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Why are academics so cringe?
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@sim because they have no skin in the game, and do not have to live under the policies they propose. They bear no personal consequences for being wrong, because those consequences are borne by the other people implementing their ideas instead. They live in an abstract, armchair world, where they don't have to test their theories and can just imagine they are right.
I think there is a culture in academia of gravitating toward less and less real-world testable things, to more grandiose and subjective things. It's safer and more lucrative. STEM has also moved this way, like physics with String Theory and Dark Matter. If they did real, testable things, they might get put to the test or proven wrong.
That and the narcissism and conformity mentioned by other repliers. I'd add "being in a social bubble in academia" to that.
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I sometimes wonder if they even listen to themselves or look at the things they attempt to signal to everyone.
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@kaia @grillchen @sim also need a good dose of Stockholm syndrome
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@grillchen @sim
yeah, or even worse. if you want to stay in academia, you have to have vitamin B or be 500%.
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@sim afaik the pyramide scheme thing applies for psychology @kaia ?
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@sim also it is a pyramide scheme for many topics or if u wanna get into research. 1 prof. 2 phd students, 3 scientific workers/postdocs, 100 students. those rates arent rare. 6 jobs on 100 students and otherwise their degree is worthless.. besides proving u can handle stress, bureaucracy and organize urself..
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@sim another thing is some universities/regulations are straight up bullying. but without someone sueing it is impossible to change. but to be able to sue u need to be personally affected. but the recommended way for personal happiness is not to be affected by certain regulations...
my university basically took away the students (and their kids) right to health related privacy for example. though this is one of the more extreme/dumb cases
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@grillchen Stress tolerance in what way?
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@sim
mhh in my experience those thing haunt students and even phd students:
- existential crisis. either u succeed at the end or u fail anywhere inbetween and all is lost
-money is quite short for many. many people work besides studying up to full time
- bureaucracy. though to be fair the main issue is most people never learnt to read laws or regulations
- the speed is to high for many. especially for some topics. so they are constantly catching up and always feel behind. i felt like what in school was done in 2 years is done in 3.-4 weeks at university beginner courses. understanding a math topic is much less important than being able to solve it and pretend to understand it.
true understanding comes after years if u need the thing again and again. if not u just forget it
-exams suck
-general pressure to perform and time stress is extremely high. but not constant. no student i know has a regulated day more than 3 months. than the phase changes and they need to change their life accordingly.
-studies show: students in germany are more stressed and pressured than people who work at the same age. 5% of phd students think about suicide very often.
2015 17% of the students have atleast one psychological issue diagnosed. it is to be expected the amount of students with an issue which could be diagnosed is atleast twice as high.
another thing is: academics dont work for someone. they work for themself first. they are never just hired and work for a company and can enjoy their free day afterwards.
students need to pass. phd students need to finish their phd, scientific staff is only hired for up to 2 years maximum. than it needs to be renewed based upon their performance, the project, the studies, etc.
universities are imo one of the worst places to work at. u get low wagees for a lot of work and self exploitation. the only upside is you can do what you are passionate about. once talked with a post-dpc lecturer. she is looking for a prof job desperately. because otherwise she will have to switch jobs midlife. but she also has a husband and does not want to travel more than the 200km she already is traveling for work... she has a smol appartment here to fullfill the stuff.
thats not to rare for someone trying to become a prof.
because the pressure is so ridiculous high forging, p-hacking and other scams are pretty common.
university is a hellscape. but the only way to research. and some people would sell their organs to be able to research...
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@sim imo academia is a big part just a proof of stress tolerance.
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@sim @grillchen @kaia academia is a honey trap for above-average IQ people where they learn to be stupid
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@lain @grillchen @kaia Boy am I glad that I didn't get stuck in this even more now.
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@lain @kaia @sim i thought thats magic the gathering?!
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@grillchen @kaia @sim that's how you get above-average IQ people to empty their wallets
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@lain @grillchen @kaia @sim I considered staying for my phd when I finished my undergrad and I decided not to in part because people seemed unhappy and mean.
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@Moon @lain @grillchen @kaia That is tragic, because if it was that bad for you then I can only imagine how much worse it has gotten since then.
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@sim @grillchen @kaia @Moon if you ask what people would rather want:
a) the knowledge of a uni degree without the degree
or
b) the degree without the knowledge
it's usually pretty clear what people prefer.
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@grillchen @kaia @lain @Moon Yeah, I suppose that is the problem with a lot of courses. It doesn't give you the knowledge and tools that you will directly need. It's more about the theory side of things.
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@sim @grillchen @kaia @Moon i don't think that's a problem, i learn things that aren't required for a specific job all the time. i find credentialism to be a lot more problematic, also licensing for jobs.
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@lain @kaia @Moon @sim also a thing i hate:
i do a course on how to do cryptographic circuit boards and learn a lot of stuff but at the end i cant make a cryptographic board. i did learn alot but not whats kinda promised by the course. instead i learnt a lot of theoretical crypto foo
sim
Aven
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kaia
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Moon
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