As a graduate student myself (and an avid reader of /r/GradSchool) I know that grad students who consider leaving academia are a common thing. And there are more than enough reasons why it makes sense. But why?I recently read about an interesting attempt to systematically investigate the reasons of (young) academics who already left or were considering leaving academia. You can find the summary in a blog post here. Briefly, parting academics are not happy about the work-life balance, difficulty of acquiring funding, and a lack of incentives. Even if tweeple couldn't agree if these findings were surprising, it doesn't change the fact that the reasons are out there and the precarious situation for academics in non-tenure positions is real.Before I stop writing about the why, I just want to share a gem of a tweet that perfectly depicts the reality & tristesse of academic life.