Beyond the Cult of Productivity - How to survive and thrive in a cut-throat academic environment

This lecture is a part of my "Surviving and Thriving in Academia" workshop, that comes in various formats, from two 2h-discussion sessions to a whole two-day retreat event (see https://www.johannesjaeger.eu for details and contact information). This lecture analyzes the current state of the academic research system, and how it fails to cater to the needs to both researchers and the process of inquiry in general. It identifies three major issues: 1. the cult of productivity 2. the tyranny of metrics 3. a misguided notion of accountability that hamper the long-term aim of basic science to generate deeper insights into the world we live in and our place within in. I suggest a number of possible remedies at the community-scale, but mainly provide some philosophical tools that allow early-career researchers to cope a situation they are unlikely to be able to change in the short run. These include the distinction between finite games and infinite play, the metaphor of evolutionary niche construction, and the notion of game change (rather than denials or acceptance). Further reading: - democratizing (citizen) science: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsos.231100. - self-censorship and the cult of productivity: http://www.johannesjaeger.eu/blog/self-censorship-and-the-cult-of-productivity-in-academic-research