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Going into academia was a mistake. It takes years of sacrifice and lots of luck to become a professor. The optimization is so intense you actually have less control over your research than you think. But even worse, being a professor sucks (in poli sci at least). You probably have to move to a rural area, the pay is like 60 or 75 if tenure track. The hours are the same as a normal job. The only benefit is doing your own research, but the pressure to compete squeezes the fun out of that.
I think someone wrote classic LW post about this. Yud mentions it in Inadequate Equilibria. Anyone know where that is?
Honestly, I wouldn't choose being a professor over my other options even if I could skip there right now. The low salary and location suck. I feel kind of stupid for not realizing this earlier, but I was idealistic at the start.
Also it's not that bad. I just finished a masters for free, I learned the classic causal inference methods. I can apply for sweet government jobs, government consulting, or learn to code.