I love academia more than anybody else I know. But I would have been just as happy in absolutely any other profession that I chose. If I decided to be a janitor, then that would be the best profession in the world. I could easily quit academia and not perceive it as tragic or write any of those sad quit-lit missives. The source of professional contentment resides in me and not in any specific profession.
P.S. I’m talking about being happy in any profession, not in any working conditions. Working conditions, of course, can be objectively bad.
Clarissa's Blog 
Years ago we had a lady work in the copy room. I loved interacting with her because she took genuine pride in her work and was always upbeat. The copy room and supplies were well organized, she took training of the folks to use the machines very seriously, and she made sure that everything ran like a Swiss watch.
Another faculty member remarked once that the copy room lady was being overzealous and attempted to make fun of her in front of me. I would have none of it; I said it’s wonderful when someone takes pride in their work and does it well, and especially so when the work is not highly paid or highly respected. That woman was a great addition to our department (she’s now retired) and deserved all our respect for how she approached her job.
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\ I’m talking about being happy in any profession
In any profession OR in any profession you have chosen? There is a huge difference between the two and quite a few people, unfortunately, don’t have many choices if there is high unemployment and/or they lack relevant education.
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I wasn’t born with an education 🙂 and started my professional life amidst 1500% inflation and overwhelming unemployment. And I was always professionally fulfilled. I’m not a fatalist and don’t subscribe to the idea that human beings are passive toys of cruel fate.
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So, if you would have to be a prostitute, you would try to become the best prostitute in the world.
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Prostitution is a result of severe psychological trauma. I’d try to get cured.
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So, unemployment is invented by poors to stay poor and there’s no discrimination against Aspergers in the work market…yeah right!
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In the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), published in May 2013 by the American Psychiatric Association , Asperger syndrome (AS) was removed as a separate diagnosis and folded into autism spectrum disorder.
The change was controversial, and Aspergers wasn’t removed from the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) International Classification of Diseases (version 10.)
WHO defines Asperger syndrome as one of the autism spectrum disorders (ASD) or pervasive developmental disorders (PDD), which are a spectrum of psychological conditions that are characterized by abnormalities of social interaction and communication that pervade the individual’s functioning, and by restricted and repetitive interests and behavior.
The last several additions of the American Psychiatric Association’s DSM-version X have been plagued by diagnostic changes based less on medial data than on political pressure from external, distinctly non-clinical sources.
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These are very strange ideas.
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