Why I Quit Academic Career (or Academia) Nearly 15 Years Ago
Each person has a limited set of stories he or she can tell, based on one's personal experiences (which are partly one's choice). One repeating theme or topic that I cover is the demise in academia, based on my 12-year experience (2000-2012). I very much appreciate Andy's stories as well (we sometimes chat about this). In 2012 my boss was working part time for Google, as apparently it was already considered "OK" for people to lecture (earning a salary from tuition fees) and also work for GAFAM (another continent, a rather horrific business model) without it being "conflict of interest" or "greed" or "multiple hats". I found it both baffling and disturbing, albeit nowhere as disturbing as the computers at the Computer Science labs being funded ("donated", i.e. controlled and criticism about it not permitted because it's a "gift") by rather malicious large companies from another continent (no, it wasn't Microsoft).
I am told by people who stayed that it has only gotten worse since then and it seems like lecturers are now part-time marketing staff (or liars) of GAFAM. They write so-called papers that aren't publications but ads. In the context of "white-coating", people who are neither doctors nor quacks (just hacks in consumes) pretend to be medical experts and recommend placebos that don't work, in turn discrediting the real occupation and eliminating trust in real doctors. That tarnishes access to wellbeing; many institutions forbid associating their uniform with some activities (like pornography) for this reason, but white coats and now scholars have been reduced to a gimmick. Even the term "research" has been relegated to a gag.
It seems like a lot of academia in 2026 no longer carries the same "weight" (or influence) it had back in the 90s when I wanted to teach and thought universities fostered genuine research rather than advertising falsely labeled as research.
Society will undergo a series of crises (or polycrisis) unless this is rectified. Facts become elusive when everyone tries to sell a lie. It then becomes a bidding war, not a contest over what is actually true (as movies describe conferences and peer review; how very nostalgic). █