I would never go back to academia. Here's why.

Summary

In this video, the speaker addresses whether they regret leaving academia after earning a PhD and then working in the tech industry before being laid off. They explain that they do not regret leaving academia, as it allowed them to pursue a more fulfilling career on YouTube and as a writer. They discuss the shortcomings of American universities, including high costs and declining educational quality, and why they wouldn't return to academia. Ultimately, they feel they can make a greater positive impact through their current work than they could as a professor.

Takeaways

• 🎓 The speaker does not regret leaving academia after obtaining a PhD and transitioning to the tech industry, as it allowed for new opportunities.
• 💼 Despite being laid off from a tech job, the speaker sees leaving academia as a step towards pursuing a true vocation rather than a dream given up.
• 📚 The speaker believes that American universities are not serving students well, with a focus on providing an 'experience' rather than a quality education.
• 💸 Universities are criticized for marketing experiences that lead to high tuition fees and increased student debt.
• 🏫 The speaker observes a trend where universities prioritize marketing and amenities over academic quality and teaching.
• 🔢 There is a noted increase in administrative staff compared to faculty, which diverts resources away from the core educational mission.
• 👨‍🏫 Many introductory classes are taught by graduate students or adjuncts, who, despite qualifications, may not provide the same educational experience as tenured professors.
• 📈 There is a push to make classes easier, which the speaker argues lowers students' expectations and capabilities.
• 📘 The speaker has found more impact and satisfaction in encouraging people to read philosophy and challenging literature through YouTube than in a traditional classroom setting.
• 🌐 The speaker's mission is to convince people of their capability to engage with complex ideas and enrich their minds, which they feel they has achieved more effectively outside of academia.
• 🐾 The speaker's cat's appearance serves as a light-hearted conclusion to the discussion, suggesting that the speaker is content with their current path.

Q & A

Why did the speaker leave academia after obtaining a PhD?

The speaker left academia because they felt like they were wasting their life in jobs they didn't love and believed that leaving academia allowed them to pursue what they actually wanted to do, such as starting a YouTube channel and writing for an audience.

Does the speaker regret leaving academia?

No, the speaker does not regret leaving academia. They believe it was the right choice and it allowed them to pursue their true interests and goals.

Would the speaker go back to academia if offered a tenure-track position now?

No, the speaker would not go back to academia even if offered a tenure-track position because they believe that American universities are not serving students well anymore and they feel they can do more good outside of academia.

What is the speaker's main criticism of American universities?

The speaker's main criticism is that American universities are diverting resources away from their core mission of teaching and research towards providing an 'experience' for students, which leads to higher tuition costs and student debt without providing a high-quality education.

What is the speaker's view on the quality of education in American universities?

The speaker believes that the quality of education in American universities is declining because resources are being diverted away from academics to non-educational amenities, leading to less demanding classes and lower expectations for students.

How does the speaker believe universities are failing students?

The speaker believes universities are failing students by making classes easier and less demanding, lowering students' expectations and their assessment of their own capabilities, and not providing the high-quality education that justifies the high tuition costs.

What role does the speaker believe they play on their YouTube channel and Substack?

The speaker believes their role on YouTube and Substack is to convince people that they are capable of engaging in life-enriching and mind-enriching activities like reading philosophy and hard books, and to provide recommendations and encouragement.

What feedback has the speaker received from their audience?

The speaker has received feedback from their audience that they were able to read and understand philosophy and hard books because of the speaker's videos and recommendations. Some audience members have even shared that they initially found certain books too hard but were able to read them after following the speaker's advice.

Why does the speaker believe they have a greater impact through their YouTube channel than they did in academia?

The speaker believes they have a greater impact through their YouTube channel because they can reach and help more people understand and engage with philosophy and literature than they could in a university classroom setting.

How does the speaker describe the current trend in university education quality?

The speaker describes the current trend in university education quality as declining, with universities making classes easier and lowering expectations, which they believe signals to students that they are not capable of doing higher-level work.

Outlines

00:00

🎓 Leaving Academia and Career Reflections

The speaker addresses a common question about whether they regret leaving academia after getting their PhD and working in the tech industry. They explain that despite losing their tech job, they do not regret their decision, as it allowed them to start a YouTube channel and pursue writing. They discuss how their previous jobs felt unfulfilling and how leaving academia opened up new opportunities for personal growth and career development.

05:00

🏫 Challenges in American Universities

The speaker explains why they would not return to academia, despite the appeal of reading, teaching, writing, and researching. They believe American universities are not serving students well anymore, often focusing on providing experiences rather than high-quality education. The increasing tuition and student debt are highlighted as significant issues, with resources being diverted away from the core mission of teaching and research to fund luxurious student amenities and excessive administration.

