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h87v9a | askacademia_train | 0.95 | Those of you who don't fit into the typical profile of someone in your area of study, have you had others show skepticism about your knowledge or abilities due to your age, race, gender, etc? One of my friends from undergraduate is a super bubbly blonde girly girl (think Reese Witherspoon from Legally Blonde) who also happened to graduate valedictorian in engineering and then went on to a top graduate school. She would get some funny reactions when telling people what she did for a living, but the neat thing about engineering is its objectivity: she could *prove* her competence. How about you? | fuphn9j | fupg9mw | 1,592,060,779 | 1,592,059,946 | 46 | 38 | Of course, I'm an Asian woman who did a BA in German studies and a MA in German translation, and I always get stares when I tell people what I do. You can see people try to piece it together when I tell them of my academic history. They also ask why didn't I choose an Asian language since it would have been better and easier. I'd get passed up on opportunities based on how I look, but you learn to deal with it. | I always get comments such as “Wow, you must be so smart!!” or different amounts of shock when I mention I am in Computer Science or that I am doing my PhD, and I’m 99% sure that if I was a guy, I wouldn’t get the same reactions. Also, both male and female students in STEM give worse evaluations to female TAs and instructors than they do to makes. | 1 | 833 | 1.210526 |
h87v9a | askacademia_train | 0.95 | Those of you who don't fit into the typical profile of someone in your area of study, have you had others show skepticism about your knowledge or abilities due to your age, race, gender, etc? One of my friends from undergraduate is a super bubbly blonde girly girl (think Reese Witherspoon from Legally Blonde) who also happened to graduate valedictorian in engineering and then went on to a top graduate school. She would get some funny reactions when telling people what she did for a living, but the neat thing about engineering is its objectivity: she could *prove* her competence. How about you? | fuphn9j | fupga20 | 1,592,060,779 | 1,592,059,954 | 46 | 24 | Of course, I'm an Asian woman who did a BA in German studies and a MA in German translation, and I always get stares when I tell people what I do. You can see people try to piece it together when I tell them of my academic history. They also ask why didn't I choose an Asian language since it would have been better and easier. I'd get passed up on opportunities based on how I look, but you learn to deal with it. | I'm gay and in linguistics. My home department has a number of gays in it, but I believe this is not the case in many other institutions. I too have some 'bubbliness' that I've tried to (in response to external and internal forces) suppress for the sake of 'professionalism'. Additionally, when I'm clean-shaven I look younger than my age. There is a big difference between how some specific people treat me before vs. after my presentation at conferences, and I dread presenting late into a conference because it will quite simply cease to be a networking opportunity for me. Linguistics as a field is halfway between a) having points that can be definitively proven, and thus, a way to stand up to people who are clearly not taking you seriously ad hominem; and b) deferring to claims from big names and trends in the field, leaving your fate to established cliques and how well you regurgitate dogma. The frameworks are particularly bad for this: do an analysis with Optimality Theory and it will by and large not provide any further insight into whatever you're working on (if the analysis pans out at all given OT's toolbox), but you'll certainly make friends in certain circles, and vice versa. I've had a run in or two with a big name who dislikes me (am currently ABD), and they threw everything at me from "I don't think your data exists" to "I've met your participants and they don't agree". So even when you can prove what you're saying, some people will have decided whether they like you or not, and have no qualms hiding behind their tenure to act unprofessionally and attack you. At least our journals/conferences are generally reviewed blind. I can't imagine having to navigate the fields where it matters who wrote what. Oh, and fieldwork in some regions is gatekept by missionaries (SIL), who require you to be straight and married to work with them. Happy Pride! | 1 | 825 | 1.916667 |
h87v9a | askacademia_train | 0.95 | Those of you who don't fit into the typical profile of someone in your area of study, have you had others show skepticism about your knowledge or abilities due to your age, race, gender, etc? One of my friends from undergraduate is a super bubbly blonde girly girl (think Reese Witherspoon from Legally Blonde) who also happened to graduate valedictorian in engineering and then went on to a top graduate school. She would get some funny reactions when telling people what she did for a living, but the neat thing about engineering is its objectivity: she could *prove* her competence. How about you? | fupeshn | fupna53 | 1,592,059,036 | 1,592,064,083 | 46 | 48 | Yes absolutely, I'm a latinx woman in a predominantly white, male field. I've been sidelined on math/technical heavy projects (despite years of significant, successful coursework in both) and when I've earned honors or competitions or awards I've had at least one peer suggest that it's either a) because of my racial/gender identity or b) impressive because of my racial/gender identity | Another woman in engineering here. While the apparent objectivity of engineering is nice in theory, in reality people's opinions of you are subjective anyways. As a woman, the bar for you to "prove your competence" is often higher than it is for your male colleagues regardless of any objective facts. I've had new staff ask if I was from HR; I've heard many times that I only got a job offer because I was a woman; I've had plenty of experiences where I suggest something and then, when a male colleague agrees with me, everyone around the table starts referring to it as "his" idea. Also, *so many* experiences of men who simply cannot believe that I know what I'm talking about. Even when I've literally published papers on a topic - and they know that! - I've had to cajole and argue and provide sources just to convince some men of the most basic, uncontroversial technical facts in an area they've never even worked in. And then there's the few specific men in the field who the other women warn you not to get too close to because they're a bit handsy, and the men who shake the hands of the other men but just sort of... gloss over me. And conferences, oh my god. It's a regular occurrence that I ask a poster presenter a question and they then direct their answer to some random man who happens to be standing next to me. Or I'm discussing my own work with someone and a male colleague of mine happens to walk past and says hello... and then the person I was talking with immediately starts asking my male colleague questions about *my* work apropos of nothing. I would love to go to even just one conference where neither of those things happens but alas, in well over a decade of conference attendance, it has not occurred yet. | 0 | 5,047 | 1.043478 |
