The university is a very simple place. I never realized it even in my bachelor’s program back home. People discuss what is it, why is it and how it should be theoretically, and don’t worry too much about the practicality of these theories. They are not supposed to be practical. That’s the point. The world outside of the academia is where these theories get to be practiced, and they are always compromised, so the art of practicality is how to compromise, and what to compromise.
People rarely judge compromises in the executive world. They judge mostly what that execution achieves, either as regards to influence or competitiveness. They don’t really do value judgement on each procedures, but the final result is still under evaluation of such. The academia is another situation: people are careful to make good and right decisions on each process, but the final output is not very much judged whether they are significant or not.
I prefer the second one, of course. But I have to admit that I oftentimes find myself using some philosophies I learned from the world of execution, because I don’t want to end up building a triviality. I learned so much from it, but the academia is the place to teach me the principles of compromise. I have some hunch about it, but now I can understand it in a more rigorous way.
Some compromises are better than others. And without compromise, one cannot really achieve anything, not even a theoretical endeavour. To craft a theory is also an execution, and it needs everything one needs for casting an iron ax. The most important features of an ax to an axe-wielder is often the handle and and the kind of force it applies to its objects, and for a theory too. But an ironsmith needs to execute all the details with equal attention to make possible the user face and the function. For a theorist, they need to do all the heavy-lifting work too, proving, testing, reviewing, in order to produce some short and elegant concepts that are tenable or even useful.
Retreating to academia (not the best verb, but I often feel this way) makes a bit more hesitant in doing things. I started this habit of hoping to craft it closer to perfection and the consequence is that I expand myself too much and cannot easily finish any project. Expansion is easier than the execution of one section, because the details are not exciting and sometimes frustrating. But expansion is necessary, too. Without it, the execution of one section could be unstable because it overlooks its position in the big picture.