10:04

📚 The Decline in Academic Quality

The speaker criticizes the decline in academic standards and the over-reliance on adjuncts and graduate students for teaching, which they believe undermines the quality of education. They argue that universities have lowered expectations and made classes easier, resulting in students not developing necessary skills and confidence. This, combined with high tuition and debt, makes them reluctant to return to academia, as they feel the system is failing students.

📖 Inspiring Lifelong Learning

The speaker shares how their mission on YouTube is to inspire and empower people to engage with challenging content like philosophy and literature. They believe they have been more impactful through their online presence than they ever were in a classroom, as they receive feedback from viewers who have been encouraged to read difficult books and expand their minds. The speaker concludes that they can do more good through their current work than by returning to academia.

Keywords

💡Academia

Academia refers to the world of higher education and research, typically involving universities and scholarly pursuits. In the video, the speaker reflects on their decision to leave academia after obtaining a PhD and whether they regret it. The term is central to the theme of the video, as it sets the stage for the discussion on career choices and personal fulfillment.

💡Tech Industry

The tech industry encompasses companies and organizations involved in the development, production, and distribution of technological products and services. The speaker mentions working in the tech industry after leaving academia, indicating a shift in their career path and providing context for their subsequent experiences and reflections.

💡Laid Off

To be 'laid off' means to be terminated from employment, often due to company downsizing or economic reasons. The speaker discloses being laid off from their tech job, which serves as a catalyst for the video's central question of whether they regret leaving academia and would consider returning.

💡Regret

Regret is a feeling of sadness or disappointment over something that has happened, especially when it involves a loss or a missed opportunity. The speaker explicitly states they do not regret leaving academia, which is a key point in their narrative about personal and professional growth.

💡Vocation

A vocation is a strong feeling of suitability for a particular career or profession. The speaker reframes their initial perception of leaving academia as giving up on their dreams to realizing it allowed them to pursue their true vocation, which is a central message of personal discovery and fulfillment.

💡Tenure Track

A tenure track is a position within an academic institution that leads to tenure, a status that provides job security and academic freedom. The speaker is asked if they would return to academia with a tenure track job, which they decline, highlighting their commitment to their current path despite the allure of academic stability.

💡Debt

In the context of education, debt refers to the money owed by students for their studies, often in the form of loans. The speaker criticizes the high cost of education and the debt burden placed on students, which is a significant issue tied to the broader theme of the video about the value and purpose of higher education.

💡Education Quality

Education quality refers to the standard and effectiveness of teaching and learning in an educational institution. The speaker argues that the quality of education in American universities has declined, with students not receiving the value they deserve for their investment, which is a critical point in the video's critique of the current state of academia.

💡Administrators

Administrators in a university context are the staff responsible for managing the institution's operations. The speaker cites the disproportionate number of administrators compared to faculty at Harvard as an example of resource misallocation, which detracts from the core educational mission of the university.

💡Adjunct

An adjunct is a part-time or temporary faculty member at a university, often paid less and with less job security than full-time professors. The speaker discusses the reliance on adjuncts and graduate students for teaching, which they believe diminishes the quality of education students receive.

💡Personal Feedback

Personal feedback refers to individualized responses or comments given to a student, typically by a teacher or professor. The speaker mentions the lack of personal feedback in large lecture classes as a shortcoming of the university system, which hinders the educational experience and student development.

💡Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension is the ability to understand and interpret written material. The speaker observes a decline in students' reading comprehension skills and a tendency to focus on excerpts rather than full texts, which they believe is a result of lowered expectations and a failure of the education system to prepare students for university-level work.

💡YouTube Channel

A YouTube channel is a platform for creating and sharing video content on YouTube. The speaker mentions their YouTube channel as an alternative to traditional academia, where they believe they have had a more significant impact by sharing their passion for philosophy and literature with a broader audience.

Highlights

Leaving Academia allowed me to start a YouTube channel and pursue writing as a career.

Despite being laid off from a tech job, I do not regret leaving Academia.

I believe American universities are not serving students well, leading to my decision not to return.

Students are taking on massive amounts of debt without receiving high-quality education in exchange.

Universities market themselves on providing an experience rather than focusing on academics.

Resources are being diverted away from teaching and research to provide luxury amenities.

Students often receive education from underpaid adjuncts or graduate students, not experienced professors.

Classes are being made easier, lowering students' expectations and assessment of their capabilities.

The education system has failed students by not preparing them adequately for college-level work.

Universities are not challenging students to meet higher expectations.

I believe in the capability of students to engage with difficult materials like philosophy or literature.

