Pretentious Academic Assholes & The Culture Of “I Am Better Than You.”
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 10 сен 2024
- Buy me a coffee: buymeacoffee.com/r3ciprocity
I talk about pretentious academic assholes and dealing with the culture of I’m better than you.
It’s important to remember that they are likely hurt people and we have to reflect on her own humanity. You need to realize that you don’t have to be. Focus on being a better person and being welcoming to other people around you.
What I saw during/after my PhD studies was that in my department (chemical engineering) the majority of research groups turned out NOBODY who stayed in academia beyond their PhD or initial postdoctoral contract, while there were a small number of groups where the majority of PhD students went on to become postdocs and lecturers aftewards. The people in the 'successfully academic' groups did not have better academic records before starting their PhDs, they had early success in academic research primarily because they had a more effective supervisor and/or their group's research area was a fast-growing one.
I can imagine that for the people who ended up doing their PhDs with a particularly effective supervisor, or in a field that is undergoing rapid growth at that point, this could lead them to believe that they have a real talent for academic research regardless of how academically successful they had been before starting their PhD. That sort of not entirely merited early-career success seems like it can be a recipe for psychological disaster. Like the nerdy adult version of a child actor! Those who had that early career luck but also actual talent and work ethic might tend to progress to become more senior academics, while those who only had luck but no talent will probably stay on the lower rungs of academia forever, constantly grumbling about how difficult academia is and unable to do much about it because they haven't spotted that the reason they were able to get a job in academia in the first place was luck rather than ability.
Go be awesome, don’t worry about those who pull you down.
@@R3ciprocityTeam
You too. I think what I'm getting at is that any particular achievement is a combination of ability (innate and learned), effort and luck, and any particular failure is a result of having less of that combination. Luck is ever-changing, effort is very situational depending on persons interests, as is ability to an extent. Somebody who has been particularly lucky, hardworking and able in one area at a particular time can't count on continuing to be lucky and may struggle to continue to work as hard. And regression to the mean indicates that anybody who is highly able and highly motivated in one area will tend to be less able and less motivated in other areas.
Put these together and you get a situation where somebody who has has early success in a highly competitive field, be it academia, or performing arts, or sport, is likely to find that their subsequent efforts in that field are less successful, their efforts outside of that field are less successful and their long-term achievements pale in comparison to what they were hoping for after their initial early success.
Or to put it more succinctly, being lucky early on might put you ahead, but it also messes with your head. Any time you experience early success, you need to be wary because you probably don't have a clear understanding of how it happened and are likely to struggle to reproduce it.
aint that the truth
I just had a horrible encounter with a prof outside of work who assumed I didn't work at the same institution so he could be a complete jerk. He was super insulting to the point I looked up who the hell he was, only to figure out he is a tenured professor in a different department at my university. I can't imagine working with this man on research if that's how he treats random people. He is supposedly an award winning researcher, but I can't imagine with his attitude his life is all sunshine and rainbows. Anyway, thanks, I needed some validation.
Nice video. It needed to be said. They might be boring and arrogant and I can't say they're my favourite people, but when they look back and feel pain and sadness, their heart is changing and I have sympathy for such people.