h87v9a | askacademia_train | 0.95 | Those of you who don't fit into the typical profile of someone in your area of study, have you had others show skepticism about your knowledge or abilities due to your age, race, gender, etc? One of my friends from undergraduate is a super bubbly blonde girly girl (think Reese Witherspoon from Legally Blonde) who also happened to graduate valedictorian in engineering and then went on to a top graduate school. She would get some funny reactions when telling people what she did for a living, but the neat thing about engineering is its objectivity: she could *prove* her competence. How about you? | fupg9mw | fupna53 | 1,592,059,946 | 1,592,064,083 | 38 | 48 | I always get comments such as “Wow, you must be so smart!!” or different amounts of shock when I mention I am in Computer Science or that I am doing my PhD, and I’m 99% sure that if I was a guy, I wouldn’t get the same reactions. Also, both male and female students in STEM give worse evaluations to female TAs and instructors than they do to makes. | Another woman in engineering here. While the apparent objectivity of engineering is nice in theory, in reality people's opinions of you are subjective anyways. As a woman, the bar for you to "prove your competence" is often higher than it is for your male colleagues regardless of any objective facts. I've had new staff ask if I was from HR; I've heard many times that I only got a job offer because I was a woman; I've had plenty of experiences where I suggest something and then, when a male colleague agrees with me, everyone around the table starts referring to it as "his" idea. Also, *so many* experiences of men who simply cannot believe that I know what I'm talking about. Even when I've literally published papers on a topic - and they know that! - I've had to cajole and argue and provide sources just to convince some men of the most basic, uncontroversial technical facts in an area they've never even worked in. And then there's the few specific men in the field who the other women warn you not to get too close to because they're a bit handsy, and the men who shake the hands of the other men but just sort of... gloss over me. And conferences, oh my god. It's a regular occurrence that I ask a poster presenter a question and they then direct their answer to some random man who happens to be standing next to me. Or I'm discussing my own work with someone and a male colleague of mine happens to walk past and says hello... and then the person I was talking with immediately starts asking my male colleague questions about *my* work apropos of nothing. I would love to go to even just one conference where neither of those things happens but alas, in well over a decade of conference attendance, it has not occurred yet. | 0 | 4,137 | 1.263158 |
h87v9a | askacademia_train | 0.95 | Those of you who don't fit into the typical profile of someone in your area of study, have you had others show skepticism about your knowledge or abilities due to your age, race, gender, etc? One of my friends from undergraduate is a super bubbly blonde girly girl (think Reese Witherspoon from Legally Blonde) who also happened to graduate valedictorian in engineering and then went on to a top graduate school. She would get some funny reactions when telling people what she did for a living, but the neat thing about engineering is its objectivity: she could *prove* her competence. How about you? | fupga20 | fupna53 | 1,592,059,954 | 1,592,064,083 | 24 | 48 | I'm gay and in linguistics. My home department has a number of gays in it, but I believe this is not the case in many other institutions. I too have some 'bubbliness' that I've tried to (in response to external and internal forces) suppress for the sake of 'professionalism'. Additionally, when I'm clean-shaven I look younger than my age. There is a big difference between how some specific people treat me before vs. after my presentation at conferences, and I dread presenting late into a conference because it will quite simply cease to be a networking opportunity for me. Linguistics as a field is halfway between a) having points that can be definitively proven, and thus, a way to stand up to people who are clearly not taking you seriously ad hominem; and b) deferring to claims from big names and trends in the field, leaving your fate to established cliques and how well you regurgitate dogma. The frameworks are particularly bad for this: do an analysis with Optimality Theory and it will by and large not provide any further insight into whatever you're working on (if the analysis pans out at all given OT's toolbox), but you'll certainly make friends in certain circles, and vice versa. I've had a run in or two with a big name who dislikes me (am currently ABD), and they threw everything at me from "I don't think your data exists" to "I've met your participants and they don't agree". So even when you can prove what you're saying, some people will have decided whether they like you or not, and have no qualms hiding behind their tenure to act unprofessionally and attack you. At least our journals/conferences are generally reviewed blind. I can't imagine having to navigate the fields where it matters who wrote what. Oh, and fieldwork in some regions is gatekept by missionaries (SIL), who require you to be straight and married to work with them. Happy Pride! | Another woman in engineering here. While the apparent objectivity of engineering is nice in theory, in reality people's opinions of you are subjective anyways. As a woman, the bar for you to "prove your competence" is often higher than it is for your male colleagues regardless of any objective facts. I've had new staff ask if I was from HR; I've heard many times that I only got a job offer because I was a woman; I've had plenty of experiences where I suggest something and then, when a male colleague agrees with me, everyone around the table starts referring to it as "his" idea. Also, *so many* experiences of men who simply cannot believe that I know what I'm talking about. Even when I've literally published papers on a topic - and they know that! - I've had to cajole and argue and provide sources just to convince some men of the most basic, uncontroversial technical facts in an area they've never even worked in. And then there's the few specific men in the field who the other women warn you not to get too close to because they're a bit handsy, and the men who shake the hands of the other men but just sort of... gloss over me. And conferences, oh my god. It's a regular occurrence that I ask a poster presenter a question and they then direct their answer to some random man who happens to be standing next to me. Or I'm discussing my own work with someone and a male colleague of mine happens to walk past and says hello... and then the person I was talking with immediately starts asking my male colleague questions about *my* work apropos of nothing. I would love to go to even just one conference where neither of those things happens but alas, in well over a decade of conference attendance, it has not occurred yet. | 0 | 4,129 | 2 |
