the main thing you learn as you go further through certain streams of academia is how fine the line dividing you and the People Who Know Things actually is, and this is especially true once you start engaging or working with academic publishing or being friends with people doing different parts of that process, which is where working in academia-adjacent jobs can fast track you without having to be an academic yourself
i've hit the age now where my friends who are younger than me are EDITING the academic volumes. not even CONTRIBUTING to them. talk about seeing how the sausage is made












