Sketchy Things About Academia We All Ignore

In this video share with you the super sketchy things about academia that we all seem to ignore.
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▼ ▽ TIMESTAMPS
0:00 - publishing
3:30 - structure
5:11 - casualisation
6:56 - wage theft
8:45 - wrapping up
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[@linhnguyenngoc7749]

I'm genuinely scared how people normalize unpaid internships. Sure, children barely made it into adulthood would have little to no experience, but it doesn't mean leaving us starving is a good idea to get the best out of us - most of the time it manifests into physical and mental health problems instead.

[@naomicampana]

The nervous system is breaking down. I'm suffering from it. And paying heavy to treat the poison that's infiltrated my body... migraines, fragile nervous system, back hurting, etc.

[@sirmclovin9184]

It's the relations of production. Wage labor is not free.

[@pattieodonnell723]

And it means that more of the wealthy - people with parents who are able to support them for a few years - are best able to take these positions. Reinforces the class system

[@sirmclovin9184]

@@pattieodonnell723 That is how academia ensures that workers don't have a say.

[@lordblazer]

@@sirmclovin9184 yea I left academia and went into industry for this reason alone. I wanna get fucking paid. I worked my ass off for nearly a decade. I ain't about to stay in my 30s poor. can't bank my future on a possible movement around this... there's been movements around it, and nothing happens.

[@georgeretsides4293]

One thing that you didn't mention about publishers and journals is that the money they get paid is tax payer's money since most research (at least in the UK) is funded by a public body. They are literally leeching public funds it's disgusting.

[@kami-neko]

Publish your preprint in a preprint server. Everyone should do that. It costs very little and gives access to research.

[@testforall555]

To the best of our knowledge, your channel is the first unique one that discuss these issues related to academia. Mohamed

[@testforall555]

@@lorandrum1 Thank you very much, edited and sorry for this long response. (Anyway, it prove to me that in English do not change famous expressions, a mistake that I always do as it is not my native tongue.)

[@threethrushes]

Walking away from my Ph.D. and academia 15 years ago was a blessing in disguise. I run a small publishing house in central Europe and a boutique consultancy today.

[@mollyrmcdonough]

I appreciate how honest and candid you are in all of your videos. I am a first year Ph.D. student and I have had lots of shady academic things happen to me. Contracts being switched, professors discussing students behind closed doors, gossip.

[@ladyeowyn42]

I’ve made mistakes in life, but leaving with an MS remains an excellent decision.

[@morimorian1437]

Academia is literally sucked. TBH, my advice to young fellows is to, instead of pursuing academic jobs and PhD, try to get the required skill set in their field of study as much as they can and start their own business/Startup. The academic environment is a toxic environment full of jealousy and competition between colleagues.

[@leondbleondb]

Sorry you couldn't make it...

[@morimorian1437]

@@leondbleondb If you can, go and make it! I am sure you are a nerd undergrad student without any knowledge about PhD!!

[@victorhernandezbennetts5431]

I love your channel and its content. It brings back the cherished memories of my time in academia, where I fondly recall the interactions with my colleagues and the genuine thirst for knowledge exhibited by most of my peers. However, it also serves as a reminder of the shady practices, suffocating politics, and questionable conduct that have forever marred academia

[@nicky_bee]

Thanks for this super honest video! As a PhD student, I try to keep to my working hours, share my papers online for free and will simply publish my thesis in the University repository, open to all. Then again, I'm not in it for the prestige as I'm in a very niche field where all of us are unicorns

[@profdc9501]

I hope you have a plan for after your graduate, and you understand well what you are getting out of your experience and your degree.

[@ch.k4580]

Dear Mr. Dr. Stapelton, thank you so much for making such a great video about academia. Me as a fresh postdoc I am going through a hard time and feeling really frustrated and during my last phase of PhD I really wanted to quite academia, since I do not see much sense in it. Luckily I found a good supervisor who is know my boss but still I am really struggling. I am with you, we need a "revolution" and protest to make things change. I am trying to raise this issues now and fight for it. Would love to have a discussion with you one day. I wish you all the best and keep up this great work!

[@sunway1374]

"You are up the creek without the paddle." - Yep, that's me after 20 years. Finally left academia. Don't regret the career but hope I don't go back.

