Hard is the picky work of keeping up with all your (required) course websites, all your e-mail, all your files, all the files and folders in different formats on the computers of which you will likely have more than one.
That is true drudgery and when people say research and writing are the hardest things they do I am assuming they have secretaries and research assistants and graders to do these other things and I feel no pity.
This is my research day, theoretically, but mostly it is a day to manage the pain of exhaustion; in three days this week I spent 36 hours on teaching related activities, including 6 required office hours and 12 hours in class; I also finished writing and turned in a major document. Today I sent off the draft of a minor one, but between that and pain management I have not gotten a lot done.
Still I will have accomplished more this week than some of those who sit and complain about how research and writing are so hard. I still say it is not the intellectual and creative aspects of research which are hard and that if you are not good at those, or are not trained for those, then you should really resign.
Another distasteful characteristic of those who complain about how research and writing are so hard, in my experience, is that these are the weak types generally and they are, I discern, attempting to further spread passivity and weakness. People who would file a grievance over a bagatelle, but never sign a union card, and so on, are the ones lamenting difficulty in the halls while you work, or struggling while you play because you are finished and they are not, since you are competent and they are not.
I am sorry to be so mean about these people but I really resent being instructed to view and present what I find interesting and refreshing as drudgery, and I am fighting back.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 