h87v9a | askacademia_train | 0.95 | Those of you who don't fit into the typical profile of someone in your area of study, have you had others show skepticism about your knowledge or abilities due to your age, race, gender, etc? One of my friends from undergraduate is a super bubbly blonde girly girl (think Reese Witherspoon from Legally Blonde) who also happened to graduate valedictorian in engineering and then went on to a top graduate school. She would get some funny reactions when telling people what she did for a living, but the neat thing about engineering is its objectivity: she could *prove* her competence. How about you? | fupna53 | fupn6i7 | 1,592,064,083 | 1,592,064,025 | 48 | 18 | Another woman in engineering here. While the apparent objectivity of engineering is nice in theory, in reality people's opinions of you are subjective anyways. As a woman, the bar for you to "prove your competence" is often higher than it is for your male colleagues regardless of any objective facts. I've had new staff ask if I was from HR; I've heard many times that I only got a job offer because I was a woman; I've had plenty of experiences where I suggest something and then, when a male colleague agrees with me, everyone around the table starts referring to it as "his" idea. Also, *so many* experiences of men who simply cannot believe that I know what I'm talking about. Even when I've literally published papers on a topic - and they know that! - I've had to cajole and argue and provide sources just to convince some men of the most basic, uncontroversial technical facts in an area they've never even worked in. And then there's the few specific men in the field who the other women warn you not to get too close to because they're a bit handsy, and the men who shake the hands of the other men but just sort of... gloss over me. And conferences, oh my god. It's a regular occurrence that I ask a poster presenter a question and they then direct their answer to some random man who happens to be standing next to me. Or I'm discussing my own work with someone and a male colleague of mine happens to walk past and says hello... and then the person I was talking with immediately starts asking my male colleague questions about *my* work apropos of nothing. I would love to go to even just one conference where neither of those things happens but alas, in well over a decade of conference attendance, it has not occurred yet. | All minorities deal with this. It's a White man's world in Academia. | 1 | 58 | 2.666667 |
h87v9a | askacademia_train | 0.95 | Those of you who don't fit into the typical profile of someone in your area of study, have you had others show skepticism about your knowledge or abilities due to your age, race, gender, etc? One of my friends from undergraduate is a super bubbly blonde girly girl (think Reese Witherspoon from Legally Blonde) who also happened to graduate valedictorian in engineering and then went on to a top graduate school. She would get some funny reactions when telling people what she did for a living, but the neat thing about engineering is its objectivity: she could *prove* her competence. How about you? | fupna53 | fupiyca | 1,592,064,083 | 1,592,061,556 | 48 | 11 | Another woman in engineering here. While the apparent objectivity of engineering is nice in theory, in reality people's opinions of you are subjective anyways. As a woman, the bar for you to "prove your competence" is often higher than it is for your male colleagues regardless of any objective facts. I've had new staff ask if I was from HR; I've heard many times that I only got a job offer because I was a woman; I've had plenty of experiences where I suggest something and then, when a male colleague agrees with me, everyone around the table starts referring to it as "his" idea. Also, *so many* experiences of men who simply cannot believe that I know what I'm talking about. Even when I've literally published papers on a topic - and they know that! - I've had to cajole and argue and provide sources just to convince some men of the most basic, uncontroversial technical facts in an area they've never even worked in. And then there's the few specific men in the field who the other women warn you not to get too close to because they're a bit handsy, and the men who shake the hands of the other men but just sort of... gloss over me. And conferences, oh my god. It's a regular occurrence that I ask a poster presenter a question and they then direct their answer to some random man who happens to be standing next to me. Or I'm discussing my own work with someone and a male colleague of mine happens to walk past and says hello... and then the person I was talking with immediately starts asking my male colleague questions about *my* work apropos of nothing. I would love to go to even just one conference where neither of those things happens but alas, in well over a decade of conference attendance, it has not occurred yet. | By first appearances I'm pretty generic for my field (computational evolutionary biology) -- white, male, multilingual, young-ish, in a heterosexual marriage, etc. My most distinguishing feature might be physique, being pretty buff / active from a decade of strength training, enough so that it's commented on unprompted frequently, where everyone else tends to be not very muscular and more sedentary. But I'm not sure if that's not representative of the broader population. I'm also rather visibly Eastern European in terms of e.g. craniofacial morphology -- which again, might still be sampling uniformly from the US, but certainly prompts lots of halfway-indelicate comments and jokes. And I grew up pretty poor, and so have been made fun of a bit for having “poor” tastes. Dunno how much these all bear upon perceptions of my intellectual competence, though — any gopnik-y “slavic street thug” stereotypes tend not to survive too long past initial interactions. Am also pretty tall and frequently sport a buzzcut and stubble, and so have been called “intimidating” on many occasions (e.g. in undergrad I lived in a big city and would often take long walks outside around midnight — people would often cross the street or turn around instead of passing within 50 feet of me lol). | 1 | 2,527 | 4.363636 |
h87v9a | askacademia_train | 0.95 | Those of you who don't fit into the typical profile of someone in your area of study, have you had others show skepticism about your knowledge or abilities due to your age, race, gender, etc? One of my friends from undergraduate is a super bubbly blonde girly girl (think Reese Witherspoon from Legally Blonde) who also happened to graduate valedictorian in engineering and then went on to a top graduate school. She would get some funny reactions when telling people what she did for a living, but the neat thing about engineering is its objectivity: she could *prove* her competence. How about you? | fuq2oza | fupwaz3 | 1,592,072,454 | 1,592,068,964 | 21 | 16 | I am a white woman (in my thirties) working in the humanities (I am an assistant professor), which really is not all that uncommon. Yet I am subjected to a lot of low-key sexism. I will give two examples: 1. I do not want to be mistaken for a student (which happens quite a lot), so I dress up for the job (i.e. I try to look professional, so no short skirts, sweat pants or messy buns). I have a TA (male student in his twenties, whose favorite attire is an old pair of jeans and the university's hoodie). The number of times students or classroom technicians have mistaken him for the professor and me for the TA on the first day of class is... well, staggering... 2. When I married my husband, a lot of family and friends just assumed I would take his name (which is not practical when working in academia where your name is your scholarly brand) and would follow him around for his career, which was... disappointing. Of course, no one assumed anything about my husbands' name or career 🤦 | Women in History. FML. | 1 | 3,490 | 1.3125 |
