ninjaboy

> Have you ever tried to modify ikea furniture? It's a nightmare. And we are professional carpenters. Imagine the pain this must be for mere hobbyists.

It actually turns out that Matt Might got tenure through the research lab model: he's got a group of post-docs that manage a group of graduate students that sometimes oversee undergraduates. When you have a team of 15 people publishing papers with your name on them, only managing the top 3-4, then you'll have the publication record and time to write grants to bring in money and thus make tenure.

This isn't even uncommon in today's academic environment: many of the most successful professors run these business-structured research labs, producing amazing results they oversaw the people overseeing. I think it's a lousy way to treat academia, but hey, it gets you tenure.