Among the jobs with similar intelligence requirements, academia can seem surprisingly non-competitive. Researchers are relatively free of pressure, ostensibly because low stress helps with complex thought. That has disadvantages: Lots of people are bullshitting their way through, and you meet many colleagues who are not good at getting stuff done (well). Networking is more important than in many other careers, the conversations are better, and once you’re really good at something specific, you work for a salary that’s a bit low for your IQ percentile, but fairly reliable. Of course if you never become really good at something specific, you’re fucked.
The closest alternative I can think of is public service, where again pressure is low, some people are very impressive but most aren’t, you work for low but stable pay, you’re contributing to the public good fairly directly and the only thing that’s more important than knowing who’s good at what is other people knowing what you’re good at. The difference is that if you never become really good at something, you might not be fucked.
Among the jobs with similar intelligence requirements, academia can seem surprisingly non-competitive. Researchers are relatively free of pressure, ostensibly because low stress helps with complex thought. That has disadvantages: Lots of people are bullshitting their way through, and you meet many colleagues who are not good at getting stuff done (well). Networking is more important than in many other careers, the conversations are better, and once you’re really good at something specific, you work for a salary that’s a bit low for your IQ percentile, but fairly reliable. Of course if you never become really good at something specific, you’re fucked.
The closest alternative I can think of is public service, where again pressure is low, some people are very impressive but most aren’t, you work for low but stable pay, you’re contributing to the public good fairly directly and the only thing that’s more important than knowing who’s good at what is other people knowing what you’re good at. The difference is that if you never become really good at something, you might not be fucked.
Heh.