When I moved to Cambridge a dozen years ago, people asked why I wanted to leave Sheffield which was and is such a good department. “But aren’t the attractions of Cambridge obvious?”, I’d reply, “it’s more work, less money, and astronomical house prices.” (There’s an explanation, then, for the noted tendency of Cambridge to appoint people who already have strong Cambridge connections: we are the ones daft enough to want to take the deal!)
The Bertrand Russell Professorship of Philosophy has now been advertised. The title is now wonderful: but as to the work/money/living costs … well, it will be very interesting to see who is still susceptible to the other inestimable attractions of Cambridge.
“it’s more work, less money, and astronomical house prices.”
Many years ago, I had a friend who was teaching mathematics at the University of Miami. After a few years, he got an offer from Rice, a far more active department, and he took a substantial pay cut when he accepted. Then came the offer from Princeton, the world center of topology, which entailed another substantial pay cut. My friend says that this was when he invented the expression: “If you’re so smart, how come *you’re* not poor?”