[@peacefullymaggie]

I’d love to see a follow up with some ideas on how to change this. What could academia look like? Are there different ways of working as a researcher outside of academia? Could there be an independent research group model?

[@DrAndyStapleton]

Great suggestion!

[@naomicampana]

Life is academia, I believe so. Anything can be studied instead of going to school to study anything. Anything you focus on, you become an expert in, and you debate with people who have the same interest. We already are who we end up becoming. However, self-knowledge is never taught in schools.

[@MatheusCarvalho-ev9hw]

PLOS tried and didn't change much

[@MatheusCarvalho-ev9hw]

If someone can change this they will be richer than Elsevier

[@superp25]

Unionization!

[@tomflanagan878]

Yeah following up on the unpaid/underpaid labour thing: as a fulltime PhD student, I am paid 600ish dollars a week. The university expects me to do full time hours (my supervisor in particular expects me to do more). The minimum wage in my country (minimum an employer can pay an employee for full time work) is 800 dollars a week. I could be making more money if I dropped out of school when I was 15 and I stacked shelves at a supermarket even though I did 6 more years of education.

[@superp25]

Having been a union actor & an academic, it's clear that academia needs one or two large national unions for students/research faculty & university staff. SAG/AFTRA & Equity are amazing for performers. Soon as I was in academia I wished there was something similar. The model is there, folks just need to organize & fight.

[@sirmclovin9184]

I'm from Germany. There's a big union and it fights for higher wages yes, but it's unable to deal with the systemic issues. Only the fight for democratic socialism will save us.

[@superp25]

@@sirmclovin9184 Ultimately, you are correct. But that isn't a valid argument for dismissing a more readily available and immediately beneficial solution like unionizing. America ain't Germany. In the real world, our best bet is to unionize first, then continue pushing for a more socialized system thereafter.

[@60minutesofcalm24]

large conferences also charge expensive fees only for academics and researchers to present their work

[@morimorian1437]

In Australia, the scholarship payment of the PhD scholars is far below the minimum average wage and a lot of PhD students are struggling to make ends meet.

[@Rainstorm121]

I am going back soon to my home country by July :)

[@annyer262]

Is it still $20000 per year?

[@morimorian1437]

@@annyer262 No, it's $29000, but considering the rental market and living cost is far below the poverty line.

[@annyer262]

@@morimorian1437 I remember 25 years ago it was $20000. It has not kept up with inflation. Costs have more than doubled in that time!

[@CristianRM95]

It's definitely time to revolt! Also, another dark side of academia is that the environment is extremely dependent on the professor in charge. I'm doing my PhD with a nice professor, humble and friendly even while being really productive and with a lot of funding. But I know more than a few people that have lost all their interest and joy in science because of making the mistake of working with tyrants and egocentrists. It's massively important to choose your professors wisely.

[@connorsscience]

Yes, to the best of your ability, but there is only so much you can gather from meeting with them and speaking to their lab members. Sadly, you can only truly know once you start working under them - I suppose if you have ended up with a bad supervisor you just have to try and make the relationship work for you as much as possible, and don't let them get to you or get in the way of your career!

[@narehakobyan5701]

As a young PhD, I confirm whatever you say. We are mistreated and abused, and the industry is decayed. Unfortunately, nothing can be proved, neither the stealing of ideas nor the abuse of free workload from developing countries. All the parties engaged are corrupt hence ignore any type of complaints or proofs like yours. Academia is the world of the most vicious people. I do agree with Saul Bellow.

[@HellRaiZOR13]

That is why After I finish my PhD I am done with academia I will go straight into industry no publication anymore after this and will do research for only industry that doesn't concern with publication but only with product which they can patent or can have a genuine user base instead of these pirates (publishers).

[@whycantiremainanonymous8091]

Just to note: the journal I'm co-editing charges nothing from either readers or authors, and is fully ran by volunteers (alas, schedules sometimes suffer as a result, but we're doing our best). There are many more journals like ours. Just saying.

[@profdc9501]

Well at least you as an editor or published don't have the conflicts of interest that commercial publishers do.

[@kellyja8]

Academics are rewarded for bringing in research dollars. They must spend the funds down if they want to receive more from the agency. So they are incentivized to piss the money away on "open access papers" and other money pits. I work for a govt research lab and I see this blatant waste of taxpayer funds on a daily basis.

