tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post4737623554140796769..comments2024-03-28T21:32:26.550+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: Academic life - the niche that was, but is no longerBruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-73839636208894320142022-08-16T05:41:28.540+01:002022-08-16T05:41:28.540+01:00I found my niche about the time it was turning fro...I found my niche about the time it was turning from a profession into a business and, in my lifetime, turned from a business into an industry. Which is fine. I've got about 7 more good work years and I'm done. In the meantime I try to do more fishing and socializing than working.<br /><br />I have a much-beloved family member in a challenging STEM discipline who would have dearly loved to be an academic but is looking at the perverse government-grant/pyramid-scheme and is horrified. What advice for a physics/math major?The Anti-Gnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04386593803225823789noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-5455980771038312552022-08-16T03:25:52.330+01:002022-08-16T03:25:52.330+01:00What a loss!What a loss!Joseph A.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-82944310923456040082022-08-16T01:01:28.134+01:002022-08-16T01:01:28.134+01:00I like this chronicle. I like that you were pursu...I like this chronicle. I like that you were pursuing your niche and often moving sideways in pursuit of your interests. <br /><br />I agree, it's sad that the niche is gone.<br /><br />I also agree, there's no chance of reviving it. <br /><br />Working outside the system and FOR an audience of friends is the only way to go now. It's not lucrative, but it's the only way.<br /><br />And I love your point that God will provide. We need to pursue the Good, the Beautiful, and the True. And in some ways, maybe it's for the best to separate this from "making a living." <br /><br />This reminds me of something I read once about how many people claim to yearn for a creative life or a life of the mind. The piece noted that one could indeed pursue the life of the mind in America by moving to a cheap small town and maybe working a few months a year to cover expenses. And it further noted that very few of those who claimed to yearn for such intellectual freedom ever pursue it, because they actually can't bring themselves to forego status and money and social life and actually move to a cabin in the mountains. <br /><br />Nowadays the choices are harder, more stark, but at least more clear. Do we want to be professional liars in journalism or academia or bureaucracy? Or do we actually want to think and write about the truth? For no money and plenty of scorn? Charlienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-84685911976720292642022-08-15T21:24:04.123+01:002022-08-15T21:24:04.123+01:00I began to refer to universities (ivory towers) as...I began to refer to universities (ivory towers) as "citadels of darkness" about twenty-five years ago for many of the same reasons you and Dr. Smith note. Francis Bergerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11063224017320651978noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-23682560785070013922022-08-15T16:42:37.678+01:002022-08-15T16:42:37.678+01:00I undertook an academic career for similar reasons...I undertook an academic career for similar reasons and observed the same catastrophe of bureaucratization. The environment for which I was adapted has disappeared and been replaced with one that is far less congenial. Survival of the fittest has eliminated all but a few of my type. As you say, the "ivory tower" is no longer a world apart, but is now a rather silly and affected branch of the universal bureaucracy. The elevated vantage that Lucretius first described as the "ivory tower" is now on a level with everything else. JMSmithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14502377102987849260noreply@blogger.com