This is the perspective of a former scholar of the most ancient period of Buddhism (the history, politics, language and literature, including the original philosophy of the Buddha as recorded in Pali) who ultimately made the decision (after many years of hard labor in the field) to simply give up and move on. Believe it or not, the articles I wrote during my years as a scholar of Buddhism are still being read (and are still respected, if not hated and feared) to this day. However, for me, being a Pali scholar turned out NOT to be a career, but merely a single step (if not quite a stride) along the way.