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I just wanted to play a bit of the devil's advocate (it's a hobby of mine) and to see if I could temper some of your anti-academic vitriol.

To be certain, you are right on many accounts. The job market is almost perpetually lousy (although this differs quite a bit by discipline), and it's easy to feel like you're chasing after a dubious rabbit. There are a lot of bitter academics out there, many of whom it sounds like you've become acquainted with. There are a lot of departments, certainly not all, characterized by a good deal of infighting and conflict.

But a PhD is such a rotten peach, why is it that so many people try to (and actually do) get one? Are they just suckers who haven't gotten the game?

Although no job is perfect, a career in academia has many unique benefits. What other job allows you the opportunity to work on the projects that interest you (and ONLY on the projects that interest you)? What other job allows you to change the projects you work on when your interests change? What other job allows you so much control over your own success and failure? What other job pays you to think and write about things that interest you? What other jobs allow you to determine your own deadlines? What other job pays you to create works of doubtful commercial value? What other job permits you so much flexibility in determining your work hours? What other job permits you so much flexibility in getting away to visit family and loved ones?

I know that these last two arguments will seem false. Many will argue that academia offers false flexibility. You have flexibility in theory, but in practice, you are chained to your computer. Getting a job (and tenure after that) requires every last bit of your blood and every last minute of your free time. There is a lot of truth to this. Neither one is easy to do. It is important to realize, though, that lots of graduate students have a phony idea of work. They seem to believe that they will be rewarded on the basis of “face time,” rather than what they get done. Believing and acknowledging that they must work every hour of every day, they almost do chain themselves to their desks. They commit to spending the entire day in front of the computer, and they do. Of course, working every hour of every day is very difficult and requires considerable effort and discipline. As a result, many students are unable to do it. But rather than playing Frisbee in the park or chatting with their families on the telephone or reading an interesting novel when they need a break, they refuse to doff their chains; instead they sit. Graduate students are among the most skilled FreeCell and Minesweeper (and Solitaire, of course, to the extent that it’s skilled) players around, and it’s not just because they’re smart. Graduate students are some of the most web savvy people around, and many are extremely knowledgeable about current events, music, movies, and the like. Many graduate students play a mean game of Doom.

It’s also the case that many graduate school cultures make it seem uncool to not work all of the time. Acknowledging that you’re not working every moment is tantamount to admitting that you are a shiftless, lazy loser without goals, tenacity, or drive. This type of feeling is often unspoken, but permeates the culture fully enough that people are motivated to refuse social invitations all the time, acknowledging that they have to work. (Somehow, inexplicably, these people are often very knowledgeable about cable television programming.) Of course, it’s possible that saying you have to work is the academic variant on “washing your hair.”

Academia is far from perfect, and its worst fault is probably the amount of neurosis it seems to inspire in people. (You’d be amazed how many graduate students were on anti-depressant and anti-anxiety drugs long before use of these drugs was so widespread.) It is important to remember, though, that lots of other occupations have low pay, lousy job opportunities (especially now), and maladjusted bureaucracy, and these jobs, you have to do what someone else tells you to do.

Posted by: christian at September 12, 2002 11:23 PM

Thanks for the devil's advocacy. I hope to get a chance to respond more fully soon, but at the moment I just want to say that a large part of me agrees with you completely. I've made it through three years telling myself all the things you're saying, and I know a lot of people who have made it a lot longer than that (all the way to the tenure promise land, even). That's why this is an ambivalent imbroglio -- I can see both sides. So yeah, you're right (esp. about many grad students' encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture), but... I'll get back to you with the "but"; right now I have to prepare lessons about Thomas Paine and Flannery O'Connor.

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