It is not time management, y’all, or management of priorities, or of tasks, these are the things many of us learned even before serious school started. It is energy management and again, I am not talking about time or priorities or effort. I will explain. Axé.
Colleague, by telephone: You must help me, as I am terrified. I am painted into a corner, it is not easy to move from here and I cannot afford to move soon. I need to make tenure, really need it. Yet conditions are such that one cannot work to it. And I have found I … More Pelo Telefone, sung by Bahiano (1916)
Colleague: Only you did not lie to me or misrepresent anything at my interview. Z: None of us lied, or intended to misrepresent anything. It is only that I know what it is like where you are from, and also where you studied, and I am not from here either, although I have been here … More Coda on advice and its sources II
I keep insisting, and I am sure I am right, that you in fact learned how to do academic work if you have a degree from anything like a reputable institution, and that you got it from the program itself. Where else do you get advice? This is the submerged question, since much of the … More Coda on advice and its sources I
The right to desire to aspire to feel inspired is a human right I am surely the first to articulate, but that I have not invented since it is eternal. These are the main pieces of academic advice I have received: – Do not think you will get a job – Obey to get tenure – … More Coda on the right to desire to aspire to feel inspired
Z: Did you enjoy Madison? Person from Houston: Yes, but it was really hard. Z: How so? Is it really as cutthroat as one sometimes hears? Person from Houston: No. It was that I had to learn how not to defer to men. You are not expected to do that there, and doing it does … More Another dialogue, another fact
Person: This is like being in Mexico in the 1820s. Z (laughs): Perhaps it is really about 1830 (if this is Mexico). There has been a post-Independence civil struggle. Only the winning leaders were not killed. Of the peons and civilians, I am the only one left standing, although I am wounded. All the other … More A dialogue, and one fact
This went medium well. I am glad I was as prepared as I was, down to the last drop. What I want to say is that as I train myself to be as obsequious as is considered meet, I train myself out of the authority to finish any writing project, too. I first noticed this … More Event, part 1
“Sandinista” is the word they used to use here for people who wanted progress and disagreed with the old President. One could not afford to voice such disagreement but “Sandinistas” could be identified if one looked closely. They would flash covert signs of comprehension. As you will remember, sandinistas were clandestine. I learned from the … More “Sandinista”
That was Shenandoah, whose smiling valley I long to see. Now, as promised, we will talk briefly about this piece, by a valuable person but one more conservative than I. 1/- My general complaint about all columns like this is that people keep explaining how to write and exhorting to move “anywhere,” but evade the … More Shenandoah
coldhearted scientist وداد 