Caveat Lector

I was about to say that the email I reproduce below is a complete novelty, but of course it isn’t. I have heard all the sentiments in it before. O ye readers who have felt or expressed them, know that ye be not alone. This is the company ye have found:

Dear Madam,

I am a mathematics graduate student. I am only in first year. Perhaps I do have a lot to see. But I cannot believe in the honest truth of all your allegations and rantings at “misconceptions” among academics. I do concede that your writing style, clarity of thought and approach do reflect very well on your abilities. Yet, it appears to me that you have done yourself no favour by looking only at the negative side of things. At times, the points you make, especially the one about the non-phd instructor at UNCH do not make much sense to me. Would you say the same about a quack doctor who gets along well with his patients? It is certainly possible to get along with a very modest medical practice after having spent two yrs in med school or so? Learn some terms- how to prescribe for colds, flu, viral fever, etc; my mother is a doctor; i could pretty much prescribe them myself from what I heard at home about my mom’s work! That said, it must be admitted that you did face a lot of bad luck, but surely you will not disagree with me saying that more merit lies in overcoming difficulties than in bowing out and then expressing bitterness on a web page(?) You might go all the way and claim that you are not bitter, that you have never felt better and the like; but your mammoth effort in building up the webpage speaks for itself. There is an iota of guilt left in you, a little something that tells you that people have faced greater odds and come out trumps and that you should have persevered. Easier said than done, though. I just hope that I do not have the kind of luck that you have had. There is a certain something that strikes a chord with me- yes my profs in undergrad school wanted me to stay back, but I wanted to be a ‘man’. Hopefully I have not made a big mistake.

And one more thing: please tone down your attack against academia: only the imbecile can exult in their failure. Why not accept one’s failure? Yes, it is obvious that the academia did not live up to its professed ideals in your case. There is a lot of injustice in the world. Yet, you have a misconception as well; “Earning a Phd SHOULD BE only about scholastic abilities”. What makes you think so? Why did you not start out in grad school with the assumption that you will be pitted against odds of all kinds: academic, financial, social; that there will be people out there to exploit your abilities? Is it not the way in every other walk of life? Your error lies in the fact that you presupposed that academia would be holy and pure, unscathed by all worldly follies. That is why you feel bitter about academia now. If you had started out with the idea: this is my “career”! There will be vultures out there and I will give them a good fight. Then you could have said: well, I did not have the abilities to win the fight. What I am trying to say is that one should perceive a PhD as an all round achievement, not confined to scholastics alone. In your case, you had all the academic ability on your side, but not the fortitude and certainly not the luck. That should take care of all your ‘grievances’. It is pointless to have grievances against fate, you can do nothing about them.

Here is wishing you the very best of luck. If you think that I have a point, i would be grateful no end to hear from you.

My father was the first to say these things, as it happens.