[@naomicampana]

Damn. How can we change that... because at the end of the day... I'm tired of this world, and people are just wasting resources... intelectual resources.

[@kellyja8]

@@naomicampana Universities and labs need to change their incentives. The people that bring in the most money advance in their careers and earn prestige, so people focus on writing proposals that bring in big bucks. Eisenhower warned us about "Big Science" in his last speech as President....

[@lordblazer]

@@kellyja8 big science isn't a drain on society soo let's get that shit out the way....

[@kellyja8]

@@lordblazer The sort of science I do is an enormous drain on the American taxpayer.

[@62Deepblue]

I am taking Research and Design subject this semester as part of my masters. From what you have said, I will potentially be contributing to 'new ideas pool' for university grants, funding etc!!

[@lindaabraham8715]

You left out that those at the bottom feel pressure to produce the results that the academic at the top wants, which is often not based on the evidence, but which gets published. I'm talking about medical research. Also, the academic is constantly scrambling for funds and must make proposals sound good to sources of funding. The problem is that the people judging whether to grant funding are often not current on the research, so they grant money for proposals that sound sensational, but the science moved on long ago. So not only is the money wasted, but the unknowing grad students and post-docs etc gain nothing in reputation after years of work, and therefore can't advance; their resume is worthless. I worked in a lab in 2010 that was given funding for a theory that Darwin had discredited more than a century before. When I pointed this out to the primary investigator, he admitted that he knew all that but just needed the funding.

[@johnbarryyallagher1128]

The same can be said for honorary adjunct researchers that need to be associated with an institute to keep current and publish. Eventually to find a paid position? Although it's possible to apply for grants in such positions, budgeting for salary and 40 % administrative costs makes grant applications uncompetitive

[@jonathanbush6197]

You might like to watch "Major Publisher Retracts 511 Peer Reviewed Scientific Articles" from the Business Reform channel.

[@rohitjohn6180]

Thanks for being candid and pointing out these sketchy bits of academia.

[@moc5541]

I'm very appreciative of his pyramid-scheme talk. I rebelled as a graduate student against it and ultimately did not achieve any academic career goals of mine. One of the most ludicrous aspects of the pyramid scheme business is the irrelevance of the professor's graduate student and postdoc coauthors. It started big time, I think, with elementary particle physics, which involves huge particle accelerators that take up a square mile of land and cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Way back in the 1970s there began to appear elementary particle papers with dozens of authors. And the professor in charge would be so very kind. He would put his name last on the paper and accept the job of being the "corresponding author." Guess who got the Nobel prize? Yes... only the last name on the paper matters. Now, did dozens of graduate students all contribute equally to the project? No. The professor just listed everyone who worked on the accelerator in some capacity during the period of the research. Many graduate students at such facilities just function as high-end technicians who keep the finicky equipment tuned up and make improvements. They too were added as coauthors. And do you suppose, by the way, that they actually wrote any part of the article? Of course not. So what is the benefit to the professor? The benefit is that he effaces, through dilution, the yeoman efforts put in by his most important postdocs, who might otherwise develop their own reputations for achievement such as would pose challenges to him and his cronies. So such a postdoc, when it comes time to look for another job, can only cite a paper to which he seems to have made a minor contribution when in fact he made a major contribution. More recently I have seen that some medical research groups are copying this model... tens of authors, but only one gets the reward.

[@lucyfrith8943]

Just to clarify, we don't have tenure in the UK, we have permanent contracts, but Universities can make people on those contracts redundant, as we are currently seeing.

[@diaryofagraduate]

You have not talked about Envy among students because proffesors have favorite students and favor them. They have the best projects and as student (if you are international is worst) you dont know what to do. and it does affect professors when a student leave their labs?

[@Areutherehello]

You're right about professors' favorites. One of my professors left his wife for a PhD student in his department. Big cover up among the top professors. But, hey. It's okay. They brought in the $$$ to the university. Who cares if a top professor was sleeping with a student and stalking other female students?

