As we know, the things I dislike about academic advice is that it always involves going faster and faster, to do more and more. Do this for 15 minutes! Then go on to do another thing for 15 minutes! Switch ever faster from one task to the next! Never polish anything to completion, just call it finished!
What you are supposed to procrastinate on is thinking your own thoughts or producing any work you’d actually be proud to sign. None of that is of interest, you are only to rush, rush, rush, and produce, produce, produce, because you need to move up and you must take evenings and weekends off…and I supposed, retire early.
What has always struck me about this is how academic work is treated as this unpleasant drudgery you must force yourself into and manage. Now, I realize: people hate their jobs, or at best, don’t care about them. (I’ve wondered why they move thousands of miles to take jobs they don’t care about, but I’ve figured out they didn’t care about the place they came from, either, they don’t care about anything).
This explains a lot. They hate their jobs. That is why the advice they give is so negative. This is the book I liked back then, and it isn’t negative or condescending at all. It doesn’t assume you have never written anything, or don’t know how, or hate writing, either.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 