I don't see why the vehemence is warranted; I also don't think the author of the article is "whining". He's just talking about how and why he smokes pot, and how that connects with graduate school in the humanities. It is refreshing to hear something in the mainstream media about someone who smokes pot and isn't an intellectual vacuum. Which part of the article did you think was "whining"?
Your rant about graduate school versus a "real job" also seems like mostly a non sequitur.
You're probably right. If this hadn't made it to #1 so quickly (no fault of OP of course), I may not have even responded at all. But it did, so I did, and I didn't hold any punches.
I just found it ironic that many of us who do good work 80 to 100 hours per week and come here for a break among our peers find a student who needs to resort to drugs to cope (or whatever) with his difficulties at #1.
Without even entering a debate about the pros and cons of drugs in general, I found the essay wimpy and irresponsible. Since I can't vote it down, I shouted it down. No apologies.
I just found it ironic that many of us who do good work 80 to 100 hours per week
You found it "ironic", did you?
and come here for a break among our peers find a student who needs to resort to drugs to cope (or whatever) with his difficulties at #1.
I don't see any evidence in the article that the student "needs" to "resort to drugs" to "cope with his difficulties" -- that seems entirely to be an interpretation you're reading into the article. He chooses to smoke pot, and apparently that annoys you -- fair enough, but your reaction doesn't appear to have much relevance to the substance of the article.
Presumably he wrote the article to discuss the role that pot plays in his life as a graduate student.
What he did not do is "whine" about why he "needs to resort" to smoking pot to "cope with his difficulties" -- the whole "whiny and irresponsible" theme seems absent from the article and is just something you've dreamed up on your own, as far as I can see.
Your rant about graduate school versus a "real job" also seems like mostly a non sequitur.