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Wistfully Longing for Academia · Mechonomist Podcast

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
• 0:04
  I always thought in the back of my mind that eventually I would
• 0:08
  be a professor and
• 0:10
  I would get tenure and I would live the good life and write
• 0:15
  books and teach the
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: young minds of the world.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I just don't think it's going to happen.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: I applied to Deep Springs College,
• 0:27
  which is this quirky little college out in the desert in
• 0:31
  eastern California.
• 0:34
  And I was like,
• 0:34
  well,
• 0:35
  you know,
• 0:36
  they have a labor requirement as part of their school.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: And it's all about service.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, those are two things that I do.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: I do manual labor and I do service.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Figured I was a shoe in.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't even make it past the first cut.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I think my I think it's time to close that chapter.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I look back on it,
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: sort of as the title of this says,
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: I look back on it sort of wistfully.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: It was it was good.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: It was a good experience being in academia.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I know a lot of people can't say that.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of people who have careers in academia can't say that.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: But I met great people.
• 1:15
  I learned an amazing amount of knowledge from all over the
• 1:21
  world that I wouldn't
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: have been able to learn otherwise.
• 1:24
  I got to meet people from every corner of the earth and hear
• 1:29
  their perspective and
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: their take on things.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I made lifelong friends.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: who I still talk to to this day,
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: and I got to teach some,
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: but not much,
• 1:41
  but I got to teach some and I got fired because I refused to
• 1:44
  give grades or I
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: allowed the students to grade themselves.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, academia is a real messed up place.
• 1:51
  I have friends who are still in academia and it's not a nice
• 1:55
  place to be at this
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: point in history,
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: but my experience there was good and I value that and I value
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: what I learned from academia.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I probably learned all the wrong things.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: I learned knowledge.