Succeed at what?
at holding on for another year?
It's not to be laughed at.
You're in free-fall in the atmosphere and it's a matter of not landing too hard.
So you're crafty, you stall.

    So, this slowdown, due to an institutional void, which is the opposite of the feverishness experienced by a teacher anxious to cover coursework in a limited time, creates or presupposes a soft and gentle "tempo."

    -- J. F. Lyotard, "Endurance and the Profession"
Rita Raley / UC Santa Barbara