[FD3SA]

Of course there will be extremely talented yet naive students lining up for graduate schools. They are mostly unaware of the soul crushing reality of working in perpetual poverty in hopes of landing a tenured research position that doesn't exist.

This is a perfect case of confirmation bias due to information asymmetry. They have been in school their whole lives and thus have only met the few successful people who've managed to land tenured positions. They haven't met any senior grad students who've spent decades in a lab being paid less than the lowest administrators, and dumped to the curb for a fresh batch as soon as their best years are spent.

I'm not a pessimist, but when the reality is bleak [1], I will not convince myself that everything is dandy. Will this change? Hopefully. When and how are the questions I'm most concerned with at the moment.

1. http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/04/a-dark-future...