<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></parent_chain><comment><author>chasing</author><text>Sweet inflammatory title, dude!&lt;p&gt;People really want those tenure spots at prestigious universities. Or those starting slots on NBA teams. Or CEO roles at exploding tech companies. Or the starring role in the summer blockbuster. Or that #1 slot on the NYTimes best-seller list. And such.&lt;p&gt;There will always be plum jobs out there that people are willing to compete and even suffer to get. And in situations where there&amp;#x27;s a ton of demand and not much supply. Well. Things get really unbalanced in favor of the supplier. I&amp;#x27;m not sure what targeting academia in particular proves except that, yes, it also happens there. It&amp;#x27;s yet another situation in life where if you really, really want one of these jobs then you need to learn to realistically assess yourself, the market, and what paths you have to get where you want to go. If there&amp;#x27;s no clear path to the position you want, you either need to switch gears or prepare for some serious struggle that might never bear fruit. Thoughtfulness and being realistic with oneself are key to staying out of exploitative situations. That&amp;#x27;s the thing to avoid.&lt;p&gt;The average person with a college degree has options the drug dealer in Levitt&amp;#x27;s example probably doesn&amp;#x27;t have. As do your average Hacker News readers, I&amp;#x27;m sure.&lt;p&gt;Also: I&amp;#x27;m an adjunct professor at two universities. But it&amp;#x27;s a great side-gig and not at all a core part of my income, which makes it &lt;i&gt;great&lt;/i&gt;, to be honest. There&amp;#x27;s a lot of university-related stuff I don&amp;#x27;t have any interest in. But being an adjunct means I&amp;#x27;ve got real-world experiences that are completely fresh that I can use in the classroom. It&amp;#x27;s the kind of information that a full-time professor would have a difficult time keeping on top of, I would think.</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></parent_chain><comment><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></comment>