically brings a university money that is directly linked to your recent REF outputs).
I don't know what the situation is like in the US, but I'm fairly sure similar exercises exist with effectively the same effect.