This blog is about getting over Reeducation, which had several elements – one of which was the academic advice given advanced graduate students and assistant professors, advice I misunderstood because it didn’t really apply to me. In the same period I had a psychotherapist who, unbeknownst to me, was also an AA sponsor; in AA, … More On Academic Advice
The students are desperate to know if they can pass the course and how much work it will or will not take. What easier work can they substitute for the required work, they ask. The instructors are desperate to teach in as expedient a way as they can. This is so they can avoid considering … More High Stakes
Too tired to sleep, I am musing on the blog but what the random kids at the corner store said was: “Wow! You have cool shoes. Your whole atmosphere — you don’t seem like someone from here!” Why not I asked, and they said, “Because you have so much energy, and such a calm energy!” … More Down on the Corner
Well, second language acquisition isn’t my field, so doing it means preparing something out of field. Any time management expert can tell you that that is a huge distraction from the real work. Then there are the politics around it; the personalities one has to deal with are often very unpleasant. Next, I’m not the … More More on Why I So Dislike Teaching Foreign Languages
I am overworked and I know it is a crime, but that has not been the point of the last two months of posts. My small point is, do not overdramatize because I can show you overwork and this person can show you still more. My larger and real point, and this is an individual’s … More Rainbow Sign
I have spent weeks on this weblog telling some assistant and associate professors with lots of research time and resources to stop trying to discourage the rest of us by telling us we must suffer in solidarity with the suffering they allege to be undergoing due to the challenge of writing, and in case the … More Martin Seligman
The reason life in my main subunit was unstable and underdeveloped in those days was not because it was culturally Mediterranean but because we were a colonized people. If I had time I would study our political culture with dependency theory. I am betting the analysis would be apt, illuminating, and amusing. The subunit was … More A New Use for Dependency Theory
My family will be on the street if I cannot place this manuscript! is the place that primordial research fear comes from and I understand it very well — likely better than you know. Still I want to say that when I started to hear that anti-research drumbeat — you should not be interested in … More Et encore…
I suppose the reason people find research so stressful is that that is what they will be evaluated on. I understand completely. I do not mean to suggest teaching is not valuable. Remember, I even think administration is valuable and in thinking that I truly transgress. I do mean that I am tired of the … More That Research Stress
I think my comments and Clarissa’s on this post are so important that they must be pointed to. The worst academic advice I ever got, and that I got repeatedly from two influential individuals, was that I should go faster and be more superficial. I am already efficient and good at cutting wheat from chaff, … More On Speed and Superficiality
coldhearted scientist وداد 