Is being an academic worth the effort?
May 24th, 2007 by joseHere are a few posts that other readers recommend you check out:
Today, while googling for “tenure rat race”, I found Jonathan I. Katz’s page: “Don’t Become a Scientist!“. I find his honesty devastating:
Are you thinking of becoming a scientist? Do you want to uncover the mysteries of nature, perform experiments or carry out calculations to learn how the world works? Forget it!
Science is fun and exciting. The thrill of discovery is unique. If you are smart, ambitious and hard working you should major in science as an undergraduate. But that is as far as you should take it. After graduation, you will have to deal with the real world. That means that you should not even consider going to graduate school in science. Do something else instead: medical school, law school, computers or engineering, or something else which appeals to you.
Why am I (a tenured professor of physics) trying to discourage you from following a career path which was successful for me? Because times have changed (I received my Ph.D. in 1973, and tenure in 1976). American science no longer offers a reasonable career path. If you go to graduate school in science it is in the expectation of spending your working life doing scientific research, using your ingenuity and curiosity to solve important and interesting problems. You will almost certainly be disappointed, probably when it is too late to choose another career.
I think he is right in many levels. But let’s concentrate just on the simplest, easiest to measure: money.
If we academics do the computations proposed in Figuring Out Exactly How Much Your Time Is Worth [The Simple Dollar], we may be in for a surprise.
Basically, you determine your true hourly wage by subtracting all of your work-related expenses from your salary, then calculating the hours you devote to work each year (including commute and other time-sinks) and dividing your remaining salary by your total hours.
Since we work silly hours, the actual pay is quite ridiculous. Of course, one has to factor in the liberty to think, flexible hours etc.
About the author: Jose Quesada wanted to be a matador, an acrobatic pilot, or a painter, but found those activities not demanding enough, so he chose an academic career. He secretly hopes to orchestrate a system that produces papers without any human intervention (particularly, his). If you enjoyed this post, make sure you sign up for our mailing list or subscribe to our RSS feed!
May 27th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
Ugh - what a bummer…
June 2nd, 2007 at 6:18 am
[...] Academic Productivity » Is being an academic worth the effort? Is being an academic worth the effort? [...]
June 8th, 2007 at 12:44 am
You know, I’ve had substantial liberty to think, and flexible hours, as a non-academic. Whenever (as now) I’m an academic, I make crap for money, and am obliged to follow the latest fads and demonstrate diligent adherence to the received knowledge and mythology of my discipline.
The benefit of working within the academy is the nature of conversation, not thinking. Anybody can think; a surprising number of us out in the Actual World do. But only the conversations of an academic are counted towards scholarship; there are no substitutes.
To date.
June 8th, 2007 at 5:51 am
Of course it is. Being an academic is very important and pans out to be worth it in the long run.
June 17th, 2007 at 11:36 pm
[...] of excellence, the structure of the academic field and the dominating schools of thought or just quit. Thereby Münch leaves out the idea that any iron cage emerges as the result of actors, networks [...]
February 24th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
[...] startned with the ‘don’t become a scientist‘ article by Jonathan I. Katz that we commented before. What I find interesting is that ycombinator represents a population of very smart people (hackers [...]
March 8th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article g an academic worth the effort? | Academic Productivity, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.