ThinkingAboutTheThinkable

Driving in to work this morning, I realized that because of or despite my "rotten teachers" I have been  inspired by their model , learned a great deal along the way, and somehow from reading and textbooks and homework did get an education. Still, it would be nice if more of them were terrific. I should note that  I have made just about every mistake I describe , usually more than once, fully aware of what I was doing. Being told, "Martin, Martin, What are you doing?" seems not to have been effective. You will encounter the  Dumbassador from the Republic of Stupidistan . The Dumbassador is confident in his purpose and judgment, but in fact will destroy your whole operation. I encountered the term in a spy novel, describing Chiefs of Station in the CIA who inadvertantly destroy their operations while believe that their tradecraft was exemplary. They are moved from one country to another, there being no way to just relieve them of their duties. It's worse

Practice  your talk , make sure it is shorter than the allowed time, even 45 mins for a one hour talk. If you have issues in projecting your voice, or your English is not so strong, use a microphone, talk slowly, and make clear in the first three minutes the nature of your contribution. Have a handout, maybe one page,both sides, with an outline of your talk, and crucial information, that you can give to all the attendees. Be sure it has your name, email, etc. You will want to be flexible about  what you might teach , but what is crucial is that you have time to continue your research and writing. Whatever you have produced in your dissertation research should be going out to journals by the first 6 months or so of your new job, at least some of it. And as you polish off your dissertation, write yourself a memo about what you would really want to do next. And do it! In all departments,  there will be faculty who are difficult.  Be gracious, respond to their concerns, treat their obst

I know a number of scholars who have young children, and by young I mean under 5 or 6. If they are women, they are likely to bear the major responsibility for bringing up their babies--this is conventional, and a man might well take on that role, but rarely does. Those women have vigorous careers and they are particularly strained. They may well feel something akin to guilt since they are away from the infants and toddlers much of the day, come home somewhat tired, and...  They may have helpful spouses, but that is not guaranteed. So, realize you are not alone among your colleagues, in your generation. You will need to get extra help, so you have time off on weekends to recharge, and help in the evening. Your children will grow up fine, knowing you love them. That's not the problem. As for men, if you are not the sole parent: Even if your spouse is actually staying at home with the babies, you want to take over as much as you can. At least one day each weekend, and several we

Your family and their health, and yours, are primary. But after that, your work is your saving grace. It gives a focus to your life that allows you to resist the viscosity set up by the bureaucratic demands in a University, your students (you are their teacher, not likely their friend), and all the things you ought to get to. Few of us are fortunate enough to have work that is so compelling, in itself, that it drives us. It is so deep, so connected to our inner being, we are driven to it. So you need to promise to give papers, to keep granting agencies happy, to do all the academic stuff that allows the world into your world. Most advances in most fields depend on the efforts of the scholars in the field, and not only on the leading 2% of them. So it is not an insult to discover that you are not so compelled as you are professional and responsible. For that 2%, what the university must do is to make sure they can do their work.

In some fields of scholarship and research, "smart" people are given special status. Whatever "smart" means, those persons would seem to be offscale. Now, of course, one might ask if their achievements reflect that judgment, or whether their being smart is what you want in leadership or in making crucial decisions. We are told by psychologists that cognitive capacity declines with age, albeit that capacity may have a wide distribution at any single age, and is surely influenced by the environment and history. There is a tradition that suggests that decisionmaking is connected to cognitive capacity, although it is realized that experience and judgment may dominate, and be appropriately dominating, over cognitive capacity. The sociologists of science suggest that productivity and inventiveness of scientists, say, seems not be be a matter of age, at least until they are, say, above 70.  They may choose different problems as they mature, and one is usually speaking

I have fond memories of my undergraduate and graduate education. As I was driving home this afternoon, I realized that those memories had edited out the rotten teaching I was exposed to: The general education curriculum, which surely had terrific instructors among its staff, but by misfortune I was exposed to poor teachers, inexperienced teachers, teachers who were well past their prime, and teachers who could not teach much. I was fortunate to have two terrific teachers for social and political theory. In my major, and in graduate school, many of the teachers were teaching by rote from their old notes, they had not thought much about the subject matter in years, and in fact their approach was outdated. Again, there were some terrific teachers, but the droopy ones dominated. And my major department was as strong as any in the world in its fields of specialization. [What happens is that there are some mistaken tenurings, and those people end up teaching crucial courses. And the mos

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Dumbassadors from the Republic of Stupidistan The title comes from Matthews, Palace of Treason. What we discover again and again is that within any bureaucracy there are many such dumbassadors from the Republic of Stupidistan (DRS), usually totally ignorant of their idiocies and the wake of disasters they leave behind them. Often, they act as if whatever it is that they do is justified by law, by due process, by..., yet they leave behind dead bodies. Those dead bodies resurrect themselves, and in time, and in their own way, will revenge themselves of the DRS, leaving no fingerprints, no sign that the DRS has been royally screwed rather than some things just happened. The trick is to avoid getting into arguments with DRSs, never responding to their smelly turds left in the middle of the spotless lawn. Rather, it is much better to wait until an appropriate time, and in effect expel the DRS from your country, that is, they are persona non grata  by the necessities of the moment, what