Here is something else I dislike about standard academic advice: it is all about limiting, cutting, squeezing, evading, fitting in. It is claustrophobic and everything is such a tight fit. What about expanding, using your powers, doing as you see fit, enjoying what you do? This version of how to say no, from the Tenured … More Limit and cut
One thing abusive people often do is find something which is not a problem and try to say it is, or find a small problem and say it is much worse than you realize. Below I give some ridiculous examples of this, but I notice that people try it all the time in more subtle … More Reminder and footnote
So I am still mystified. It seems the main thing people did not learn how to do in graduate school was to write, and that they suffer while writing.What I did not learn in graduate school was how to teach K-12, and I suffer while teaching. There are people who do not suffer while teaching. … More Et encore, encore
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
It was for a while the case that rest did not rest me but now it does because I am in serious resistance against Dat Whiteman, the result of which is that rest really is rest. Ergo: resistance enables rest and does not disturb it. Axé.
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
Before this semester began I was told I could not write a major grant proposal, do major administrative work, and teach five courses. I could have said no to the grant proposal and canceled my seminar, and I could have, although it would have caused major trouble, wormed my way out of the administrative work. … More On “Protecting Time”
You should wear a camel’s hair jacket. At a medium sized meeting two administrators were wearing cheap suits and also chewing gum, even while presenting. Yes, this made them seem like used car salespeople. I looked at one professor because he spoke a few times, and then kept looking because I was trying to analyze … More Convention Wear
I woke up this morning with the answer: the reason I so resent people insisting that research and writing are so hard is that they are bent upon converting creative and intellectual work into drudgery. There are already enough truly tedious tasks in the world and in our jobs, and enough tedious aspects to manuscript … More Ecco
Whom does it benefit to say writing is hard? asks Dame Eleanor Hull. I am not sure but I can hazard that it mystifies writing and discourages people from trying. I, for my part, caught writing difficulty from Reeducation, according to which writing ease was a sign of poor health. Not wishing to suffer the … More A Writing Match
coldhearted scientist وداد 