Preventing the Future?

The classic question in any time machine kind of movie is at what point do you go back into the past to change the future?  Well, this article asks a similar type of question: when should you tell someone not to pursue a PhD?  Of course, my answer is: June 6, 2010.  Ok, my answer is when students ask me for letters of recommendation.  I tell them how perilous the course is now for an academic career (or for one in law, since that is where many of the letters go).  They listen but do not hear, or hear but do not listen (I forget which).  And so they go on to be the next generation of frustrated folks seeking a job that may not exist, at least not in the form they hoped.

 Venn from Huffington Post's wonderful collection.