Peter Higgs: I wouldn't be productive enough for today's academic system (2013)
When I was first exposed to the research &quot;environment&quot; during my Diplom studies (undergraduate - graduate, early to mid 90ies), I immediately recognised that if you actually love research and knowledge, academia was the last thing you ever want to get into.  No surer way to kill the spark.<p>Now that I&#x27;ve gone back to do my PhD, the only reason I can do something I consider meaningful is because I am not a regular PhD student.  Interestingly, that&#x27;s also the feedback I get, though as &quot;helpful&quot; advice that while what I am doing may be both good and important, it is unlikely to lead to success in academia.  With the implication that I should stop doing it and concentrate on something more reasonable.  Fortunately, I am not particularly interested in success in modern academia, so I get to do something I consider both good and important.<p>A related issue is that there really is no such thing as a senior researcher.  Instead, professors are turned into research managers, responsible for helping their charges&#x27; careers, who then also turn into research managers.  Actual research appears to be mostly a still not entirely avoidable side-effect.  (And this seems similar to the way the only real way to advancement in industry is to switch to management, all dual-track equivalence rhetoric aside).