I don&#x27;t think this is specific to philosophy, or even to academia in general. Trying to get tenure isn&#x27;t all that different from trying to get rich, famous, powerful, or so on.<p>If you see tenure (or any of those other things) as a goal in itself rather than the product of doing meaningful work and living a purposeful life, then you may have just climbed to the top of the ladder and realized that it was against the wrong wall.