Talking about philosophy and books on YouTube has had a more significant impact than classroom teaching.

I've received positive feedback from viewers who have been encouraged to read challenging works.

I feel I can do more good and make more connections through YouTube than in Academia.

I choose to continue this project because I believe it helps people and makes a difference.

Transcripts

today I want to address a question that

I often receive which is basically would

I go back to Academia after all I left

Academia after getting my PhD and then I

went and worked in the tech industry and

then you might have known if you saw a

video fairly recently that I was laid

off and I lost my tech job and so that

has inspired some people to ask me um do

I regret my decision to leave Academia

knowing that maybe the tech world wasn't

going to work out for me and also would

I go back so let's answer that first

question first do I regret my decision

the answer is no um I still think that

leaving Academia was the right choice

I'll talk more about why that is when I

talk about why I wouldn't go back but in

general things did work out fairly well

for me after I left Academia I moved to

around to a couple of jobs which is

pretty normal and honestly as I look

back at those jobs I realized that I

didn't really love them I didn't really

love those jobs they were fine but I

kind of felt like I was wasting my life

um I don't think I would have gotten

better employment if I had stayed in AC

after all and so you have to kind of

compare relatively but also leaving

Academia allowed me to start this I

don't think I would have started a

YouTube channel if I were a professor I

don't think now I would be writing every

single day and for an audience and

actually trying to make a career out of

it I used to think of leaving Academia

as me giving up on my dreams actually

I'm now seeing that maybe leaving

Academia was the thing that allowed me

to pursue what I actually want my

vocation to be so I don't regret it but

the question of like would I go back now

knowing what I know or in my current

circumstances you know someone offered

me a tenure track job right now would I

go back and the answer to that is also

no the main reason that I would not go

back to Academia despite the fact that

in many ways it's the dream because you

get to read and you get to teach you get

to write and you get to research and

that just sounds amazing but the reason

I wouldn't go back is because I don't

think American universities and I only

really know about American universities

I don't think they're actually serving

students well anymore and I really want

to clarify this is not an argument

against going to college in general it's

it's not one of those college is useless

kind of rants I am pro-education I think

that college can be a really great thing

and I wish that college and universities

in the United States were even better

but right now what we do is we have

students take on massive amounts of debt

the average of something like $30,000

per year for an undergraduate degree and

then we incre inre inly are not giving

them a high quality education in

exchange when I went to college and then

I went to grad school and then I adjunct

it at a few places I got to see

basically what students were expecting

when they went to schools and I got to

see how universities marketed themselves

and I came up with the impression that

many universities are marketing

themselves as providing an experience

for their students these experiences are

things like events activities speakers

that they bring in um entertainment um

bigger and more luxur ious gyms or uh

new and better dorms really fancy dining

Halls those sorts of things and those

things though cost a lot of money it's

just a really expensive thing to provide

that to you know 20,000 students at a

time and students are drawn to it

because they're speaking in terms they

can understand yeah you'd like to have

four years where it's Pleasant to live

there and you get to do lots of cool

things but what they're not telling

students is that this is causing one

their tuition to just go way way up and

thus to cause them to take on more and

more debt but it's also coming at the

expense of academics and actually the

education that they can receive so I

looked up for a little bit of context

Harvard's numbers about how many

administrators they have and for every

one faculty member at Harvard there are

over three

administrators some of those

administrators are part of the core

functionality of University it's really

hard to imagine a university actually

functioning with zero Administration but

many of those administrators are also

part of student life or of providing

these kinds of experiences for students

that are I would say diverting money

away from the core mission of a

university which is teaching and

research and turning it into a kind of

product that they can package and sell

to undergrads because resources are

being diverted away from the core

mission of the University students are

not actually receiving the education

that they deserve you know when you

first start going to college what's

going to happen is you're taking these

massive lecture classes your first

couple of biology classes will be taught

in rooms full of 300 other students

where you can't possibly get any kind of

personal feedback from your professor

and a lot of the direct teaching that

undergrads receive from you know early

on those first couple of years in school

are going to be from either graduate

students like what did when I was a

graduate student I was teaching I would

to teach a lot of intro level philosophy

classes or from adjunct who are

underpaid who are not permanent members

of the university community who don't

have a lot of institutional support and

are really pretty transient they're just

moving wherever the jobs are so you're

not going to be getting I would say like

that top quality education that you can

really only get from an established

Professor who gets to teach the same

class at the same places so even if

those graduate students or those adjunct

are qualified to teach or they are

really dedicated to teaching which I

think many of them are they're not going

to be able to provide the same high

quality experience as a professor just

because they don't have as much they

just don't have as much experience

behind them or they're not being allowed

