Once again, I like The Compleat Academic because it is realistic and does not condescend. It does not assume incompetence, and it does not recommend fear. If I were a linguist I would you go through what is mostly said to graduate students and assistant professors and study the vocabulary. It is about how you do not know what you are doing, how rough the real world is, how you do not understand the horrors that await you, how to protect yourself against disaster, and how to avoid certain death by being very careful.
As these words were beaten into me year after year I retreated further and further, like the character in a short story I teach who retreats into an armoire. I like The Compleat Academic because it talks about how to expand and thrive. It does not assume that you are incompetent and need to learn how to simulate competence, or that you have an overinflated sense of your own worth and need to be cut to a reasonable size.
There is something terribly wrong with you and the proof of it is that you cannot see it, say the academic advisors. Do exactly as we say, make no gesture toward originality, and you will at least not be out on the street. I had hoped for more than that in life — not for myself only, but for everyone — and this is why I wanted to leave academia.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 