# Career and Tenure Advice Through the Experience of Raising a Child with a Rare Genetic Disease

DevFeed: [Career and Tenure Advice Through the Experience of Raising a Child with a Rare Genetic Disease](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/howto-get-tenure-35241.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<http://matt.might.net/articles/tenure/>)

Published: 2015-08-18T16:33:03Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Matt Might](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/matt-might.md>)

Topics: [Computer science](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/computer-science.md>)

Tags: [academic](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/academic.md>), [advice](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/advice.md>), [career](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/career.md>), [computer](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/computer.md>), [howto](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/howto.md>)

## AI overview

The article discusses academic tenure and career advice through the author's experience as a computer science professor raising a child who was diagnosed with NGLY1 deficiency. It describes how the family helped identify the rare genetic disease, found other patients online, and became involved in biological and medical research.

## Source excerpt

Even before I got tenure, folks have told me they're "looking forward to an academic advice post on tenure." From how to get a Ph.D. to monthly resolutions for grad students, I've found it easy to write academic posts on just about every topic. Except this one. I got tenure over a year ago, yet every time I tried to sum up my views on tenure, I froze. Every path to tenure is inherently unique and non-repeatable. How could I possibly provide general advice? Plus, I wouldn't wish an exact repeat of the last seven years of my life on even Reviewer Number 3 - for reasons that will soon be obvious. And then, while walking to work in Boston on a recent summer morning, a question on Quora gut-punched me without warning: How can I minimize my chances of having a disabled child? I don't want an autistic or Downs child, for example. I am planning on having a strong career in computer science or medicine, and I want to marry someone who is doing the same and have kids some day, but I'm terrified that they'll be severely disabled, and my wife won't agree to abort the fetus. I (maybe naively) believe in love, so I wouldn't necessarily be able to leave my wife if I truly loved her and she refused to abort. Note that this is purely hypothetical. I am only 16 years old at the moment, but I have thought about this a lot. This question burrowed deep into my consciousness, a parasite sapping my ability to think about anything else. When I got to my office, the raw response below ejected out of my brain through my fingertips. And, in the course of answering, I ended up giving general advice on tenure. I've distilled specific thoughts on my experience with tenure below as well. Click here to read the rest of the article