You'd think he found a great job. These people obviously need him, right? They'll be thrilled as he ups their productivity tenfold.

But professors -- excuse me, Doctors (they usually hate the teaching part of their job, which is why they turn everything but the credit over to a senior student) -- are a strange breed. When you get your PhD, at that moment you know more than anyone else in the world about one tiny probably meaningless subject that is narrower than a straight pin. This naturally generalizes to knowing more than anyone else in the world about everything else. In particular, you certainly know more than anyone else about writing software.

So I can see leaving because the professors were, well, acting like professors.

dkf:

Jack:

In academia, you can make a career of nothing but hubris, because the taxpayers are an unlimited trough that can be drained forever.

Only if you have tenure, and not all tenured positions are paid for by government; private largesse can lead to professors that are equally disconnected from reality. It's knowing that no matter how bad you are you'll still have a job that leads to the WTF flowering. (Well, assuming you avoid doing things that embarrass the Dean personally.)

Other than the fact that tenured professors have to go up for review every five years to retain it, you're right!

I am considering a position in academia, and was shocked at what it really is (still considering though). Just to let you know, the following is the academic path:
1 - BS, MS, PhD (generally, work like hell, publish or perish, 40 hrs/week for the BS, 60 hrs/week for the PhD)
2 - PostDoc (work like hell, prove you can publish really good things, 60 hrs/week)
3 - Tenure Track (work 60+ hour weeks between Teaching/Service/Research)
4 - The golden Tenure (after minimum 8 years of degree, 2 years of postdoc'ing, and 6 years of tenure track, you age 34, minimum, having spent almost half of your 18-55 working 'career')

Note that "tenure" does not mean "research funding", you have to get that yourself through proposal/grant writing. Also note that tenure only applies to the university where you get it. If you have to move, you may have to start all over again. If that weren't enough, you go up for "Tenure Review" to see if you keep it every 5 years for about the next 20 years, when you get Full Professorship (age 50ish). Also note that even Full Professors work 50-55 hours weeks.

For anyone that thinks that professors are a drain on the taxpayer, please consider:
1 - they are paid virtually nothing during the PhD process (20K/year for only the last MS/PhD portion of the degree)
2 - postdocs pay 60K/year around here (compare this to a SW developer with 5 years experience, who makes 80K)
3 - they have to find money to fund their activities (grants/contracts)
4 - between 30-50% of their time spent working is unpaid
5 - true tenure protection (no further tenure review) is not available until near retirement

Professors are frequently disconnected from the 'business' world (where you have to sell products to make money), but frequently are a bargain for the taxpayer. They have exceptional expertise, available at discounted rates. They frequently negotiate payments poorly, as a byproduct of do doing it infrequently. The delegate work to grad students (who are even more of a bargain). Poor professors (or ones who work <50 hours/week) are replaced with younger/hungrier ones.