biounit

Would love to know the average tip. Surprising it’s not in the article.

I find this scenario strange. Why is your wife not interfacing directly with her brother? Why are you even involved in these discussions during this obviously challenging situation? It might be better to step back and support your wife and not insinuate yourself into the higher level aspects of the situation. You're only increasing the conflict. "Blood is thicker than water" is very true. And you just received a good lesson on that from your brother in law. Put your wife before everything else. If things get even worse you'll be the scapegoat at the end. Guaranteed.

Schmidt's was the sportsman's beer. Different than Schlitz.

How about voice quality? It's a phone!!!

There are some small-farm techniques that are successful - from a profit standpoint - when optimized. http://modernfarmer.com/2016/10/jm-fortier/

"It's different" is a big deal. In academics, if you're research oriented, your success is 90% or more based on your ability to bring $ in the institution. If your research field is on an upswing - novel, deemed important, hot with the funding agencies - you're good. It extremely challenging when things turn. Pivot is virtually impossible, especially before tenure. I'd argue that with business you don't necessary have to be producing the next big deal. There are plenty of mundane products from which a lot of $ can be made and you can survive. That's what gives you the freedom.

I'm not discounting the difficulties present in each scenario (or the luck). However, after ruminating about all the pluses and minuses, I believe one is likely better off trying the business route.

Interesting perspective. Certainly get a good feel for your potential before striking out on a startup. And have as much savings as possible. I did the PhD and while doing my Postdoc I started a company. I did many years as Research Professor before quitting and focusing on my company.

Comparing the two situations I'd argue the business option is far better for a number of reasons. The most important being freedom. To survive in academics now is an awful game of proposals and nonstop stress. Success rates are very low and there is intense competition. And all for very little (no) payoff. And it is a sales job. At the end, before I finally pulled the plug I often likened academics to a situation where you're selling something that people may like, but they don't want to pay for it. If you do it right with a company, people are begging to pay you. And the reality is the business route is much more challenging, just in a different way. Everything is on the line.

I do think promoting a "startup" in the conventional sense where you have VC funding and explosive growth is disingenuous. There are many opportunities where a PhD scientist can carve out a niche where you have a company with 1-10 million in revenue. It affords an excellent situation that, if sustainable, is orders of magnitude better than the academic lifestyle that is so often idolized.

A better title for your link would be - "OUR biology paper in Science." Big congratulations on the paper. Impressive.