[morgante]

This attitude is part of the problem.

People shouldn't have to make a decision between quality of life (good salary, recognition, benefits, etc.) and doing fulfilling/meaningful work.

Wanting to be compensated fairly for your work is not corporate thinking. It's basic fairness and rationality. The fact that academia treats it as a character flaw is part of the problem.

[yomly]

Wholeheartedly agree on this, the college I went to harboured and nurtured a disdain for profit seeking and expected you to adopt a self-sacrificing altruistic approach to pursuing research.

No thanks.

I'm sorry that research wasn't enough to convince me to turn my back on living moderately well. Seems like most the people in my cohort felt the same, which is a shame because in the top 20 from my college, only 3 stayed on to do research. Which means profit-seeking companies are siphoning most the talent from research.

[jebediah]

Being paid less for a more fulfilling/meaningful job IS fair.

[morgante]

Fair point. The market is working properly.

The problem is mostly academics selling lies about that market to impressionable young students. They're supposed to be mentors looking out for their students' best interests, but are actually just pushing up the labor supply and pushing down prices.

forgotpwtomain's comment is highly indicative of the way academics do that. "Ignore the reality of terrible job options in academia. Industry is dirty and being a penniless researcher is the only noble path through life."

[forgotpwtomain]

I don't know about you but I'm quite grateful that people like Donald Knuth stayed in the apparently terrible place that academia is rather then becoming senior managers at IBM for 500k+ a year.

I don't think that not having a huge salary == lower quality of life, I think having a non-rewarding job does though.

> Industry is dirty and being a penniless researcher is the only noble path through life."

I never advocated this, while for some people in fact being penniless doesn't significantly impact quality of life; for a lot of talented people that want to have families it does in fact matter and it's a large loss for science if Academia cannot retain these people.

[morgante]

So am I. In fact, I wish more people were able to work on research. Treating a desire for a comfortable living as the problem rather than an objective to be fulfilled is what keeps us from getting more and better researchers.

Also keep in mind that his generation's options were much better. The academic job market was a lot friendlier back then.

[TheOtherHobbes]

If that were true, the most meaningless and soul destroying jobs would be paid the most.

They aren't.

[jebediah]

it is a factor, but not the only factor. Besides, the world isn't completely fair, you know.