[@nitrostudy9049]

I agree. Perhaps historically, prior to the internet etc, the traditional systems were needed. But now, all public funded research data and publications should be open source. Innovation would increase if the public could access all research outcomes. There are many very smart people not in academia. And many better innovators. In most fields, researchers need technologies and infrastructure, along with resources and wages, to focus on research. Therefore, there is little downside for individual researchers in an open source system. Additionally, original data should perhaps be stored on a blockchain system so that original data cannot be tampered with to fit current narratives. Should there be reasons for modification of original data, metadata and ancillary data can be linked. That is, going to an original data set from an earlier publication would trigger links to all newer publications suggesting data amendments, along with the modified data sets.

[@DrMartinObrien]

Another aspect that gets very little attention is often the poor training graduate students receive, and this occurs without them even knowing it …. And I’m not talking about the technical aspects of their research, because most labs can at least do that bit right. Im talking about skills that are important both inside and outside of academia such as entrepreneurship, public speaking, writing, planning, statistics, leadership, etc. Graduate school would be an ideal time to pick up those skills but it seems many professors don’t have those skills themselves to pass on to their students, and universities would prefer not to pay outside professionals to provide the training $$$. How to tell if this could be a problem in your graduate school? One way is to check to see if the school has a single writing course for graduate students. Considering how much writing one does in a phd program, and the high quality that is expected, it would seem common sense to have at least a single course to help those that need it?

[@andrewbunch2394]

Here are a couple more serious issues with the existing "peer-reviewed journal" system: 1) Enormous prices for journal access. Premier journal subscriptions can cost thousands of dollars, and even viewing a single article can cost as much as a normal magazine subscription. This essentially crowds out independent scientists and people who work at less wealthy colleges and universities. Thankfully, open-access sites are becoming more common 2) Irreproducible Results. Some people have had papers with falsified data successfully make it through the system. Even those with pure intentions have published works with irreproducible results, which is a known issue in the social sciences at the very least. Personally, I view the whole "premier journal" system as a giant scam.

[@sirmclovin9184]

It is, but we're not having the hard discussions on public forums, because the people that rule over us benefit from it.

[@koalatheworld]

I observed several lecturers and teaching assistants using kindergarten ways of bullying students, and their childish tactics rarely work on mature students who have experienced working in the real world 😂 I wish these academic bullies improve their bullying skills but since their entire life has been confined and limited to academia, their childish tactics have no chance of developing.

[@naomicampana]

Thank you for your insight

[@KnowledgeGardenApp]

Resources such as Sci-Hub and open publishing (e.g., Arxiv) have emerged as a pushback against the current publishing paradigms. I think one side effect of the constant pressure to publish is poor reproducibility of research and self-citations to cater to journal rankings and citation indexes. Thanks for bringing attention to the topics, Andy!

[@francishunt562]

You make some interesting points, but please be reminded that articles /papers in Arxiv are not peer reviewed. As such they are not classified academically as publications.

[@leondbleondb]

Many authors also don't want to potentially compromise the double-blind peer review process by publishing a submission version beforehand.

[@no_more_spamplease5121]

​@@francishunt562arXiv articles have the same status as Technical Reports, which used to be commonly released at University department websites in some fields, such as Computing.

[@fzuliani74]

Left academy precisely for these reasons. Never looked back. The working system in academy is medieval in nature, where some nobles (professors) owning their disposable work force. Everyone without permanent contract or tenures is underpaid, overworked and has basically with no rights.

[@bhangrafan4480]

The chart at 1:15 mins explains the whole thing. This is an overconcentrated industry dominated by an oligopoly. Governments need to step in and shake things up with some anti-monopoly activity. I heard about the recent Elsevier boycott, but anti-monopoly authorities should not allow conditions to get to this state in the first place. A lot of public money is going to these publishers, it is in the interests of funding councils to get better value for money in scientific publishing.

