I don't enjoy faculty meetings.
I don't enjoy giving final grades.
I don't enjoy failing students.
I don't enjoy reporting suspected cases of cheating.
I don't enjoy setting up my laptop for class.
I don't enjoy refereeing.
I don't enjoy being an editor.
I don't enjoy writing recommendation letters.
I don't enjoy revising papers.
I don't enjoy flying.
I don't enjoy chain hotels.
I don't enjoy committees.
I don't enjoy being hopelessly stuck on a research problem.
I don't enjoy failure.
I don't enjoy being stuck on some notation as I read a paper.
I don't enjoy being behind in my work.
I don't enjoy not doing what I'm supposed to be doing.
I don't enjoy working in the evening.
I don't enjoy most seminars.
I don't enjoy email.
I don't enjoy criticism.
I don't enjoy the lack of tangible impact of my work.
I don't enjoy working indoors.
I don't enjoy writing introductions.
I don't enjoy having a paper rejected.
I don't enjoy deadlines.
I don't enjoy having my research community scattered around the world.
I don't enjoy decisions by consensus.
"I don't enjoy the lack of tangible impact of my work."
ReplyDeleteSo what kind of impact would you consider tangible?
So why are you a professor? (Seriously, I'm trying to figure it out myself also.)
ReplyDelete"I don't enjoy working indoors."
ReplyDeleteTrue story. A professor hired a builder to do work on his house.
Builder: "what do you do?"
Professor: "I'm a professor."
Builder: "When you work, do you have a roof above you?"
Professor: "Yes."
Builder: "Then you are lucky."
My take. (split it 2 parts, too long)
ReplyDelete* I don't enjoy faculty meetings.
Here we've made the CS meetings over Friday lunch, so they're not so bad. (We have a friendly group.) I agree about other faculty meetings, but these days if my input isn't important, I find other things to do.
* I don't enjoy giving final grades.
I don't mind this.
* I don't enjoy failing students.
I don't mind this in the abstract, in the sense that when a student fails, it's for a reason. I mind when it causes me further problems down the road. How often do you fail students?
* I don't enjoy reporting suspected cases of cheating.
Who would? I also don't like driving in traffic. Some of these are starting to sound like complaints about life in general, as opposed to your job. I don't like it when people do bad things and I have to deal with it, in or out of my job.
* I don't enjoy setting up my laptop for class.
I'm so 19th century. Laptop for class?
* I don't enjoy refereeing.
I don't mind it so much. I don't like refereeing journal papers-- too much work. I'm happy to contribute on conference PCs, and the occasional grant committee.
* I don't enjoy being an editor.
ReplyDeleteI think I've decided I will never serve as an editor for a journal again.
* I don't enjoy writing recommendation letters.
I don't enjoy the fact that it takes time to write them. But they help the next generation move forward. I don't mind that. I do mind the stupid systems used nowadays for electronic submission of letters. Why do I need a !@#$! password for your !@#$! site, I'm just sending you a letter you asked for!
* I don't enjoy revising papers.
Why? I've been more focused these days on revising papers to make them better, as opposed to satisfying reviewers. But often reviewers have a point; I've thought several paper revisions of late have made the papers better.
* I don't enjoy flying.
So don't fly?
* I don't enjoy chain hotels.
So don't stay in them?
* I don't enjoy committees.
Which committees? I don't enjoy committees that don't seem to accomplish an actual goal. Others (hiring, most PC committees) I feel OK about.
* I don't enjoy being hopelessly stuck on a research problem.
Really, Claire, now you're just getting silly. If you're not getting stuck on a good fraction of your research problems, you're not challenging yourself with your research. And since we've known each other a while, I have real trouble thinking of you as someone who doesn't enjoy challenging herself with her research. If you didn't get hopelessly stuck on problems, would you enjoy solving the ones you do solve so much?
* I don't enjoy failure.
I don't like paper cuts, driving in traffic, and... I'm not getting this one.
* I don't enjoy being stuck on some notation as I read a paper.
I hate this too. I worry it's a sign of age. When I was a kid, all of our notation was perfectly clear.
* I don't enjoy being behind in my work.
Me either. Speaking of which, I wonder if I should be getting back to work.
* I don't enjoy not doing what I'm supposed to be doing.
What are you supposed to be doing?
* I don't enjoy working in the evening.
