What's stopping you?

I had a good meeting with my adviser today. We discussed the current work only briefly, then looked at longer term (as in, post-PhD) opportunities. While he concedes that the market for full-time faculty isn't what it once was, he had some other options that I hadn't considered. The details aren't particularly important at this point. The main question to ask is whether this all makes sense.

Specifically, am I OK with a big pay cut.

I suddenly find myself on the opposite side of an argument I've had with a lot of aspiring athletes. It's also a conversation I'll need to have with Yaya if music is really the avocation to be pursued. Basically, my question has always been, "What's stopping you?" Followed by, "Really, that's actually stopping you?"

Most people don't appreciate the difference between a criterion and a preference. A criterion is absolute. If it isn't met, the discussion is over. There are very few legit criteria in the world.

Mostly, what "stops" us from doing things is preferences. Sure, I'd like to be a pro bike racer, but I also want to finish grad school. Sure, I'd like to be a pro bike racer, but I don't have a contract and to race as an independent would mean living out of my car while working a side job. Sure, I'd like to be a pro bike racer, but I'm married to somewhat who doesn't really want that existence.

Those were all preferences that I faced in 1988. They were strong preferences. There were consequences to not honoring them. But, they were preferences. I decided to see what would happen if I set them aside.

Well, I can't point to any huge success story but I can also say that it was a life without excuse. It basically cost me everything. I didn't get my PhD. I had a whopping $900 to my name when I retired. My wife left me just when I was actually getting good. But, I did do it. Those things weren't stopping me. They were just really difficult preferences.

Would I make the same choices now? Of course not. But, that's not the point. The point is that every decision is just that, a decision. If the option isn't feasible, there's no choice. It's only a decision because you are weighing the cost. And, the cost can be rather high.

Which brings us to life after grad school (let's assume for the moment that I do get my PhD this go round). There are three reasonably plausible paths. I could keep working as a consultant. That would certainly be the path of least resistance. I don't know that a PhD would improve my marketability much I've been doing this consultant thing for a while now and generally get my jobs by referral, so credentials don't count for much. It certainly wouldn't hurt.

I could find a full-time teaching position. As I've noted before, that's becoming a heavy lift due to the increasing reliance on adjuncts. However, a friend of mine who's about my age just took a full-time job at a community college and is loving it. So, there are opportunities; just maybe not the ones I had in mind.

Another option, which was the discussion of our meeting today is a sort of hybrid position which is partially funded by an independent research group and partially funded by a university. I have long known about such positions; it's basically the deal my dad got with Cornell when they "bought" the independent research institute where he was a Principal Investigator. But, I hadn't really considered it as an option for me.

The upsides are obvious. It's full-time work and it constitutes real involvement in the faculty.

The downsides are also obvious. The pay is less than great (though no worse than full-time teaching) and your job is only as secure as your last grant.

I'm debt free, have a marginally OK retirement account and, aside from my predilection for good wine, don't have much in the way of big expenses. I do have a kid going to college in four years, but that's more Yaya's problem than mine. I'll help as best I can, of course, but at the end of the day I don't have a big problem telling Yaya the same thing my parents told me when noting that private school tuition is a pretty big chunk (like half) of an academic's salary: if you want to go to a private engineering school, you're going to have to shoulder the costs. I did and I did. I think I took college a lot more seriously as a result.

So, nothing's really stopping me. Does that mean the preferences are not important? Of course not. But, it's a decision, nothing more.