I generally stay out of these discussions because I won the lottery, but why would you tell peope not to do something they enjoy just because they might not make a living at it? don’t learn to play the violin, don’t play football, etc because your chances of going pro are small https://twitter.com/victorianpopfic/status/1379878233924075528

just be real about it—you may never get the opportunity you deserve. just like there are only so many jobs for professional violinists, there are only so many jobs for PhDs. if you don’t love it enough to do it , to spend the years studying things you love, then don’t

there are much easier jobs and much easier, better renumerated jobs out there than academia. If what you want is just a job, and not the time to spend focussing on your passions, then invest instead finding a job you like.

if you legit hate your PhD program, I suspect you won’t like being faculty either—seriously get out! finishing is not required. you have one life and it is too short to spend time doing stuff you hate.

people giving dance lessons with chubby lil ballerinas likely dreamed of dancing on Broadway, and it didn’t happen for whatever reasons. maybe they wasted all those hours practicing because they didn’t win the lottery...or maybe they did what they loved and that was enough.