Scene: Christmas party. Person: So what are you doing for Christmas, Z? Graduate Student Zero: The main event is, go to the MLA. Professor for whom I am a Research Assistant [overhearing]: That is a bad idea. You have not filed your dissertation. You will have no interviews. Graduate Student Zero: I have seven. Do … More Further Examples of Poor Advice
When did they first know they would teach, people ask; others, how did you choose your major? I, as we know, point out that for various reasons having to do with the realities of professions I might do well to have another, and that I know what that would be; I have noted before that … More When Did You Know Your Subject?
I would say you have to commit to whatever you do, from mowing to centering clay to swimming to shore or rowing to the end of the lake; people know this. Committing to do your best – not the best, but your present best – is, in my experience, also the most expedient way of … More On Commitment
I really feel like sending a memo to my department chair but (a) this is Saturday, (b) it has not been solicited, and (c) everyone else has apparently written related memos this week and I doubt one more, no matter how good, true, or beautiful, would be helpful. So I will publish the main points … More Comme Undine
So I have only written thirty words today and I am knocking off to prepare my seminar for Tuesday. But I realized that in all this discussion of work I had not considered what anniversaries other than the obvious we might be commemorating this fall. My life has been more interesting and more pleasant than many … More 30
Can you please explain the advantages of bibliography managers, spreadsheets, and so on to people who are good typists and know how to use calculators? While I was learning (x)html and so on, everyone seems to have started using programs like Excel and JabRef, and I do not yet understand why. I understand what these … More Question
The pictures in that video would have looked exotic to me at one time but they no longer do, as such scenes can still be seen. Someone else says: I’m tired of the confidence, the guys who act as if the wind is at their backs, all of which cloaks the true effort involved. Let’s … More Ain’t It Hard
Addendum, Part A: I regularly get people into good PhD programs in my field and many of them, as well as those whose dissertations I directed or was on, now hold good jobs and high ranks. My advising question, below and now in red, has to do with the social sciences. I am still soliciting … More Further Anti-Advice to New Faculty, and an Advising Question, Revised
I had written about three more paragraphs of vitriol, about my irritation with entitled beings, but I erased them inadvertently and cannot reconstruct. I feel horrible because of teaching 5 classes and doing other work too, it is grueling, and I do not have good habits at this time (as in, always going to the … More 937
I do not know how many times I have given advice to new faculty, or been given advice, so I have numbered this with a series of functions and variables. I am rebelling by giving anti-advice, as there are so many faculty proffering the kind of advice one gets in graduate school. I dislike re-hearing … More Advice to New Faculty, Version (f)xne
coldhearted scientist وداد 