I think it’s grant committees dictating the research agenda all the way down. They’re after all the ones with the money.
That was my father.
At 80 he went to teaching only one class so he could keep his office and spend the rest of his time doing what he wanted.
At 90 he finally retired. He wrote dozens or articles and finally left us in Jan this year at 92. The last day he was alive, he dictated a book review to me he had promised to a journal. His final wish, that I type it up and send it in for him and let them know he would not be able to take on any more book reviews.
I hope this doesn’t come off as callous:
What an epic mic drop of your father’s. That’s like something out of a novel/film.
He sounds like a super hoopy frood. Sorry for your loss.
Thank you.
He was one of the most disciplined people I’ve ever known. He rarely complained about anything. He spent every minute he could doing what he loved, researching and publishing. He wrote several books include an award winner. He won a Lifetime Achievement award from a prestigious body in his field at 84. He just kept going. At 86 he had nearly lost his eyesight but a doctor was able to restore partial vision, enough for him to continue his work and I never saw him happier. He did what he loved until his last waking moments. Then he closed his eyes and went to sleep, I imagine finally able to relax, all his commitments settled. I hope I get to go out the same way.
I’m sorry for your loss.
On a different note, your username is fantastic and I’m sad I didn’t think of it first.
Thank you for the kind words
precisely why I left with my Master’s. working a ‘regular job’ is a lot more liberating.
Zero freedom to pursue the truth, infinite demands to support other people’s ideological agendas.
I didn’t get it that bad personally, but I watched a few friends have research derailed by some random committee member’s bullshit.
I don’t have a tenure committee and nobody cares what I research as long as I publish and get grants. Ymmv. Edit: also, the comic skips postdoc, which is probably the most care free career stage (you can pretty much do whatever the fuck you want as long as you manage to impress your supervisor every now and then with original stuff and follow through to turn them into papers).
TwoAstronauts.jpg “Wait, it’s all Grant Committees?” “Always has been”
Interesting to point that the woman never made it to the tenure position…
She also skipped grad school and grad student by that logic.
And she also never died!
Did you just assume a tombstone’s gender?
Women earn the majority of college degrees at all levels and in all majors.
Alas, I realize my comment was misunderstood… I was merely pointing the choice of the cartoonist
The most interesting thing to me is that everyone took it as
she couldn’t do it because she’s a stupid woman
Hence downvoted to hell
As opposed to
she couldn’t do it because y’know, patriarchy and all’at.
Because you can get much angrier at one of those, is my guess, and people love to be angry.