[@bhangrafan4480]

On 'wage theft' - I have always argued that the UK public sector is much, much more efficient than the private sector, because it runs on huge amounts of unpaid labour (really huge). This is not at all unique to public sector research, it is true in teaching and medicine, and probably many other public sector activities. For example a relative of mine as a hospital doctor does 12 hour shifts but then has to hand over to the next shift. The hand over process typically takes 2 hours, so in fact altough their employer only records 12 hours of labour each time, they actually do 14 hours. As a full-time college lecturer I got paid for 37.5 hours per week, but rarely did less than 60 hours per week, plus typically worked most weekends and half-term holidays. The reason being that by the time you have been allocated 25 hours p.w. of classes, most of the rest of the working day is taken up with meetings, day to day administration, liaising with parents, outside bodies, non-tutorial liaising with students over all sorts of things, and just organising your materials, practicals etc. between classes, practcally no time is left for marking and lesson preparation. Marking and lesson preparation are almost as big a part of the job as standing in the classroom with students., so that all has to be done outside the 37.5 hours you get recognised in pay for. In colleges for example most courses you teach are based on continuous course assessement and you have literally mountains of assignments to mark. One year I worked out I was receiving an average 70 assignments to mark per week, and that it would take me on average about 20 - 30 minutes to mark each one. It is not surprising then that there is high turn over, or that those who hang on to the job often have very dodgy practices which are best not scrutinised.

[@21LeonidasZ]

Thank you for saying everything I have on my mind.

[@barumbadum]

👏👏👏 We need more like this video

[@prince.c8458]

Thanks for this

[@vtheb1299]

Can we add power abuse and sexual abuse...

[@minuishaq631]

So many sleezy lecturers out there but academia seems immune from scrutiny and criticism

[@Areutherehello]

Been there. Saw that happening.

[@michaelk2276]

Pretty much everyone surrounding academia tries to enrich themselves. To the good examples listed in the video, I want to add: 1) Indirect costs on federal grants (NIH etc) gives your research institution about 50% of the face value of the grant to provide infrastructure (which very often is poor, or worse - looking at you, IT department, that takes 3 weeks to just respond to help tickets ....). On top of that, the institution charges square footage fees for your lab. So the research institutions clearly try to get a piece of the cake. 2) Scientific suppliers that charge ten times more for items that are easily found on general consumer websites, and charge obscene amounts of money for items that are not easily available anywhere else. 3) Conferences that charge ridiculous amounts of money for the right to attend and present your data (even if it is virtual). Academia is surrounded by scammers that take advantage the system and want to syphoon off as much taxpayer money as possible.

[@shaunamcilwraith1064]

Do you ever get private push back/angry comments from people within academia for being so vocal with your criticisms?

[@adamdonahue2079]

I really appreciate this video

[@Alhamzah_F_Abbas]

Very interesting topic. rarely do people know or even get attention about it

[@federubio2519]

YES, well said

[@saloni379]

Why don't academics researchers collaborate and start their own company that gives justice to their work and also create relevant profits

[@wenxingzeng1239]

You are totally right about it

[@nawrasbalkan6911]

Here is an idea...academics are working for free anyway...why not get together and review and publish each other work and promote our work ..all for free in an old fashioned trade based services in a community of scientists...we should bleed the system instead of them bleeding us

[@rohitjohn6180]

How would you suggest we handle the publishers?

[@guybeauregard]

A severe take but a fair assessment of the current terrain.

[@evanhadkins5532]

The journals is an easy fix. Academics form an editorial board and receive manuscripts - they don't get paid.

[@dushyantnimavat8236]

Can you share the details of the paper you are referring?

[@Areutherehello]

I'm glad I decided to not get a PhD. Getting my Masters was crappy enough. I was so naive entering academia and grad school. I graduated feeling emotionally scarred, depressed, bitter from being used and stepped on, and physically sick. Imho, making a career getting a PhD, and publishing left and right just to stay employed is a miserable existence. No thanks.

[@jjsc4396]

It is interesting that an area of assumed "intellectual excellence" can't come up with a less Uber-grift publishing system. The gratis peer-review system is eye-wateringly ridiculous. Even a token $20 would make an enormous difference to quality - and quantising review as a service component of workload.

[@MonacoBlast66]

You can do that in only a couple of hours?

[@llbodlearning8591]

(Bit Different Topic) I got a research idea, but don't know if it works. Preliminary survey disheartened the expectations. And I have deadlines in two days. What should I do?

[@inveele]

Negative results are still results. Especially given how soon the deadline is I would still write the original idea. At the end, offer possible reasons for why it didn't work as you expected and/or what type of modifications could be made to the design, hypothesis etc.

[@ivansa9669]

With these problems, what would be the most possible solutions?

