Thread by @yoginho

@dav_robbe I didn’t leave academia voluntarily. And I tried to get a traditional academic job back for quite a while. Stockholm syndrome, I guess. I’m also still trying to get funding for my projects. Short-term fellowships work, but no luck with bigger projects so far. /1

@dav_robbe I survive on the odd teaching job and giving workshops (e.g. a primer in philosophy for scientists). In years since I’ve left, I’ve done my best intellectual work. The lack of career constraints is unbelievably liberating. And the lack of bullshit work in committees etc. too… /2

@dav_robbe Academia is an oligarchy. The oligarchs are powerful & uninterested in change. By their own metrics, their science is doing better than ever. For me, most of it has lost all relevance. As you say, our fields are stuck in the wrong paradigm. More of the same, no thank you. /3

@dav_robbe I’ve been fighting this system since the beginning of my career. Got grant after grant turned down by narrow-minded, biased oligarchs. Did all of it anyway. Published in high-ranking journals anyway. Got a high h-index anyway. I couldn’t care less. /4

@dav_robbe The work I care about most is published in special issues & books, since it would never pass standard peer-review in biological journals. It’s philosophical by nature. No luck with funding agencies either so far. It's work that really matters. It’ll stand the test of time too. /5

@dav_robbe It’s trying to challenge the fundamental assumptions we make about life. It doesn’t fit anywhere, since our current approaches don’t grasp what life really is. But nobody is interested in hearing that, believe me. They’re all happy in their little mechanistic fantasy worlds. /6

@dav_robbe This is the problem: we’ve created a system designed to stifle truly exploratory work. Such work is risky. Doesn't sit well with existing work. And is likely to lead nowhere, at first. There is no place for such work in our hyper-competitive world. Yet, it’s what we need most. /7

@dav_robbe You can pursue really daring work in two ways: (1) You’re safely tenured and you can do whatever you want (but to get there, you need to sell your soul first). (2) You can stop giving a shit about your career & just do what you care about. You will be made to suffer. /8

@dav_robbe I’ve chosen option (2). I see no way how you can do really radical & daring work as an untenured academic these days. You simply don’t get the opportunity. The system keeps you in line, or you don’t have a career. That’s why I am happy I left. /9

@dav_robbe The people in charge have *no* interest in changing any of that. They are the oligarchs that profit from all the indentured servitude of young researchers. It wasn’t exactly the slave-holders that abolished slavery either... /10