Any chance you have to get out of academia, go. Anyone competent should avoid that life.
Society is better off with good people in academia, but an individual is better off out.
Society is better off with good people in academia, but an individual is better off out.
I personally have left academia, mostly for personal reasons before I could really know for certain whether I would have made it or not, and I know some very competent people who stayed and managed to get good positions without having to compromise who they are.
I think the problems start when you're competent but not competent enough, and your ambitions don't align with how competent you are. That may sound harsh, but I think it's true (with admittedly some variance depending on the exact field you're in).
It is - for tenured professors at good schools. But getting to that point is intensely competitive, and the vast majority of people don't make it.