I don't have much to say about this but there's been a lot of discussion lately about the future of academics here and here. I thought this study was interesting as well. Having had a very very small exposure (but exposure nonetheless) of what academia entails I can only conclude one thing: it's a very tough environment. The sequestering of funding is making it even harder and less appealing. The simple truth is that the limited tenured positions out there and the lack of funding have made it harder to establish oneself financially and as an academic, let alone establish one's body of knowledge, work, ideas etc...I already mourn the loss of the open forum of schools of thought (I'm referring to the lost art of learning rhetoric of a sort from a philosophical school.) Being able to ponder one's craft without being clouded by the nitty gritty (primarily funding) appears to be a lost art and immensely difficult when one is struggling to manage their own livelihood. I don't have a solution (yet) for this unfortunately, but if more individuals who are passionate about a field (any field) choose the industry over the academic route at some point progress will become stallwart. We need innovation in order progress ourselves and our society.
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