Bret Devereaux

I enjoy teaching & researching, things I could not really do anywhere else, so yes? I think it is important not to confuse the complaints of TT professors in academia with seemingly more numerous and louder complaints of adjunct academics asking to be actually let into academia.https://twitter.com/ackocher/status/1409501554370035719 …

As far as I can tell, academia is a lot like water - your opinion of it depends on the degree to which you have it. The person sitting poolside wishing for a Pina Colada and finding only tap water does not invalidate the dying thirst of the person wandering through the desert.

To be clear, I am not invalidating the complaints of either. If I went to a fancy resort and found only tap water and sandwiches, I'd be upset too. But there's 'one star review on YELP' upset and then there's 'scratching my professional will into a rock before I die' upset.

The complaints of the TT can be more about non-existent work-life balance and working environment (that also effect non-TT) and reducing this to "this fancy resort isn't fancy enough) is pretty offensive

You may understand why, for someone who has all of the same problems of work-life balance and the exact same working environment, but with no job security at around a third the pay (and no benefits), why this argument is not very persuasive.

My original tweet was way harsher than I wanted it to be. But you can say that you are sympathetic to TT issues or that their concerns are like complaining about a fancy resort but not both, I think.

The latter is still a way to say, whether it was intended or not, that junior faculty shouldn't complain about working conditions that can be terrible in their own way.

Maybe I'm way off, but it read to me like "you have a TT job, just shut up and be happy." It's normal to air grievances and (ideally) this could lead to, you know, actual change in academia