[@JTmovies101]

Well this is terrifying

[@jayplay8140]

its akin to paying for a blue check mark really. paying a third party to validate your credentials , while that third party makes money from your presence on the platform.

[@buttercxpdraws8101]

Academia needs to unionise.

[@raminMTL]

what a glorious beard

[@ceciliawyu]

Yep. They are vile....I am a big one for OPEN SOURCE !...and these days...I only publish with Tenured...because they have the room to respect my ideas and develop the real ideas.....Academic Anarchy, Baby! 😂

[@Teilnehmer]

I suspect everyone around the world in positions of power knows that the academic system needs to be reformed from the ground up. Probably both from their own experience as well as the all the data about the flaws. But I also suspect this great reform is intentionally being postponed to the point where it will become absolutely necessary. There is also another big reform coming up because of climate change. Within a few years the window of action will be closed and the only remaining option will be geo-engineering and adaption to somehow prevent the worst from happening. This, due to the urgency and magnitude of the task, will impose unheard of verifiability and time constraints, as well as maximum amounts of cooperation across several disciplines within academia. This will therefore require massive changes in the way that science is being done. No more bullshit theses and made up excuses for research, no more useless backstabbing and competition, no more fighting over arbitrary grants, no more pointless gaming of the career metrics. Climate change will require a very strong concerted effort of research and development. Much more so than the moon landing or similar ventures. So I suspect lawmakers and governments are just postponing until these two crises will come together to make changing the system absolutely necessary.

[@shawnedwards5369]

Yet another greed engine.

[@DSScully]

The way academia treats people with disabilities is pretty sketchy and abhorrent

[@BarriosGroupie]

There's a fundamental problem to this problem: the academic free market. Being a peer reviewer on an academic journal has value in itself such as raising the international status of the department and hence a pay rise -- which is why they do it for free?

[@sunway1374]

Doing reviews does not contribute much to the status of a department. It's just a volunteer work some academics feel they should be doing to help.

[@kami-neko]

There is no free market in academia.

[@BarriosGroupie]

@@kami-neko 'free' as in supply and demand fixing prices for the academic market.

[@Anonlyso]

I blame Robert Maxwell

[@francishunt562]

Because of his crappy journals ?

[@stevo728822]

So why don't all you academics get together and create your own publication website?

[@mackes3683]

Tenured professors can easily be fired, I saw it.

[@profdc9501]

I have seen constructive termination applied to tenured professors: giving professors excessive workloads and increased workplace hostility. I have only seen tenured professors outright fired for either committing felonies, or by dissolving the entire department and rehiring back only the desired faculty.

[@bhangrafan4480]

I don't agree with the point about the pyramidal structure of research groups. This has always been recognised and the deal is if you contribute you get cited in the papers. That is the normal way. The group leader most definitely does not have a monopoly on credit, because everyone knows how research groups are organised. Also there is a reason why (back in my day anyway, unless it has changed), the person who does most of the work gets their name first on the paper, with the group leader typically last on the paper, showing their enabling role as opposed to hands-on role. The structure of the research group is symbiotic. The less experienced researchers get a high standard of training with access to the best materials and equipment and up to date techniques, and when they leave the group leader will often use his/her contacts to help them get a job in a top group or institution. For the middle rankers the professor is out there selling their research and raising money. The more successful the group leader is, the better materials, equipment available, the more up to date the project and the greater the kudos and publicity (within the specialist field) the post-docs or research associate gets for their work. It is not true that this is a parasitic relationship, or that all the credit goes to the group leader. Another thing is that by accompanying a "star" to conferences you get to meet personally, leading scientists in your field, and more importantly they get to know YOU!

[@allisonandrews4719]

There is no excuse for the world’s most educated, literate, and informed individuals not speaking out against their own oppression. Shame on all of you.

[@profdc9501]

The root cause of all of these problems is that intellectual work is not valued, and it is not valued because it can not be quantified, except perhaps as publication volume. Dollars, euros, pounds, those can be quantified. One can promote one's ideas as a way of making money, and the ability to garner research funding is the part of intellectual work that is valued. In short, if you want to matter in academia, you need to promote your ideas and obtain grants. If you don't want to spend your efforts primarily directed at this, you should consider a different career.

[@adude9882]

Prestige. Why do you care?