to develop their classes over time

they're bouncing from place to place and

just teaching whatever class they're

told they get to teach that semester to

bring this back to the main point about

why I wouldn't go back is that even if I

were a tenure track professor and I

could do a good job and I think I would

do an okay

job My worry is that I would be part of

a system that is just ripping students

off it's not actually doing a good job

at the thing that we're saying you're

paying for you know the promise of an

education is that you're going to be

able to expand your mind or that you're

going to be introduced to lots of new

and exciting and competing ideas or

you're going to learn lots of new skills

that you couldn't get elsewhere

especially skills that you couldn't

learn on your own but I mean if I'm

being completely honest when I was

teaching at universities pretty much

every single year I saw a push to make

classes easier and less demanding and

what happened was that when you made

classes easier and less demanding for

your students um as you lower their

expectations they lower their assessment

of what they're capable of as well so

here is just one example this is very

much a Humanity's example this is not

something you would see so much in the

Sciences I think um because they're

going to be doing different kinds of

work but you know since I was teaching

philosophy classes one of the things

that I had to do was assign readings and

then we would discuss the readings and

we would write papers I saw this in my

time teaching but I also hear it from

people who are still teaching even at

really great universities every single

year it gets harder and harder for the

students to do all of the Reading part

of this is because a lot of students are

being taught how to read by reading

small excerpts and then analyzing them

because they're following the format of

standardized test and they aren't used

to reading novels or just whole books or

even long articles you know from their

high school education and then you come

to college and you think they're going

to be ready for it and especially in

those intro classes they often just

aren't now it is my firm belief that

they are actually capable of doing it

it's my firm belief actually that almost

anyone is probably capable of reading

like a work of philosophy or a novel and

in ently discussing it but that as we've

Lowered Expectations we're actually

signaling to those students that oh

actually sorry that works too hard for

you you're not going to be capable of

doing it and I think that eventually

they start to internalize that message

and they teach themselves that actually

they would be too hard so you assign

them 100 pages to read in a week which

if you spread that over even five days

it's just 20 Pages a day which if it's

really hard Pros maybe that takes you an

hour so all right that's going to take

you five hours to read spread it out and

it's actually quite doable but they've

been told that that's really hard

they've been told that what they need to

do is focus on selections and excerpts

and just analyze those because that's

what's going to be on the test and they

never build the skills and they never

build I would say the confidence to

actually do University level work

universities have responded to this not

by challenging their students or by

convincing them that they're actually

capable of that work but actually just

by giving up I don't think this is about

the individual failings of students or

you know about like how gen Z just

doesn't know what reading is like it's

just that I think that they've been

collectively failed by the education

system and so they haven't figured out

that they're actually quite capable of

doing all of this kind of work since

universities ask you to take on huge

amounts of debt and then I think often

don't give you that highquality

education that you deserve if you're

going to a university it's just not a

system that I would want to participate

in anymore you know I talk about

philosophy on this channel quite a bit

um I talk about books and one of the

things that I hear from people and if

this is true for you by the way I would

love to hear down in the comments or in

an email people email me all the time

and it's great um but one of the things

I hear from them is that I was able to

play some role in convincing them that

they could read philosophy or that they

could read hard books that they could

read great works of literature and

they'll they'll email me and say hey I

didn't think I could read ploh but I

watched your videos I gave it a try and

I did and I think that's amazing and

I'll even hear from people like in my

Discord who will say I tried to read

that book you recommended and it was too

hard and then I took some time off and

read some other stuff and then I went

back and I was able to read it and so

basically what I see my my whole mission

on this channel really being is to

convince you that you're actually

capable of doing these kinds of like

life enriching and mind enriching

activities like reading philosophy or

reading hard books and and I think I've

been more impactful and more helpful to

more

people talking about it on YouTube or

writing about it on substack than I ever

was in the classroom I don't know why I

was never able to get that message out

clearly when I was teaching or why it's

harder at the University level to sort

of convince people of this but for some

reason just talking into a camera on

YouTube just about books that I really

like or about why you should read

philosophy or just giving you some

recommendations on where to start with

philosophy has actually I think done

more than if I'd

stayed in Academia so while I would have

loved the life of a researcher I would

have loved the life of a professor I

think I would look quite good you know

in a tweed jacket with some elbow

patches I just think that I wouldn't go

back because I can do more good here and

that idea that I could do some good in

the world and that I could help people

or even just make some connections with

people is why I choose to keep doing

this project and I don't really even

think about what it would have been like

if I'd stayed in Academia and it seems

that my cat agrees as he has just joined

us well I think that is a pretty good

indication that I've said enough so I

hope you got something out of this I'd

love to hear from you down below and

I'll talk to you soon