I enjoy the flexibility of my job. I drop off my kids to school, come into work, go run on the treadmill and shower, and all of a sudden it's after 11. I'll happily work in the evenings after the kids go to bed.
* I don't enjoy most seminars.
Then don't go. [One faculty member gave a great argument for cutting our seminars. It's so easy to add seminars to the schedule -- who can object to a good talk? But then your day gets filled with talks. You can't keep adding things without subtracting something else, so we try not to add unless there's something we're willing to give up.]
* I don't enjoy email.
I'm ignoring more and more of mine as time goes on.
* I don't enjoy criticism.
Then you (and this list) are wonderful!
* I don't enjoy the lack of tangible impact of my work.
Really? Because (and please don't take this as a criticism) this is something I'd argue you have absolute control of, and has been a conscious choice you've made as long as I've known you.
* I don't enjoy working indoors.
I miss CA also sometimes.
* I don't enjoy writing introductions.
But they're the best part.
* I don't enjoy having a paper rejected.
ReplyDeleteI don't either. Too many papers get rejected these days. We should accept more papers at our conferences. Particularly, of course, yours and mind.
* I don't enjoy deadlines.
Deadlines are how things get done.
* I don't enjoy having my research community scattered around the world.
I don't understand. Are you saying you wish the world was smaller?
* I don't enjoy decisions by consensus.
Again, I live in a strange bubble of a happy group of very reasonable CS faculty. The worst I can say is that consensus can be slow (there must be a theorem about that somewhere), but it's a fine way to make decisions in a happy group of reasonable people.
Outside of that bubble, I don't even pretend that things get done by consensus.
Fun list Claire! But is the weather getting you down? What's up?
I don't enjoy having my research community scattered around the world.
ReplyDelete- I don't understand. Are you saying you wish the world was smaller?
No, I'm thinking of the people I know who are not in academia: their network of colleagues is local, and I think that it makes life easier.
For example, there is a mountain guide I know in Chamonix. Wherever he goes in the Mont Blanc mountain area, he knows some of the people. He hikes up a glacier, sees another group there, and the next thing you know, they're happily chatting about common friends. If he wishes to meet up with someone, it's as easy as taking the little train that slowly winds its way up the valley. Whereas if I wish to meet up with someone, odds are that that person is on another continent or at least another state, and I cannot have physical meetings as easily.
Of course it also means that they are more easily subjected to falling victims of local prejudices...
-I don't enjoy revising papers.
-Why?
Because most of the time, by the time the reports arrive, my interests have moved on to another question, and it's hard to move my focus back to that old problem from years ago.
Anonymous 7:19am: stay tuned for tomorrow's list!
ReplyDeleteSo what kind of impact would you consider tangible?
ReplyDeleteIf you work in the fields at harvest, at the end of the day you can see the harvested fields on one side and the big piles of grain on the other side. What you've accomplished is clear.
What I don't like about (not having permanent) work:
ReplyDelete- Moving seven times in less than three and a half years.
- Asking people for recommendation letters.
- Having people be "helpful" by relaying information about positions that are on other continents, would require me to move without moving expenses paid and are only temporary.
- Reminding people to write the recommendation letters that they agreed to write.
- Working with students more than their advisors do but not getting any recognition/"credit" for being their advisor.
- Finding someone new to write a recomendation letter at the last minute, because the person who agreed clearly is not going to do it.
- Worrying that you will not have a job.
Claire,
ReplyDeleteI get satisfaction doing the dishes at home. But it's a different satisfaction than I get solving an interesting theoretical problem, which is also different from the satisfaction than I get solving a practical problem, and different from the satisfaction I get on other non-academic projects. Picking your own right balance is important. Perhaps you need to change the balance of projects you're working on.
Anonymous 2:42pm: yes, this is a tough time to be on the job market. My complaints are insignificant compared to your worries.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1451
ReplyDeletegood to see that there's a follow-up post today ;-)
Claire's gripes, and Mitzenmacher's comment about doing dishes, reminded me of this interview with Sidney Coleman:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.aip.org/history/ohilist/31234.html
The whole piece is a hoot.
(But, what's with Harvard profs and dish-washing? Is there something in the water in Cambridge? Note to self: The next time we meet, ask Morrisett for his views on Comet vs Ajax.)
Claire I like this list! It is refreshing to see that you can love what you do but still dislike many things about it. What an encouraging message for postdocs and grad students!
ReplyDeleteThanks Aparna!
ReplyDelete