Academia can be really chill as long as you don’t have aspirations for greatness
As someone who just likes doing bench work and absolutely never wants to be a PI I’d much rather stay in academia. No profit motive means much less pressure and no one checking too closely on what I’m doing.
My PI tells me what she wants, I tell her how long that will take and if I’ll need extra assistance, and then I give her the results when I have them. Then I fuck off whenever I want and as long as my rats get fed no one really questions it.
I feel like a lot of these memes come from folks in STEM. Always talking about 'labs'. A lot of liberal arts are essentially solo unless they actively choose to pursue collaborative work. And there's no pressure to publish in many places because a new monograph on veganism in the 16th century doesn't bring in any money anyway. And that's great. They're more focused on teaching and its kinda exciting to get paid to talk about and research your special interest all day. As long as future PhDs don't go in without a backup plan since there ain't enough faculty positions for everyone. Ofc, I know someone who finished one in literature and pretty much hates books now. Always two sides to the coin.
Academia can be really chill as long as you don’t have aspirations for greatness
As someone who just likes doing bench work and absolutely never wants to be a PI I’d much rather stay in academia. No profit motive means much less pressure and no one checking too closely on what I’m doing.
My PI tells me what she wants, I tell her how long that will take and if I’ll need extra assistance, and then I give her the results when I have them. Then I fuck off whenever I want and as long as my rats get fed no one really questions it.
I feel like a lot of these memes come from folks in STEM. Always talking about 'labs'. A lot of liberal arts are essentially solo unless they actively choose to pursue collaborative work. And there's no pressure to publish in many places because a new monograph on veganism in the 16th century doesn't bring in any money anyway. And that's great. They're more focused on teaching and its kinda exciting to get paid to talk about and research your special interest all day. As long as future PhDs don't go in without a backup plan since there ain't enough faculty positions for everyone. Ofc, I know someone who finished one in literature and pretty much hates books now. Always two sides to the coin.
whats a PI?
Principle Investigator, it’s the professor in charge of a lab
wait, you're telling me Thomas Magnum was a scientist?