Alaska might be a reasonable Finland substitute, weather-wise, but the other issues will be difficult to resolve (if you’re moving to the US to make a bunch of money, Alaska is not the best place to do it).
One of my favorite professors was Brazilian, who went to graduate school at the University of Rochester. Horrified (I used to visit my ex in upstate New York, and so was familiar with the horrible winters that take up 8 months of the year without the compensations that convince people to live in Scandinavia), I asked him how he liked the transition- and he said that he loved it, and it was the best time of his life. I clarified that I was asking about the weather, and he shrugged and said that in academia, you absolutely need to put the ideas first. If the best place for your research is Antarctica, that’s where you go.
The reason why I tell this story is that this is what successful professors look like, and only one tenth of the people that go to graduate school end up as professors. If you would be outcompeted by this guy instead of this guy, keep that in mind when deciding you want to enter academia. And, if you want to do research outside of academia, in order to do that well that requires more effort than research done inside of academia.
It’s not the weather: I’d actually prefer a warmer climate than Finland has. It’s living in a foreign culture and losing all of my existing social networks.
I don’t have a problem with putting in a lot of work, but to be able to put in a lot of work, my life needs to be generally pleasant otherwise, and the work needs to be at least somewhat meaningful. I’ve tried the “just grit your teeth and toil” mentality, and it doesn’t work—maybe for someone else it does, but not for me.
my life needs to be generally pleasant otherwise, and the work needs to be at least somewhat meaningful. I’ve tried the “just grit your teeth and toil” mentality, and it doesn’t work—maybe for someone else it does, but not for me.
The first part is the part I’m calling into question, not the second. Of course you need to be electrified by your work. It’s hard to do great things when you’re toiling instead of playing.
But your standards for general pleasantness are, as far as I can tell, the sieve for a lot of research fields. As an example, it is actually harder to be happy on a grad student/postdoc salary; instead of it being shallow to consider that a challenge, it’s shallow-mindedness to not recognize that that is a challenge. It is actually harder to find a mate and start a family while an itinerant academic looking for tenure. (Other examples abound; two should be enough for this comment.) If you’re having trouble leaving your network of friends to go to grad school / someplace you can get paid more, then it seems likely that you will have trouble with the standard academic life or standard corporate life.
While there are alternatives, those tend not to play well with doing research, since the alternative tends to take the same kind of effort that you would have put into research. I should comment that I think a normal day job plus research on the side can work out but should be treated like writing a novel on the side- essentially, the way creative literary types play the lottery.
It’s living in a foreign culture and losing all of my existing social networks.
Of course it is! I am in the same situation. Just finished undergrad in philosophy.
But here life is completely optimized for happiness:
1) No errands
2) Friends filtered through 15 years for intelligence, fun, beauty, awesomeness.
3) Love, commitment, passion, and just plain sex with the one, and the others.
4) Deep knowledge of the free culture available
5) Ranking high in the city (São Paulo’s) social youth hierarchy
6) Cheap services
7) Family and acquaintances network.
8) Freedom timewise to write my books
9) Going to the park 10 min walking
10) Having been to, and having friends who were in the US, and knowing for fact that life just is worse there....
This is how much fun I have, the list’s impact is the only reason I’m considering not going to study, get FAI faster, get anti-ageing faster.
If only life were just a little worse...… I would be in a plane towards posthumanity right now.
So how good has a life to be for you to be forgiven of not working for what really matters? Help me folks!
Alaska might be a reasonable Finland substitute, weather-wise, but the other issues will be difficult to resolve (if you’re moving to the US to make a bunch of money, Alaska is not the best place to do it).
One of my favorite professors was Brazilian, who went to graduate school at the University of Rochester. Horrified (I used to visit my ex in upstate New York, and so was familiar with the horrible winters that take up 8 months of the year without the compensations that convince people to live in Scandinavia), I asked him how he liked the transition- and he said that he loved it, and it was the best time of his life. I clarified that I was asking about the weather, and he shrugged and said that in academia, you absolutely need to put the ideas first. If the best place for your research is Antarctica, that’s where you go.
The reason why I tell this story is that this is what successful professors look like, and only one tenth of the people that go to graduate school end up as professors. If you would be outcompeted by this guy instead of this guy, keep that in mind when deciding you want to enter academia. And, if you want to do research outside of academia, in order to do that well that requires more effort than research done inside of academia.
It’s not the weather: I’d actually prefer a warmer climate than Finland has. It’s living in a foreign culture and losing all of my existing social networks.
I don’t have a problem with putting in a lot of work, but to be able to put in a lot of work, my life needs to be generally pleasant otherwise, and the work needs to be at least somewhat meaningful. I’ve tried the “just grit your teeth and toil” mentality, and it doesn’t work—maybe for someone else it does, but not for me.
The first part is the part I’m calling into question, not the second. Of course you need to be electrified by your work. It’s hard to do great things when you’re toiling instead of playing.
But your standards for general pleasantness are, as far as I can tell, the sieve for a lot of research fields. As an example, it is actually harder to be happy on a grad student/postdoc salary; instead of it being shallow to consider that a challenge, it’s shallow-mindedness to not recognize that that is a challenge. It is actually harder to find a mate and start a family while an itinerant academic looking for tenure. (Other examples abound; two should be enough for this comment.) If you’re having trouble leaving your network of friends to go to grad school / someplace you can get paid more, then it seems likely that you will have trouble with the standard academic life or standard corporate life.
While there are alternatives, those tend not to play well with doing research, since the alternative tends to take the same kind of effort that you would have put into research. I should comment that I think a normal day job plus research on the side can work out but should be treated like writing a novel on the side- essentially, the way creative literary types play the lottery.
It’s living in a foreign culture and losing all of my existing social networks.
Of course it is! I am in the same situation. Just finished undergrad in philosophy. But here life is completely optimized for happiness: 1) No errands 2) Friends filtered through 15 years for intelligence, fun, beauty, awesomeness. 3) Love, commitment, passion, and just plain sex with the one, and the others. 4) Deep knowledge of the free culture available 5) Ranking high in the city (São Paulo’s) social youth hierarchy 6) Cheap services 7) Family and acquaintances network. 8) Freedom timewise to write my books 9) Going to the park 10 min walking 10) Having been to, and having friends who were in the US, and knowing for fact that life just is worse there....
This is how much fun I have, the list’s impact is the only reason I’m considering not going to study, get FAI faster, get anti-ageing faster.
If only life were just a little worse...… I would be in a plane towards posthumanity right now.
So how good has a life to be for you to be forgiven of not working for what really matters? Help me folks!