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Comment by chrisseaton | Hacker News Reader

Why are people so incredibly keen to teach at universities that they'll put up with these conditions? I don't think these positions even come with the usual up-side to the bad conditions - getting to do the research you're passionate about. Do people just enjoy teaching so much? It seems genuinely that a job at McDonalds would have better pay, conditions, stability, and respect.

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Because they've invested 5-10 years of their lives in a doctorate, publications, and connections that are specifically aimed at an academic position and very little good for anything else. Adjuctships are a holding pattern that allows you to still be "part" of the academy and thus leaves the tenure track dream alive, however tenuously. Leaving is admitting that your whole career, and probably sense of personal identity, has to be discarded and rebuilt from scratch in your mid 30s.

I'm sure there are relevant industry jobs for people no matter what their PhD is in.

I admire your optimism.

https://gizmodo.com/there-are-5-000-janitors-in-the-u-s-with...

That's the sort of cargo cult mentality that has been fueling abusive work relations in higher education.

I think you’ve hit a key psychological insight. And they have a choice to also push through an existential Sunk Cost fallacy.

I spent the first 11 years of my professional career in the Navy flying airplanes. It was a niche skill set. When I left, I had the airlines available, by I would’ve been bored to tears in the job.

So at 35 I started over in a new career. It’s been challenging - but there is a future. I’m 6-8 years (at least) “behind” my colleagues.

The choices we make have consequences. And if you have your health, you can always choose to change your course.

You could spent nine more in the navy, retired with a pension, and got a cushy DoD/government job (assuming you wanted to live near a base or government contractor)

True. Even better is flying for the airlines and taking a reserve flying gig to get the reserve retirement. Wasn’t for me.

Flying that won't bore you to tears:

1. service to antarctic bases

2. water bombing forest fires

3. test pilot for a Navy contractor

4. dirt airstrips in Alaska, with animals on the runway and weather

5. dirt airstrips in Lesoto, short and high altitude

6. Zero Gravity Corporation (commercial "vomit comet")

"getting to do the research you're passionate about. Do people just enjoy teaching so much?"

Yes! I look at research as a boring, stressful pain-in-the-butt, and I love teaching my students. I am contingent annually, but full-time with benefits, and I would not want to be on the publish-or-perish track. Teaching smart kids hard stuff is what I am passionate about.

The vast majority of people employed as professors or lecturers at university are there because they want to do research, and teaching is the compromise that lets them do it. They definitely do not want to be teaching. Most people try to find ways to reduce their teaching schedule to make time for research.

One reason: some can make $150K+ (some can even make $500K+). If you get a coveted post, then you could end up with a high salary and the freedom to research what you would likely research in your free time anyways.

Also, if you move from professor to administrator you can make $300K+ with arguably fewer work hours and responsibility.

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