[@corsai7506]

Beware the rise of Darth Nerd

[@cmnall]

You offer good content, but one thing you (and other ex-academic bloggers) don’t discuss is that all of this is between consenting adults. You aren’t really being exploited if you consent to working as hard as you say. It’s not a pyramid scheme just because it’s hard to get a job. Anyone can walk away and still come out ahead of where they would have been otherwise financially. That’s not a pyramid scheme. Another thing ex-ac bloggers don’t discuss is how the time flexibility of academics often works in both directions, even for grad students and post docs. Those of us who’ve spent time in the “real world” with dumb bosses know that academia isn’t all bad.

[@KeithCasey973]

The presence of politics in academia is absolutely ridiculous and it bleeds into every subject in some way. Surveys show that the left outweighs the right at about 50-1 in academia, but voters in the US are still split 50/50. You have to ask yourself if academia even represents reality at that point. The purpose should be largely based on unbiased findings, debates, and diverse ideas, not a host for one set of values and beliefs. It’s also a bit sad how easily predictable certain ideas and beliefs are once you know a person’s political stance. It makes me wonder when we as students stopped thinking for ourselves, or if we ever did to begin with 😵‍💫

[@sunway1374]

I am not disagreeing with you. Just a question (that I am thinking about myself), why do you think the Left outnumber Right 50-1 in academia?

[@dimitriskokoretsis3195]

Ok I'll bite. 1. Which institutions/departments are you basing this on, and what are your sources? 2. Even if this statistic is true (which sounds exaggerated to begin with, and assumes all people are firmly in one of two positions: "left" or "right"), why is this bad? All people can and should have political opinions. Which brings me to my next point: 3. Why do you assume people's political opinions will harm their research? 4. Are you against all biases or only what you perceive as "left" biases? Ask yourself what were your biases when writing this comment. Can you act or speak *completely* free from biases?

[@robertferraro236]

But you are part of the problem. At 4:38 you admitted that you lied to PhD students. As for the journals - they are playing the role of Sylvester McMonkey McBean.

[@MatheusCarvalho-ev9hw]

You don't get it. People work in academia because they want to. It's a dream job. It's not like a normal job. It's a privilege to work as a scientist, especially a scientist studying basic science. Basic science costs money. If you are a millionaire, and love those old ruins in Chile, you will fund your own research to know more about it. On the other hand, it's hard to convince the ordinary citizen to fund this kind of research, because there is no immediate benefit for society. Research is a rich man's game. If you are not a rich man, you will slave yourself for research, because it gives you pleasure. You don't mind working 80 hours a week and being paid 40. Because if you don't do it, than you won't be able to work studying that nice subject that has no way to benefit anybody. Also, you will pay the high fees in those journals, because they know you need to. And you will review those papers for free, because you want to have a good name in the academic community. Not everything is money. Prestige and respect count as well. It's not a scam if everybody knows what is going on and everybody agrees. It's not a perfect system by any means, but improving it would demand a much richer society as a whole. I imagine maybe in 200 years research will be one of the main lines of work, because nobody will need to work to survive, and they will do only things that give them pleasure. Research is such a thing. This is the future. But now, if you want (need) to make money, then either you are lucky, or you do dirty jobs. You do what the others don't want to do. That's why they pay you.

[@MrGTO86]

Lol trust me he gets it. He's not talking like a random KZbinr. And you seem triggered. It's the internet don't take everything personally.

[@dustyoldhat]

My god dude your perspective is so completely delusional and skewed I really would have no idea how to even begin. So I won't.

[@MatheusCarvalho-ev9hw]

@@MrGTO86 I'm not taking personally. I'm just telling how it is. He dreams of a fair system. It does not exist. What exists is the rich man's game.

[@sunway1374]

@@MatheusCarvalho-ev9hw I don't know any rich man who does serious research for free because it gives him pleasure.

[@MatheusCarvalho-ev9hw]

@@sunway1374 elon musk?

[@leondbleondb]

Were you paid as a postdoc? Were you the first author? You are being disingenuous.

[@marclacasse1]

It's not sketchy, it's fraud.

[@gjms]

Mmm... I should invest in Elsevier (RELX). It's like investing in slavery! Ethical slavery! It's been only going up through the years