Being a good manager means managing people. Dealing with people is easier when you have strong people skills. Conversely, if you put someone who has a toxic personality in charge of an organization, you might destroy the organization.
Again, I'm not saying anything about his talent, because it's impossible to know without hearing all sides, which I seriously doubt will happen. I'm saying that the article, his opinions, his actions, and from what his version of events are, is sending signals that he cannot get along with his superiors / peers in a way that is mutually constructive and beneficial.
Honestly, industry might be better for him, if he can find a benefactor willing to finance his research. But academia is petty and political, and from what I'm reading, his odds don't look good.
> But academia is petty and political, and from what I'm reading, his odds don't look good.
Yes, he should recalibrate his ideas of why he wanted to work in academia.
Today if you want to get ahead you need a patron and some people who know enough to bounce ideas off them.
I think it increasingly the case that universities are the worst place to send a real intellectual. Some of the most useless people in the world are respected here.
I've been to one, I'll say what I think. I think most university people are posers. Completely unfit. Institutionalized.
Then they are requested to perform. And they cannot. They like are those plants specialized to perform only in a certain Alpine microclimate.
Result: psychological sickness and poor pay. Employers don't know what to do with these people. And society insists on manufacturing more of them. It's a sick system, and it is best to get out while you're still honest.
Again, I'm not saying anything about his talent, because it's impossible to know without hearing all sides, which I seriously doubt will happen. I'm saying that the article, his opinions, his actions, and from what his version of events are, is sending signals that he cannot get along with his superiors / peers in a way that is mutually constructive and beneficial.
Honestly, industry might be better for him, if he can find a benefactor willing to finance his research. But academia is petty and political, and from what I'm reading, his odds don't look good.