h87v9a | askacademia_train | 0.95 | Those of you who don't fit into the typical profile of someone in your area of study, have you had others show skepticism about your knowledge or abilities due to your age, race, gender, etc? One of my friends from undergraduate is a super bubbly blonde girly girl (think Reese Witherspoon from Legally Blonde) who also happened to graduate valedictorian in engineering and then went on to a top graduate school. She would get some funny reactions when telling people what she did for a living, but the neat thing about engineering is its objectivity: she could *prove* her competence. How about you? | fuq2oza | fupwr8d | 1,592,072,454 | 1,592,069,200 | 21 | 16 | I am a white woman (in my thirties) working in the humanities (I am an assistant professor), which really is not all that uncommon. Yet I am subjected to a lot of low-key sexism. I will give two examples: 1. I do not want to be mistaken for a student (which happens quite a lot), so I dress up for the job (i.e. I try to look professional, so no short skirts, sweat pants or messy buns). I have a TA (male student in his twenties, whose favorite attire is an old pair of jeans and the university's hoodie). The number of times students or classroom technicians have mistaken him for the professor and me for the TA on the first day of class is... well, staggering... 2. When I married my husband, a lot of family and friends just assumed I would take his name (which is not practical when working in academia where your name is your scholarly brand) and would follow him around for his career, which was... disappointing. Of course, no one assumed anything about my husbands' name or career 🤦 | Always. I'm a young woman, with blue hair and tattoos, working in biomedical science. The discrimination is palpable and I feel like I've had to work 4 times as hard to prove myself compared to colleagues that fit the stereotype of my field. I will say that I think, at least at my institution, this discrimination occurs far less internally than it does externally. That's not to say it isn't there, but its definitely a more accepting environment than many. Internally it's really only the "old guard" of white men at the top, but I notice greater issues at conferences etc. Externally, I've had to convince my own family members that I am pursuing a PhD. Most often people raise concerns about the kids I have zero desire to have. | 1 | 3,254 | 1.3125 |
h87v9a | askacademia_train | 0.95 | Those of you who don't fit into the typical profile of someone in your area of study, have you had others show skepticism about your knowledge or abilities due to your age, race, gender, etc? One of my friends from undergraduate is a super bubbly blonde girly girl (think Reese Witherspoon from Legally Blonde) who also happened to graduate valedictorian in engineering and then went on to a top graduate school. She would get some funny reactions when telling people what she did for a living, but the neat thing about engineering is its objectivity: she could *prove* her competence. How about you? | fupn6i7 | fuq2oza | 1,592,064,025 | 1,592,072,454 | 18 | 21 | All minorities deal with this. It's a White man's world in Academia. | I am a white woman (in my thirties) working in the humanities (I am an assistant professor), which really is not all that uncommon. Yet I am subjected to a lot of low-key sexism. I will give two examples: 1. I do not want to be mistaken for a student (which happens quite a lot), so I dress up for the job (i.e. I try to look professional, so no short skirts, sweat pants or messy buns). I have a TA (male student in his twenties, whose favorite attire is an old pair of jeans and the university's hoodie). The number of times students or classroom technicians have mistaken him for the professor and me for the TA on the first day of class is... well, staggering... 2. When I married my husband, a lot of family and friends just assumed I would take his name (which is not practical when working in academia where your name is your scholarly brand) and would follow him around for his career, which was... disappointing. Of course, no one assumed anything about my husbands' name or career 🤦 | 0 | 8,429 | 1.166667 |
h87v9a | askacademia_train | 0.95 | Those of you who don't fit into the typical profile of someone in your area of study, have you had others show skepticism about your knowledge or abilities due to your age, race, gender, etc? One of my friends from undergraduate is a super bubbly blonde girly girl (think Reese Witherspoon from Legally Blonde) who also happened to graduate valedictorian in engineering and then went on to a top graduate school. She would get some funny reactions when telling people what she did for a living, but the neat thing about engineering is its objectivity: she could *prove* her competence. How about you? | fuprw7c | fuq2oza | 1,592,066,614 | 1,592,072,454 | 12 | 21 | I’m super young - in fact, I was the youngest PhD level faculty member my university had ever hired. I was constantly for the first two years assumed to be a student when I would park in a faculty lot, or walk into an administrative office, or a faculty meeting. My coworkers would talk down to me a lot, too, as I was “too young to have experience of the real world.” I was 28 when I started. Oh, edit: Also, as my field is almost purely graduate level studies, almost 100% of my students were older than me. I had a few tell me off because they had “been in the field longer than I had been alive,” so clearly I “didn’t know what [I was] talking about.” | I am a white woman (in my thirties) working in the humanities (I am an assistant professor), which really is not all that uncommon. Yet I am subjected to a lot of low-key sexism. I will give two examples: 1. I do not want to be mistaken for a student (which happens quite a lot), so I dress up for the job (i.e. I try to look professional, so no short skirts, sweat pants or messy buns). I have a TA (male student in his twenties, whose favorite attire is an old pair of jeans and the university's hoodie). The number of times students or classroom technicians have mistaken him for the professor and me for the TA on the first day of class is... well, staggering... 2. When I married my husband, a lot of family and friends just assumed I would take his name (which is not practical when working in academia where your name is your scholarly brand) and would follow him around for his career, which was... disappointing. Of course, no one assumed anything about my husbands' name or career 🤦 | 0 | 5,840 | 1.75 |
h87v9a | askacademia_train | 0.95 | Those of you who don't fit into the typical profile of someone in your area of study, have you had others show skepticism about your knowledge or abilities due to your age, race, gender, etc? One of my friends from undergraduate is a super bubbly blonde girly girl (think Reese Witherspoon from Legally Blonde) who also happened to graduate valedictorian in engineering and then went on to a top graduate school. She would get some funny reactions when telling people what she did for a living, but the neat thing about engineering is its objectivity: she could *prove* her competence. How about you? | fupiyca | fuq2oza | 1,592,061,556 | 1,592,072,454 | 11 | 21 | By first appearances I'm pretty generic for my field (computational evolutionary biology) -- white, male, multilingual, young-ish, in a heterosexual marriage, etc. My most distinguishing feature might be physique, being pretty buff / active from a decade of strength training, enough so that it's commented on unprompted frequently, where everyone else tends to be not very muscular and more sedentary. But I'm not sure if that's not representative of the broader population. I'm also rather visibly Eastern European in terms of e.g. craniofacial morphology -- which again, might still be sampling uniformly from the US, but certainly prompts lots of halfway-indelicate comments and jokes. And I grew up pretty poor, and so have been made fun of a bit for having “poor” tastes. Dunno how much these all bear upon perceptions of my intellectual competence, though — any gopnik-y “slavic street thug” stereotypes tend not to survive too long past initial interactions. Am also pretty tall and frequently sport a buzzcut and stubble, and so have been called “intimidating” on many occasions (e.g. in undergrad I lived in a big city and would often take long walks outside around midnight — people would often cross the street or turn around instead of passing within 50 feet of me lol). | I am a white woman (in my thirties) working in the humanities (I am an assistant professor), which really is not all that uncommon. Yet I am subjected to a lot of low-key sexism. I will give two examples: 1. I do not want to be mistaken for a student (which happens quite a lot), so I dress up for the job (i.e. I try to look professional, so no short skirts, sweat pants or messy buns). I have a TA (male student in his twenties, whose favorite attire is an old pair of jeans and the university's hoodie). The number of times students or classroom technicians have mistaken him for the professor and me for the TA on the first day of class is... well, staggering... 2. When I married my husband, a lot of family and friends just assumed I would take his name (which is not practical when working in academia where your name is your scholarly brand) and would follow him around for his career, which was... disappointing. Of course, no one assumed anything about my husbands' name or career 🤦 | 0 | 10,898 | 1.909091 |
