Thread by @WhitesPhD

I have been thinking about the increasing concern of the academic community on widespread depression/mental illness in our profession (PhD students included). Here's what I humbly think. Feel free to disagree.

N.B: I won't refer to any event/fact, but keep it general. 1/n

Disclaimer: I have been in the profession since 6 years now; probably not enough to get all nuances, but probably long enough to face my own reality check and see what the profession is for good. 2/n

I saw many people talking about the "loneliness" of our profession, and consequent ramifications, as the root of the problem here. I humbly disagree.

True: being a researcher is a lonely profession; but that doesn't mean it's a lonely life. 3/n

I know quite a lot of colleagues who have active personal lives with family and friends and nevertheless strongly feel anxiety and frustration being an academic.

What I mean by that is that I really do not think that is the lonely nature of our job that is problem here 4/n

Instead, what I point my fingers to is the "values" and the "incentives" that govern our profession. It is undeniable that is a hyper-competitive environment. That is, spots at top journals/good jobs are all very limited.

In addition, there is a very strong peer effect 5/n

The peer effect amplifies the nature of the job, which is we constantly judge the others (students, other researchers through referee reports, etc), and likewise we are constantly judged by others. In the long run that could be problematic if one can't find its own balance. 6/n

It can be really difficult to keep the balance however, especially if your career doesn't turn out to be as successful as you hoped when you were a graduate student. That's unfortunately the vast majority of cases. Initial conditions matter and we all realise that soon. 7/n

Add to that the incentive scheme of the profession; that is, implicitly if you can't publish in top journals, present at top conferences, etc., you are (although most people disagree) regarded as almost irrelevant. I know sounds an exaggeration, but this often may be true. 8/n

Thus... put together a job which is hyper-competitive + where basically everyone can measure his own career against others + where you judge and being judged all the time + where if you can't get your research published in top journals then you feel miserable. 9/n

You almost naturally get a very stressful working environment whereby it's easy to end up constantly feeling frustration simply because you are not successful as measured by the standards of the profession. 10/n

I believe this is the real problem and can create a very toxic situation in the long run. I am not even sure is even sustainable. We should perhaps get over the idea that "we are what we publish", simply 'cause it's flat wrong. 11/n

I think every1 should work to try getting his/her research published in the best possible way, but I also believe that we should perhaps start to realise that it's ok to fail as far as you tried hard enough. I believe this is something we don't stress enough with students. 12/n

We operate in the system we've been given and it's hard to change things; however I feel I want to share with younger people a quote that helps me put things into perspective:

"you don't need to be better than the others, you just need to be better than you used to be" 13/n

so work like crazy to improve yourself as a researcher, but don't give a damn about how successful other people may be 'cause it doesn't matter. At all. Keep your pace and work hard and eventually you'll get where you'd never thought it could have been possible. 14/n

Good night.