I’ve been thinking about how many issues I’m perceiving in academia vs. my friend, whom I have always thought was much more suited to an academic lifestyle than I was despite us having similar ability (and indeed, he’s having a better reception than I did thus far, although he’s had his share of troubles too), and it made me realize that it could very easily be described in terms of a force. I originally thought gravity, but on second thought, the electrostatic force seems much more appropriate:
People in any particular niche of society (academia, industry, the arts, etc.) have views of any particular person based on what type of person they perceive him to be. This may have little to do with the person’s actual character; just how it is perceived (think of how all of chemistry is founded on the reactions of the valence shell rather than the nucleus). This can cause an attractive or repulsive force between a person and the niche. The person’s own views and choices also influence this force; so it is, in a way, symmetric.
These are charges. The composition of these charges determines one’s entire reaction in society, and to a large extent, what path an individual takes.
For example, no matter how much I try to learn, I think I must acknowledge that there is a repulsion between myself and academia. I cannot tolerate the nonsense, the bureaucracy, and the intolerance to new ideas, and perhaps they cannot tolerate my propensity for choosing fields that are not “hot”, my wish to devise and stick to a plan with a strict timetable, and what they probably perceive as a lack of flexibility. No matter what I do, I am forced into unpleasant scenarios in academia because of this conflict.
Conversely, I am drawn to industry without making any effort of my own to do so. The job offers streaming in are not a coincidence, nor are they solely attributable to the position of my resume in a search (although that helps), since I’ve also received them on sites such as LinkedIn (and even Facebook and MySpace). They probably perceive intelligence, a good work ethic, and ambition – whether I truly possess these qualities or not is as irrelevant as the nucleus of an atom is to reactions of its valence shell. Since I don’t particularly have any aversion to industry (my charge is neutral?), the overall force is attractive.
The result is that when I had a strong desire to enter academia, it drifted me over to academia, though not swiftly or completely enough to counter the repulsion I met from academia itself. As that desire began to fade, I began to drift away, to be drawn in on the stronger current of industry.
In summary, it seems that my own life, at least, can be described fairly well in terms of such charges.