h87v9a | askacademia_train | 0.95 | Those of you who don't fit into the typical profile of someone in your area of study, have you had others show skepticism about your knowledge or abilities due to your age, race, gender, etc? One of my friends from undergraduate is a super bubbly blonde girly girl (think Reese Witherspoon from Legally Blonde) who also happened to graduate valedictorian in engineering and then went on to a top graduate school. She would get some funny reactions when telling people what she did for a living, but the neat thing about engineering is its objectivity: she could *prove* her competence. How about you? | fupwaz3 | fuprw7c | 1,592,068,964 | 1,592,066,614 | 16 | 12 | Women in History. FML. | I’m super young - in fact, I was the youngest PhD level faculty member my university had ever hired. I was constantly for the first two years assumed to be a student when I would park in a faculty lot, or walk into an administrative office, or a faculty meeting. My coworkers would talk down to me a lot, too, as I was “too young to have experience of the real world.” I was 28 when I started. Oh, edit: Also, as my field is almost purely graduate level studies, almost 100% of my students were older than me. I had a few tell me off because they had “been in the field longer than I had been alive,” so clearly I “didn’t know what [I was] talking about.” | 1 | 2,350 | 1.333333 |
h87v9a | askacademia_train | 0.95 | Those of you who don't fit into the typical profile of someone in your area of study, have you had others show skepticism about your knowledge or abilities due to your age, race, gender, etc? One of my friends from undergraduate is a super bubbly blonde girly girl (think Reese Witherspoon from Legally Blonde) who also happened to graduate valedictorian in engineering and then went on to a top graduate school. She would get some funny reactions when telling people what she did for a living, but the neat thing about engineering is its objectivity: she could *prove* her competence. How about you? | fupwaz3 | fupiyca | 1,592,068,964 | 1,592,061,556 | 16 | 11 | Women in History. FML. | By first appearances I'm pretty generic for my field (computational evolutionary biology) -- white, male, multilingual, young-ish, in a heterosexual marriage, etc. My most distinguishing feature might be physique, being pretty buff / active from a decade of strength training, enough so that it's commented on unprompted frequently, where everyone else tends to be not very muscular and more sedentary. But I'm not sure if that's not representative of the broader population. I'm also rather visibly Eastern European in terms of e.g. craniofacial morphology -- which again, might still be sampling uniformly from the US, but certainly prompts lots of halfway-indelicate comments and jokes. And I grew up pretty poor, and so have been made fun of a bit for having “poor” tastes. Dunno how much these all bear upon perceptions of my intellectual competence, though — any gopnik-y “slavic street thug” stereotypes tend not to survive too long past initial interactions. Am also pretty tall and frequently sport a buzzcut and stubble, and so have been called “intimidating” on many occasions (e.g. in undergrad I lived in a big city and would often take long walks outside around midnight — people would often cross the street or turn around instead of passing within 50 feet of me lol). | 1 | 7,408 | 1.454545 |
h87v9a | askacademia_train | 0.95 | Those of you who don't fit into the typical profile of someone in your area of study, have you had others show skepticism about your knowledge or abilities due to your age, race, gender, etc? One of my friends from undergraduate is a super bubbly blonde girly girl (think Reese Witherspoon from Legally Blonde) who also happened to graduate valedictorian in engineering and then went on to a top graduate school. She would get some funny reactions when telling people what she did for a living, but the neat thing about engineering is its objectivity: she could *prove* her competence. How about you? | fupwr8d | fuprw7c | 1,592,069,200 | 1,592,066,614 | 16 | 12 | Always. I'm a young woman, with blue hair and tattoos, working in biomedical science. The discrimination is palpable and I feel like I've had to work 4 times as hard to prove myself compared to colleagues that fit the stereotype of my field. I will say that I think, at least at my institution, this discrimination occurs far less internally than it does externally. That's not to say it isn't there, but its definitely a more accepting environment than many. Internally it's really only the "old guard" of white men at the top, but I notice greater issues at conferences etc. Externally, I've had to convince my own family members that I am pursuing a PhD. Most often people raise concerns about the kids I have zero desire to have. | I’m super young - in fact, I was the youngest PhD level faculty member my university had ever hired. I was constantly for the first two years assumed to be a student when I would park in a faculty lot, or walk into an administrative office, or a faculty meeting. My coworkers would talk down to me a lot, too, as I was “too young to have experience of the real world.” I was 28 when I started. Oh, edit: Also, as my field is almost purely graduate level studies, almost 100% of my students were older than me. I had a few tell me off because they had “been in the field longer than I had been alive,” so clearly I “didn’t know what [I was] talking about.” | 1 | 2,586 | 1.333333 |
h87v9a | askacademia_train | 0.95 | Those of you who don't fit into the typical profile of someone in your area of study, have you had others show skepticism about your knowledge or abilities due to your age, race, gender, etc? One of my friends from undergraduate is a super bubbly blonde girly girl (think Reese Witherspoon from Legally Blonde) who also happened to graduate valedictorian in engineering and then went on to a top graduate school. She would get some funny reactions when telling people what she did for a living, but the neat thing about engineering is its objectivity: she could *prove* her competence. How about you? | fupiyca | fupwr8d | 1,592,061,556 | 1,592,069,200 | 11 | 16 | By first appearances I'm pretty generic for my field (computational evolutionary biology) -- white, male, multilingual, young-ish, in a heterosexual marriage, etc. My most distinguishing feature might be physique, being pretty buff / active from a decade of strength training, enough so that it's commented on unprompted frequently, where everyone else tends to be not very muscular and more sedentary. But I'm not sure if that's not representative of the broader population. I'm also rather visibly Eastern European in terms of e.g. craniofacial