If I were independently wealthy I would fund a philosophy fellowship for academics for a year. There is only one condition attached to it: For the year, don’t do any work which is normally paid or that is service to the profession. Just do nothing, be yourself and let yourself be. Projected outputs: none.
Thank you for writing this! Having been on both the academic and private sector sides in multiple countries (mostly US and East Asia), it does feel like this is reality in many places. Is there any place that isn't like this? Is it just our own mentality?
Sounds excellent and witty! But this project will probably take work to complete. We are so embedded in our work regime (our life indeed) that cutting off all responsibilities is unlikely for anyone, even activity imitators. Work in the academic field sucks like a swamp; no one sees 80 percent of its results, no one has read any one of colleagues for a long time, and there is almost no pleasure in communication. So, the idea is lovely, but volunteers to finance and participate in the competition may not be found.
I’m not in academia but I love this idea as well. I completely burned out a few years ago after working as a prison librarian, and since then I’ve worked (for money) the absolute minimum amount that I have to do that I have time & energy to read, draw, write and rest. That’s the idea. Yet I still harass myself constantly for not producing *enough* art and writing, telling myself that’s the whole point of minimizing the time I spend working. So I feel myself on the verge of burnout again! A year of producing nothing would kill me or… or would it??
Really love this idea, I’m in the processes of applying for grad schools now and I already feel burnt out and anxious from all the pressures of academia. The ability to have a full year after getting a PhD where I don’t have to do anything feels freeing
This is a lovely fantasy, Helen, and I say that having lived a version of it during my year-plus of unemployment after leaving my last academic post. I spent time talking on the phone with and visiting my mom during her brief remission from lung cancer, and during the final stages of that illness. I grew my garden. I expanded the volunteering I was already doing at a non-profit farm and at a local food bank. I continued and expanded my volunteer work with the local chapter of NAMI providing free education and support to the family members of those living with serious mental illness. When talking to (other?) academics, I described it as a self-funded sabbatical, with an indeterminate mix of irony and sincerity. It was glorious, despite the associated economic and existential stress of needing to apply for jobs and trying to make a career change well into my 40s.
Thank you for writing this! Having been on both the academic and private sector sides in multiple countries (mostly US and East Asia), it does feel like this is reality in many places. Is there any place that isn't like this? Is it just our own mentality?
Sounds excellent and witty! But this project will probably take work to complete. We are so embedded in our work regime (our life indeed) that cutting off all responsibilities is unlikely for anyone, even activity imitators. Work in the academic field sucks like a swamp; no one sees 80 percent of its results, no one has read any one of colleagues for a long time, and there is almost no pleasure in communication. So, the idea is lovely, but volunteers to finance and participate in the competition may not be found.
I’m not in academia but I love this idea as well. I completely burned out a few years ago after working as a prison librarian, and since then I’ve worked (for money) the absolute minimum amount that I have to do that I have time & energy to read, draw, write and rest. That’s the idea. Yet I still harass myself constantly for not producing *enough* art and writing, telling myself that’s the whole point of minimizing the time I spend working. So I feel myself on the verge of burnout again! A year of producing nothing would kill me or… or would it??
Really love this idea, I’m in the processes of applying for grad schools now and I already feel burnt out and anxious from all the pressures of academia. The ability to have a full year after getting a PhD where I don’t have to do anything feels freeing
This is a lovely fantasy, Helen, and I say that having lived a version of it during my year-plus of unemployment after leaving my last academic post. I spent time talking on the phone with and visiting my mom during her brief remission from lung cancer, and during the final stages of that illness. I grew my garden. I expanded the volunteering I was already doing at a non-profit farm and at a local food bank. I continued and expanded my volunteer work with the local chapter of NAMI providing free education and support to the family members of those living with serious mental illness. When talking to (other?) academics, I described it as a self-funded sabbatical, with an indeterminate mix of irony and sincerity. It was glorious, despite the associated economic and existential stress of needing to apply for jobs and trying to make a career change well into my 40s.