Awesome post. I -- along with many of my colleagues from grad school -- have had pretty similar experiences with academia (minus the outlook for a promising academic career ;) ). This sort of thing (very smart people abandoning academia) is going to continue to happen unless academia figures out a way to make itself more relevant.
academic |ˌakəˈdemik|
adjective
2 not of practical relevance; of only theoretical interest : the debate has been largely academic.
My experience in academia thus far: for every five smart people abandoning academia for industry, one truly brilliant person remains behind. That's all that is required for the model to sustain. (And even then, there are not enough academic jobs to go around.)
academic |ˌakəˈdemik| adjective
2 not of practical relevance; of only theoretical interest : the debate has been largely academic.