morphology -- which again, might still be sampling uniformly from the US, but certainly prompts lots of halfway-indelicate comments and jokes. And I grew up pretty poor, and so have been made fun of a bit for having “poor” tastes. Dunno how much these all bear upon perceptions of my intellectual competence, though — any gopnik-y “slavic street thug” stereotypes tend not to survive too long past initial interactions. Am also pretty tall and frequently sport a buzzcut and stubble, and so have been called “intimidating” on many occasions (e.g. in undergrad I lived in a big city and would often take long walks outside around midnight — people would often cross the street or turn around instead of passing within 50 feet of me lol). | Always. I'm a young woman, with blue hair and tattoos, working in biomedical science. The discrimination is palpable and I feel like I've had to work 4 times as hard to prove myself compared to colleagues that fit the stereotype of my field. I will say that I think, at least at my institution, this discrimination occurs far less internally than it does externally. That's not to say it isn't there, but its definitely a more accepting environment than many. Internally it's really only the "old guard" of white men at the top, but I notice greater issues at conferences etc. Externally, I've had to convince my own family members that I am pursuing a PhD. Most often people raise concerns about the kids I have zero desire to have. | 0 | 7,644 | 1.454545 |
h87v9a | askacademia_train | 0.95 | Those of you who don't fit into the typical profile of someone in your area of study, have you had others show skepticism about your knowledge or abilities due to your age, race, gender, etc? One of my friends from undergraduate is a super bubbly blonde girly girl (think Reese Witherspoon from Legally Blonde) who also happened to graduate valedictorian in engineering and then went on to a top graduate school. She would get some funny reactions when telling people what she did for a living, but the neat thing about engineering is its objectivity: she could *prove* her competence. How about you? | fuprw7c | fuqpcia | 1,592,066,614 | 1,592,084,404 | 12 | 16 | I’m super young - in fact, I was the youngest PhD level faculty member my university had ever hired. I was constantly for the first two years assumed to be a student when I would park in a faculty lot, or walk into an administrative office, or a faculty meeting. My coworkers would talk down to me a lot, too, as I was “too young to have experience of the real world.” I was 28 when I started. Oh, edit: Also, as my field is almost purely graduate level studies, almost 100% of my students were older than me. I had a few tell me off because they had “been in the field longer than I had been alive,” so clearly I “didn’t know what [I was] talking about.” | I am black. I am disabled. And I study education. More specifically the pedagogical needs of for african american students with learning and physical disabilities. I was told I wasn’t cut out for academia because I have both adhd and a neurological condition that makes using my hands difficult. I was literally told I wasn’t good enough to participate on scholarship about black disabled students...because I was black and disabled???? But this was from the same professor who would refer to student conditions as “deformities,” pushed me to advocate for conversion and separation pedagogical models, (wrongly) referred to me as autistic, and told me not to use a computer when in her class. Again, I have a neurological condition that makes it difficult to use my hands/write. I did everything I could to push back against this scholar which only made them more hateful. Their comment about not being cut out was after I finally told them, firmly, that I disagreed with a lot of their comments and thesis advice. The department sent me a formal letter of apology after I mastered out and decided to finish my phd somewhere else. | 0 | 17,790 | 1.333333 |
h87v9a | askacademia_train | 0.95 | Those of you who don't fit into the typical profile of someone in your area of study, have you had others show skepticism about your knowledge or abilities due to your age, race, gender, etc? One of my friends from undergraduate is a super bubbly blonde girly girl (think Reese Witherspoon from Legally Blonde) who also happened to graduate valedictorian in engineering and then went on to a top graduate school. She would get some funny reactions when telling people what she did for a living, but the neat thing about engineering is its objectivity: she could *prove* her competence. How about you? | fuqpcia | fupiyca | 1,592,084,404 | 1,592,061,556 | 16 | 11 | I am black. I am disabled. And I study education. More specifically the pedagogical needs of for african american students with learning and physical disabilities. I was told I wasn’t cut out for academia because I have both adhd and a neurological condition that makes using my hands difficult. I was literally told I wasn’t good enough to participate on scholarship about black disabled students...because I was black and disabled???? But this was from the same professor who would refer to student conditions as “deformities,” pushed me to advocate for conversion and separation pedagogical models, (wrongly) referred to me as autistic, and told me not to use a computer when in her class. Again, I have a neurological condition that makes it difficult to use my hands/write. I did everything I could to push back against this scholar which only made them more hateful. Their comment about not being cut out was after I finally told them, firmly, that I disagreed with a lot of their comments and thesis advice. The department sent me a formal letter of apology after I mastered out and decided to finish my phd somewhere else. | By first appearances I'm pretty generic for my field (computational evolutionary biology) -- white, male, multilingual, young-ish, in a heterosexual marriage, etc. My most distinguishing feature might be physique, being pretty buff / active from a decade of strength training, enough so that it's commented on unprompted frequently, where everyone else tends to be not very muscular and more sedentary. But I'm not sure if that's not representative of the broader population. I'm also rather visibly Eastern European in terms of e.g. craniofacial morphology -- which again, might still be sampling uniformly from the US, but certainly prompts lots of halfway-indelicate comments and jokes. And I grew up pretty poor, and so have been made fun of a bit for having “poor” tastes. Dunno how much these all bear upon perceptions of my intellectual competence, though — any gopnik-y “slavic street thug” stereotypes tend not to survive too long past initial interactions. Am also pretty tall and frequently sport a buzzcut and stubble, and so have been called “intimidating” on many occasions (e.g. in undergrad I lived in a big city and would often take long walks outside around midnight — people would often cross the street or turn around instead of passing within 50 feet of me lol). | 1 | 22,848 | 1.454545 |
