The way you talk matters more than you think. And if you ever did take the time to read the onboarding emails of Edge Academia newsletter when you signed up, you also know that your focus changes your surroundings.
Perception is reality.
How you think, what you talk about, and where you direct your focus all affect what your academia is.
Because perception is reality.
But Houston we do have a problem here.
We spend a lot of time online, don’t we? And every time we log in to social media to feel the pulse of how things are, we are met with a wall of posts…singing the song of the toxic, impossible, nasty nasty world of academia!
Let’s unpack some of this nonsense.
The Rise of the Online Bulls**tfluencer
I admit it.
I don’t really like people farming engagement with weaponised negativity bias. I mean, we all love a hard-hitting meme every now and then. Some quirks of academia deserve to be laughed at, jokingly. In a good spirit. But there’s a way more venomous class of content out there that you must learn to deal with.
An example. I see posts like these go viral every day:
Three things PhD students accept as normal life:
1) Not getting paid for working 16 hours per day
2) Abusive professors stealing all credit
3) Constant anxiety and stress
Life doesn’t have to be that way!
Where do I even start? First of all, nobody, nowhere, ever thinks those things are normal.
But folks even in academia are busy clapping and cheering to these posts.
Why?
Well, first of all, we’re wired that way. Negativity gets a reaction.
But it’s not just that. In social media, followers mean celebrity status. And just because some of these people command tens of thousands of followers, some will think they are right. Unfortunately.
Another example from the past week when when I pointed out that academia can indeed be a great career choice under one of those negative hit pieces.
I was quickly corrected that it can only be so:
- After you get tenure, or
- If you have rich parents so you can just consider it as a hobby
This thinking is irrationally popular. It’s all miserable, always. Everything is the system’s fault. And I bet you’ve seen the first item in that list a few times in your own life, too! But let me ask you, when was the last time the “When I X, then I’ll be happy” formula really worked? It doesn’t.
These are all misinformed beliefs. And sadly some people have chosen to just perpetuate these false beliefs online.
But I don’t blame people. I quite like people, even when they are wrong!
But I do blame nature. And do my best to remember we all have immense untapped power over any and all of this – and most importantly over ourselves.
Now we’re getting somewhere.
Your Brains are Wired Against You
Let’s begin with two important concepts. They explain how we look at things, and doing so they help us understand ourselves better. More importantly, they also enable us to take better control of our futures.
The concepts of Internal and External Locus of Control have been studied and used to explain human behaviour in psychology for over six decades. They are reliable, proven and useful lenses to understand how people just like you or I perceive our ability to make a change.
Make a change where? In our lives or, indeed, our surroundings. In…could it be? Yes, in your entire academic existence!
An *internal* locus of control means you think your own effort and actions affect your outcomes. And as you can probably guess, an *external* locus of control then means you believe that things outside your control determine your outcomes.
Why do these matter?
All those decades of research show that people with a strong internal locus of control tend to be more successful and satisfied with their lives in general. And in academia, the same people get to enjoy better productivity, increased work satisfaction and a bump in their stress management capabilities.
And here is where the folks spreading negative messages about academia end up harming us all. Or, a plot twist, we harm ourselves by consuming and engaging with that content.
Constantly reading negative “news” about academia slowly but surely eats into your sense of control. It decreases your internal locus of control. And we know it’s always easier to blame others than take responsibility for our own situation. Personally, I think this is also currently reinforced by cultural narratives that promote blaming others for just about everything.
So you end up believing the lies.
And then there are something called “ego defense mechanisms” which are psychological shortcuts for your brains to provide temporary relief by attributing problems to others. This helps in the now but in the end just hampers your growth in the future.
If feels good to believe it’s all rigged against you and that there’s nothing that you can (or need) to do now. Just wait and see what happens.
So, internal or external, which way are you?
Of course, you’re not one or the other. It’s a balance. And not everything in your life is entirely up to yourself or external factors. There’s plenty of nuance to all of it, and you should not go all direction-brain when thinking about your locus of control (dropping my favourite meme below to illustrate the point).
The aspects of academia are out of our control…I’ve discussed these at length earlier too: the lab you work at, your colleagues, your PI’s funding situation, your luck… all these things play a role in your ultimate outcomes.
But it’s equally true you have control over a lot of things. Even luck!
On that note, Dr. Richard Wiseman has a great book out there, The Luck Factor. If you have the time, read it. But for convenience, here’s a helpful quote from my very good friend Professor ChatGPT, on how you can positively affect your luck:
- Maximize Your Chance Opportunities: Create, notice, and act upon the chance opportunities in your life. Build and maintain a strong network of relationships, adopt a relaxed attitude towards life, and be open to new experiences.
- Listen to Your Lucky Hunches: Make decisions by listening to your intuition and gut feelings. Hone your intuition through practices like meditation, and actively seek to cultivate and trust your hunches.
- Expect Good Fortune: Have positive expectations about your future, which will help you persist in the face of failure and shape your interactions with others in a positive way. This optimism becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy by motivating you to achieve your goals.
- Turn Bad Luck into Good: Employ strategies to cope with and even benefit from adversity. Don’t dwell on the bad; look for the silver lining, take control of situations, and often imagine how things could have been worse, which helps you appreciate what went right.
So, in the end, the big challenge is to figure out what is something you can control and what is something you cannot control.
And then attack.
Do something about the things you can do something about.
How to Take Back Control
- Start feeding your brain better ideas. Instead of entertaining social media posts that paint academia as a hopeless pursuit, look up to people you admire in academia, think about their success stories and how the same is available for you too, and seek for their constructive advice
- Examine any and all aspects of your academic life that you can change through your own efforts. This is a tough thing to do, and often equally inconvenient too. Nobody wants to look back and realise many of the past failures could have been avoided by doing things differently. And these are not just things like accepted papers (where indeed there are forces beyond our control included.) But think about things like networking efforts or even time management skills. What could you do with better ways to manage your time?
- Practice better attribution. Of course, do recognize the role of luck. But also recognize your role in both successes and failures. When you succeed, always take a not of your part in it: all the work and preparation you did. But when you fail, analyze what you could have done differently instead of blaming external factors. If you just attribute everything to external factors, chances are you will do nothing differently next time. And guess where that leads? Yeah.
- Remember self-reflection. I feel like I end up writing about this every week. Just journal about your experiences, challenges, and your own actions and their roles in the output. It’s the best way to develop self-awareness and understanding the terrain you operate in. Ask yourself questions like “How did my actions contribute to this outcome” is such a great way to start seeing academia for what it is.
- Bonus item: follow the money. I’ll share a secret hiding in plain sight. 90% of the posts continually complaining about everything in academia are by people selling coaching or courses about leaving academia. It’s in their best interests to make academia look like Mordor from The Lord of the Rings. Doing your due diligence is a real eye-opener here. They’re doing their best for you to leave. No hypocrisy though, I’m doing my best for you to stay.
Perception is Reality
Just remember, what you think is true is what is true.
Perception. Is. Reality.
What you say, you’ll believe. If you play their games, you’ll accept their picture of the universe around you. My universe brought me this just yesterday. Let me share:
Even jokes hurt, especially if you keep reading them daily. Your body doesn’t know the difference.
Start developing that internal locus of control and focusing on what you can change. You’ll not only elevate your on game but you’ll help contribute to a more healthy academia for all of us.
And avoid toxic social media influencers. Or if you find it in you, join me in spreading the positive message! I think it’s my moral duty to help academia attract the best people out there. Last time I checked, it’s not a great strategy to just dwell in the mud and tell people it’s all horrible.