Nothing Ever Changes

I wrote this post in December.

For the past week, I have been saying "everything is going to be okay."

It will be, no matter what happens.

Graduate school has taught me most intelligent people are confused. They do not know what they want.

Some buy into academia. They buy into what everyone else is doing. The curiosity that got them to graduate school is crushed under the weight of convention. Their ambition to change the world trickles into publishing meaningless papers and getting tenure.

Some waste time. They know academia leads nowhere. But it strokes their curiosity. It allows them to postpone finding what they want for a few years. But eventually they have to get jobs. Their ambition to change the world trickles into working 50 hours a week doing something. It does not matter what as long as it is something.

The whole thing is sad, very sad.