h87v9a | askacademia_train | 0.95 | Those of you who don't fit into the typical profile of someone in your area of study, have you had others show skepticism about your knowledge or abilities due to your age, race, gender, etc? One of my friends from undergraduate is a super bubbly blonde girly girl (think Reese Witherspoon from Legally Blonde) who also happened to graduate valedictorian in engineering and then went on to a top graduate school. She would get some funny reactions when telling people what she did for a living, but the neat thing about engineering is its objectivity: she could *prove* her competence. How about you? | fupn6i7 | fupiyca | 1,592,064,025 | 1,592,061,556 | 18 | 11 | All minorities deal with this. It's a White man's world in Academia. | By first appearances I'm pretty generic for my field (computational evolutionary biology) -- white, male, multilingual, young-ish, in a heterosexual marriage, etc. My most distinguishing feature might be physique, being pretty buff / active from a decade of strength training, enough so that it's commented on unprompted frequently, where everyone else tends to be not very muscular and more sedentary. But I'm not sure if that's not representative of the broader population. I'm also rather visibly Eastern European in terms of e.g. craniofacial morphology -- which again, might still be sampling uniformly from the US, but certainly prompts lots of halfway-indelicate comments and jokes. And I grew up pretty poor, and so have been made fun of a bit for having “poor” tastes. Dunno how much these all bear upon perceptions of my intellectual competence, though — any gopnik-y “slavic street thug” stereotypes tend not to survive too long past initial interactions. Am also pretty tall and frequently sport a buzzcut and stubble, and so have been called “intimidating” on many occasions (e.g. in undergrad I lived in a big city and would often take long walks outside around midnight — people would often cross the street or turn around instead of passing within 50 feet of me lol). | 1 | 2,469 | 1.636364 |
h87v9a | askacademia_train | 0.95 | Those of you who don't fit into the typical profile of someone in your area of study, have you had others show skepticism about your knowledge or abilities due to your age, race, gender, etc? One of my friends from undergraduate is a super bubbly blonde girly girl (think Reese Witherspoon from Legally Blonde) who also happened to graduate valedictorian in engineering and then went on to a top graduate school. She would get some funny reactions when telling people what she did for a living, but the neat thing about engineering is its objectivity: she could *prove* her competence. How about you? | fupiyca | fuprw7c | 1,592,061,556 | 1,592,066,614 | 11 | 12 | By first appearances I'm pretty generic for my field (computational evolutionary biology) -- white, male, multilingual, young-ish, in a heterosexual marriage, etc. My most distinguishing feature might be physique, being pretty buff / active from a decade of strength training, enough so that it's commented on unprompted frequently, where everyone else tends to be not very muscular and more sedentary. But I'm not sure if that's not representative of the broader population. I'm also rather visibly Eastern European in terms of e.g. craniofacial morphology -- which again, might still be sampling uniformly from the US, but certainly prompts lots of halfway-indelicate comments and jokes. And I grew up pretty poor, and so have been made fun of a bit for having “poor” tastes. Dunno how much these all bear upon perceptions of my intellectual competence, though — any gopnik-y “slavic street thug” stereotypes tend not to survive too long past initial interactions. Am also pretty tall and frequently sport a buzzcut and stubble, and so have been called “intimidating” on many occasions (e.g. in undergrad I lived in a big city and would often take long walks outside around midnight — people would often cross the street or turn around instead of passing within 50 feet of me lol). | I’m super young - in fact, I was the youngest PhD level faculty member my university had ever hired. I was constantly for the first two years assumed to be a student when I would park in a faculty lot, or walk into an administrative office, or a faculty meeting. My coworkers would talk down to me a lot, too, as I was “too young to have experience of the real world.” I was 28 when I started. Oh, edit: Also, as my field is almost purely graduate level studies, almost 100% of my students were older than me. I had a few tell me off because they had “been in the field longer than I had been alive,” so clearly I “didn’t know what [I was] talking about.” | 0 | 5,058 | 1.090909 |
e5l2a7 | askacademia_train | 1 | Stock phrases to answer talk questions Just met with a graduate student who was concerned that a recent talk had been derailed by a persistent questioner. I told them that question management is a skill that develops over time, but also provided a few stock phrases that can be used to deflect questions when you don't have a good answer. Here are some of mine - any suggestions? * For interrupters: "I might address that later in the talk - could you ask me again at the end if I haven't answered the question by then?" * For repeated questioners who won't stop: "This is a really interesting exchange but just because we're short on time and I want to give others a chance to ask questions, can we talk about it afterwards?" * For people who offer dumb criticisms of your methods: "That's an interesting point, what would you have done differently?" * For questions that are nonsensical: "That's an interesting point, what are your thoughts?" * For questions that point out limitations: "That's something I've thought a lot. Although this study wasn't set up to address that comprehensively, it's something we're going to look at in future studies." For context, I'm in social psychology and do quantitative research. | f9kcdz7 | f9kdbuk | 1,575,397,495 | 1,575,398,059 | 12 | 88 | I’ve had to use that last one quite a lot so far. Sometimes the comment is surprisingly insightful - even ended up collaborating with a group after discussing the matter after the session. | I like the idea of having some of them ready beforehand, and I have used the first two many times. The only difference is that I do not ask if we can talk about it later, I assert it. I generally allow clarification questions during my talks, but defer discussion questions to the end with something like, "That's a great question. I want to make sure I make it through my prepared material, but there should be time for some discussion at the end of my talk." | 0 | 564 | 7.333333 |
e5l2a7 | askacademia_train | 1 | Stock phrases to answer talk questions Just met with a graduate student who was concerned that a recent talk had been derailed by a persistent questioner. I told them that question management is a skill that develops over time, but also provided a few stock phrases that can be used to deflect questions when you don't have a good answer. Here are some of mine - any suggestions? * For interrupters: "I might address that later in the talk - could you ask me again at the end if I haven't answered the question by then?" * For repeated questioners who won't stop: "This is a really interesting exchange but just because we're short on time and I want to give others a chance to ask questions, can we talk about it afterwards?" * For people who offer dumb criticisms of your methods: "That's an interesting point, what would you have done differently?" * For questions that are nonsensical: "That's an interesting point, what are your thoughts?" * For questions that point out limitations: "That's something I've thought a lot. Although this study wasn't set up to address that comprehensively, it's something we're going to look at in future studies." For context, I'm in social psychology and do quantitative research. | f9kizw9 | f9kcdz7 | 1,575,401,442 | 1,575,397,495 | 15 | 12 | Out of curiosity where are you from? Your second point seems very British to me (I am British for the record)! I think after a few years living in other countries, I would reduce it down to "let's discuss that after the talk" and not bother with all the kindness words (they undercut your point that you are short on time!) | I’ve had to use that last one quite a lot so far. Sometimes the comment is surprisingly insightful - even ended up collaborating with a group after discussing the matter after the session. | 1 | 3,947 | 1.25 |
