Self-esteem: por los suelos. Pressure, of every kind: high. Fatigue: extreme. Immediate Reason: the language program. I am so tired from it, and so traumatized from the language teaching wars. The trauma would end if we had a program with goals and policies, and if it were coherent and feasible and we all actually followed … More Today’s weather
NO. DON’T. Look at other kinds of research, writing, and speaking jobs. I wanted to use the PhD to work for UNESCO but got swept up in other peoples’ dreams for me. Then I wanted to go into law and was told I was betraying other peoples’ dreams for themselves and me, and had no … More “Take a job, any job”
As we know, the emotional pain I suffer is largely due to the sometimes real, but also perceived imperative to be someone other than who I am, and moreover to enjoy that, in order to survive (or get paid). Not merely pretend to be someone else or pretend to enjoy it, but to actually transform … More Bateson
I have been having a crisis all day and should have taken the day off to rest, actually, since this is fatigue driven. (I have not been practicing the right kind of mental health hygiene, which involves having enough sleep, exercise, and meditation time, in some weeks.) But if it is true as we have … More Alguma coisa percebo
“Bateson is undoubtedly correct in believing that the effects of the double bind on the child are particularly devastating. All the grown-up voices around him, beginning with those of the father and mother (voices which, in our society at least, speak for the culture with the force of established authority) exclaim in a variety of … More Girard
It is all well and fine to tell students to read up to a certain point and then write, but that advice when given me has always been given as a way to get me to stop working or to invalidate work done. That is why I so resent it, and this resentment is my … More Dream-ritual for Mictlantecuhtli
It is harder to write when you have not yet read enough than it is when you have. It must be yet harder to write if you have not done much research at all. And it is hard to publish pieces which are poorly researched. Telling people to stop reading and write, makes writing harder … More Another illumination on the standard advice
We were all accused, and accused ourselves so much of arrogance but really it was only that we had other professional obligations. Those of us who said we had not been trained to work at colleges or community colleges and other non research entities were not “being arrogant” but merely stating facts. I have no … More “I have other professional obligations,” or, on “arrogance”
What they say — “apply to everything, be willing to go anywhere,” — is utterly wrong. You should apply in this order: R1, R2, D1, nothing below that and nothing that is not a university. What they say — “R1 institutions are the hardest ones to get tenure at,” is utterly wrong. They are the … More Advice to graduate students
The meaning of it is that a majority of the country is more rational than not and also does not want to take on a truly nasty tone. This is why it is important that Obama won. If, as I do, you live in a state where people are willing to say directly, they will … More The meaning of the election
