I have found out why a really successful person, professor and chair and also endowed chair in field, now working in construction, quit academia: “Any life would be preferable, including life under a bridge.”
I was shocked that this person felt that way, and it was pointed out to me that if it was a sign of unhappiness, it was also a sign of mental health: he knew what he needed, and had the strength to get it done — regardless of all the exhortations not to ruin a brilliant career.
Still I think there is something wrong, if someone that committed could be made unhappy enough to give it all up, just like that. Perhaps the difference between him and me is that he had done all he needed to do, I do not know.
#OccupyHE.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
Don’t know. I never got the chance to be an academic, which would have been my preferred profession. I could have handled it fine.
Maybe he did not like the politics, but politics are meat and drink to me.
Yes, I suppose that is part of it. There are other things I don’t like but I can handle the politics.