Read on Twitter
1/ Academic faculty need to emphasize to students and trainees that there is dignity to be had in non-academic careers
2/ This message is not, at this time, being communicated effectively. Breaks my heart when I see tweets like this one, from a dedicated academic internist/pediatrician and working mother https://twitter.com/kimche/status/1351014618299322371?s=21
3/ Instead, attitudes the academy are reflective of the broader US economy, where college and graduate degrees get you access to a part of the economy that people with a high school degree are completely locked out of for life
4/ No college degree = loser, loser McJobs, loser spouse (cf. Kalmijn AJS 1991/educational homophily—yes I know how elitist of me to cite AJS), grinding hamster wheel, no social protection or financial security, no economic opportunity (cf. all the work done by @OppforHealthLab)
5/ Similarly: no academic job = loser, washed up, “s/he couldn’t make it in academia”
6/ Much has been written about the mental health crisis among graduate students—more to come on this important public health crisis from our group at @GlobalHealthMGH/ @MonganHealthPol, stay tuned.
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You think there could be a reason for this?
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You think there could be a reason for this?
7/ This is all relevant to the withering analysis in Michael Sandel’s new book, “The Tyranny of Merit”. People who make it in academia tend to think they made it by working their tails off. Possibly there is a tip of the hat to mentorship, sponsorship, etc
8/ But by and large the message is: we made it here by grinding it out, that’s just how life is. May I present to you the trend in NIH R01 success rates from 1990-2010:
https://nexus.od.nih.gov/all/2014/03/05/comparing-success-award-funding-rates/
https://nexus.od.nih.gov/all/2014/03/05/comparing-success-award-funding-rates/
9/ And check out this graph from @drugmonkey for pre-1990 trends: https://drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2012/07/11/more-data-on-historical-success-rates-for-nih-grants/
10/ In other words, the grind of the 2020s is different from the grind of the 1980s by multifold. All y’all need to totally recalibrate your internal metrics of comparison!
11/ Life in academia for many is so precarious (particularly soft-money academia), and the perceived consequences of failing are so severe (cf. “loser”), that there is a limited portfolio of things they feel they can do to help _others_ trying to get a leg up.
12/ Nothing but truly structural change will do. Not, by the way, “structural interventions” that _actually_ rely on individual behavior, individual merit, and individual bootstrapping: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277953612005503
13/ Because we all know how that plays out (see: yesterday’s thread on the inverse care law, theory of fundamental causes, inverse equity hypothesis, inequality paradox, etc)
14/14 If you’ve read this far, sorry I don’t have any solutions for you. Time to work! Hope all y’all unmasked mfkas are enjoying your long holiday weekends eating in restaurants, singing in church, & having large weddings.
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Hey now I can see the sun when my call shift starts!
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Hey now I can see the sun when my call shift starts!
