A recent Tweet by an academic listed the institution where they studied, the age when they got tenure, and the number of books they have written; this was followed by stating that they still feel unsuccessful. The post bother me, but at first, I was not quite sure why.
This person had attended a prestigous institution, was relatively young when they secured tenure, and had writen books (presumably academic one, and not like the crime novel I attempted to write as a teenager) [By comparison I have written zero books, my PhD institution was in a top ranking when I joined, but as the number 1 party school in the USA according to Playboy (FYI, not the reason I went there), and at 44 I am still untenured (in the UK system equivalent)]
I agree the “system” is broken if we always feel that we never achieve enough. But I wasn’t sure that was what was bothering me about this tweet.
Then I realized my bother came from the way this tweet demonstrated they were successful to make the point that it was not logical for them to feel like an imposter. Imagine they had written,
I attended a prestigous institution but found my PhD research boring
I got tenure before 40 but work in a university that does not support me and it’s located in a city I hate
I wrote two books no one has read
Would you be equally surprised if they felt like they failed?
I am not saying the second version is a failure. But rather I want to question what success is and how to recognize it. Should success be studying at Cambridge or stuyding something you are passionated about? Getting tenure young or at any age having a job that you enjoy and pays the bills? Publish books or mentor others? These are not incompatible (there are some lucky bastards out there), nor are these the only options, but maybe the feeling of failure comes from pursuing goals that do not fulfill you, maybe there is not single path to success, academic or otherwise.
What if instead we looked at success as being as happy as you can with the “hand life dealt you” regardless of what others are doing with their hand? Success as achieving the goals that make you happy and being happy with the goals you achieve.
Each of us encounters different choices and feel happy and proud about different things. Could we be less frustrated if we accept that there is not single form of success in academia (that attending Cambridge by itself is not a better choice) and learn to identify and follow the choices that make us happy? I mean: don’t attend Cambridge because it looks good on your CV, attend Cambridge because having a good CV is what rocks your boat (or because it is where you can do the science you want).
Of course, there is a problem with this proposal (which BTW I am sure is much better laid out in some self-help book). Some people get more and better choices, and some get only “shitty” choices. So What if while we work to find our path to success focusing on our happiness and fulfillment, we also invest some energy to reduce the number of people that only have “shitty” choices?
and then, I think to myself what a wonderful world that would be.
Ramblings of an ecóloga 