<story><title>How Academia Resembles a Drug Gang</title><url>http://alexandreafonso.wordpress.com/2013/11/21/how-academia-resembles-a-drug-gang/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lsc</author><text>the interesting bit about academia, though, is that the &amp;quot;wealth&amp;quot; you accumulate at the top isn&amp;#x27;t money;  it&amp;#x27;s prestige.   To the best of my knowledge, if you are president of a good uni, you are looking at like half a mil a year.  Undoubtedly good money, but hardly &amp;quot;rockstar level&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;In fact, I&amp;#x27;d argue that business management is closer to a &amp;quot;tournament-like profession&amp;quot;  -  guys on the bottom of the management scale make nothing compared to even a mediocre Engineer, and get no respect.  Folks a the top of that scale laugh at your puny half a million a year.&lt;p&gt;(Note, I wouldn&amp;#x27;t call business management a tournament-like profession... just that the difference between the bottom and the top is larger, I think, than it is in academia.)&lt;p&gt;The other problem here is that okay, you get your PhD in hope of getting a teaching gig.  sure, okay, let&amp;#x27;s accept that.  If you join a gang as a foot-solder, you do it to get to the top.  Let&amp;#x27;s accept that, too, for this discussion.&lt;p&gt;The problem is that if you are a failed gangster, your &amp;#x2F;best case&amp;#x2F; is to end up nearly unemployable and living with your mom.&lt;p&gt;If you are a &amp;quot;failed&amp;quot; PhD?  which is to say, you get your PhD and you fail to get a teaching gig?  There are all sorts of other jobs who would love to have you.   Yeah, you might not get paid all that much more than others who stopped with a bachelor degree, but more than half the time, that&amp;#x27;s more money (even if it&amp;#x27;s not more stability) than a professor can expect to make.&lt;p&gt;Really, I think teaching higher education is a &amp;#x27;prestige job&amp;#x27; more than a &amp;#x27;tournament job&amp;#x27;</text></item><item><author>unabridged</author><text>Drug lord was chosen so they could plaster Breaking Bad pictures and get links, but it resembles any other tournament-like profession. Its like being a musician or actor, unlimited money at the very top for the few who make it and extremely large number of people at the bottom trying to make it just scraping by.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>tensor</author><text>Speaking personally, I went into academia to do research above all else. I didn&amp;#x27;t want to teach. Money and prestige* were not major goals. And I certainly didn&amp;#x27;t want to be a president of a university. Nobody cares about that.&lt;p&gt;* Most researchers do dream of making great discoveries, or proving world changing theorems. In this sense I guess I too want prestige. But it has to be because of actual achievement, not just perceived achieved. E.g. fame for the sake of fame.</text></comment>
<story><title>How Academia Resembles a Drug Gang</title><url>http://alexandreafonso.wordpress.com/2013/11/21/how-academia-resembles-a-drug-gang/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lsc</author><text>the interesting bit about academia, though, is that the &amp;quot;wealth&amp;quot; you accumulate at the top isn&amp;#x27;t money;  it&amp;#x27;s prestige.   To the best of my knowledge, if you are president of a good uni, you are looking at like half a mil a year.  Undoubtedly good money, but hardly &amp;quot;rockstar level&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;In fact, I&amp;#x27;d argue that business management is closer to a &amp;quot;tournament-like profession&amp;quot;  -  guys on the bottom of the management scale make nothing compared to even a mediocre Engineer, and get no respect.  Folks a the top of that scale laugh at your puny half a million a year.&lt;p&gt;(Note, I wouldn&amp;#x27;t call business management a tournament-like profession... just that the difference between the bottom and the top is larger, I think, than it is in academia.)&lt;p&gt;The other problem here is that okay, you get your PhD in hope of getting a teaching gig.  sure, okay, let&amp;#x27;s accept that.  If you join a gang as a foot-solder, you do it to get to the top.  Let&amp;#x27;s accept that, too, for this discussion.&lt;p&gt;The problem is that if you are a failed gangster, your &amp;#x2F;best case&amp;#x2F; is to end up nearly unemployable and living with your mom.&lt;p&gt;If you are a &amp;quot;failed&amp;quot; PhD?  which is to say, you get your PhD and you fail to get a teaching gig?  There are all sorts of other jobs who would love to have you.   Yeah, you might not get paid all that much more than others who stopped with a bachelor degree, but more than half the time, that&amp;#x27;s more money (even if it&amp;#x27;s not more stability) than a professor can expect to make.&lt;p&gt;Really, I think teaching higher education is a &amp;#x27;prestige job&amp;#x27; more than a &amp;#x27;tournament job&amp;#x27;</text></item><item><author>unabridged</author><text>Drug lord was chosen so they could plaster Breaking Bad pictures and get links, but it resembles any other tournament-like profession. Its like being a musician or actor, unlimited money at the very top for the few who make it and extremely large number of people at the bottom trying to make it just scraping by.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>seanmcdirmid</author><text>I did not get my PhD to get a teaching gig and I&amp;#x27;m exactly where I want to be: a foot soldier in an industrial research lab (just please don&amp;#x27;t call Ballmer a druglord).&lt;p&gt;Who the heck wants to be a University President? I&amp;#x27;m frankly surprised John Hennessy finds being Stanford president an interesting use of his time, but maybe I&amp;#x27;m just naive.</text></comment>