e5l2a7 | askacademia_train | 1 | Stock phrases to answer talk questions Just met with a graduate student who was concerned that a recent talk had been derailed by a persistent questioner. I told them that question management is a skill that develops over time, but also provided a few stock phrases that can be used to deflect questions when you don't have a good answer. Here are some of mine - any suggestions? * For interrupters: "I might address that later in the talk - could you ask me again at the end if I haven't answered the question by then?" * For repeated questioners who won't stop: "This is a really interesting exchange but just because we're short on time and I want to give others a chance to ask questions, can we talk about it afterwards?" * For people who offer dumb criticisms of your methods: "That's an interesting point, what would you have done differently?" * For questions that are nonsensical: "That's an interesting point, what are your thoughts?" * For questions that point out limitations: "That's something I've thought a lot. Although this study wasn't set up to address that comprehensively, it's something we're going to look at in future studies." For context, I'm in social psychology and do quantitative research. | f9kcdz7 | f9kqfqm | 1,575,397,495 | 1,575,405,794 | 12 | 15 | I’ve had to use that last one quite a lot so far. Sometimes the comment is surprisingly insightful - even ended up collaborating with a group after discussing the matter after the session. | This is why I like engineering conferences, as they always seem to have moderators. For interrupters, you don't have to say anything, you let the conference organizers skin them alive for the interruption. | 0 | 8,299 | 1.25 |
e5l2a7 | askacademia_train | 1 | Stock phrases to answer talk questions Just met with a graduate student who was concerned that a recent talk had been derailed by a persistent questioner. I told them that question management is a skill that develops over time, but also provided a few stock phrases that can be used to deflect questions when you don't have a good answer. Here are some of mine - any suggestions? * For interrupters: "I might address that later in the talk - could you ask me again at the end if I haven't answered the question by then?" * For repeated questioners who won't stop: "This is a really interesting exchange but just because we're short on time and I want to give others a chance to ask questions, can we talk about it afterwards?" * For people who offer dumb criticisms of your methods: "That's an interesting point, what would you have done differently?" * For questions that are nonsensical: "That's an interesting point, what are your thoughts?" * For questions that point out limitations: "That's something I've thought a lot. Although this study wasn't set up to address that comprehensively, it's something we're going to look at in future studies." For context, I'm in social psychology and do quantitative research. | f9kqfqm | f9kqdsj | 1,575,405,794 | 1,575,405,764 | 15 | 5 | This is why I like engineering conferences, as they always seem to have moderators. For interrupters, you don't have to say anything, you let the conference organizers skin them alive for the interruption. | Another strategy is to preemptively explain how you will deal with questions. Sometimes the person introducing the speaker will do that formally other times it's left up to the speaker to say something like "Today I'll be sharing some developments in Advanced Basket Weaving. My presentation will be about 15 minutes and then we'll have time for questions at the end. If you have clarification questions, please let me know, but other discussion we'll save for the after the presentation." \[or not include that last sentence\] | 1 | 30 | 3 |
e5l2a7 | askacademia_train | 1 | Stock phrases to answer talk questions Just met with a graduate student who was concerned that a recent talk had been derailed by a persistent questioner. I told them that question management is a skill that develops over time, but also provided a few stock phrases that can be used to deflect questions when you don't have a good answer. Here are some of mine - any suggestions? * For interrupters: "I might address that later in the talk - could you ask me again at the end if I haven't answered the question by then?" * For repeated questioners who won't stop: "This is a really interesting exchange but just because we're short on time and I want to give others a chance to ask questions, can we talk about it afterwards?" * For people who offer dumb criticisms of your methods: "That's an interesting point, what would you have done differently?" * For questions that are nonsensical: "That's an interesting point, what are your thoughts?" * For questions that point out limitations: "That's something I've thought a lot. Although this study wasn't set up to address that comprehensively, it's something we're going to look at in future studies." For context, I'm in social psychology and do quantitative research. | f9m1y68 | f9ktkct | 1,575,438,634 | 1,575,407,598 | 10 | 6 | Some advice I got early on as a grad student was the following. When someone asks you a completely stupid question, find some way to "misunderstand" it as a good question and answer that instead. | >For people who offer dumb criticisms of your methods: "That's an interesting point, what would you have done differently?" Why not just go with "we did not do your suggestion A because of reasons X, and Y, instead we went for our method which has advantages Z." Otherwise you are inviting an even longer flood of probably equally dumb remarks. The other ones are similarly indirect, with the exception of the last one, I see no reason to pretend you are happy with their interruptions when you clearly aren't. Especially for the second one a direct "please save your questions for the end" seems much more appropriate, though it should ideally be the moderators making that point for you. | 1 | 31,036 | 1.666667 |
e5l2a7 | askacademia_train | 1 | Stock phrases to answer talk questions Just met with a graduate student who was concerned that a recent talk had been derailed by a persistent questioner. I told them that question management is a skill that develops over time, but also provided a few stock phrases that can be used to deflect questions when you don't have a good answer. Here are some of mine - any suggestions? * For interrupters: "I might address that later in the talk - could you ask me again at the end if I haven't answered the question by then?" * For repeated questioners who won't stop: "This is a really interesting exchange but just because we're short on time and I want to give others a chance to ask questions, can we talk about it afterwards?" * For people who offer dumb criticisms of your methods: "That's an interesting point, what would you have done differently?" * For questions that are nonsensical: "That's an interesting point, what are your thoughts?" * For questions that point out limitations: "That's something I've thought a lot. Although this study wasn't set up to address that comprehensively, it's something we're going to look at in future studies." For context, I'm in social psychology and do quantitative research. | f9m1y68 | f9l844m | 1,575,438,634 | 1,575,416,691 | 10 | 6 | Some advice I got early on as a grad student was the following. When someone asks you a completely stupid question, find some way to "misunderstand" it as a good question and answer that instead. | “That’s a really interesting point, I’ll have to look into that further when I get back to the lab, thank you”. Also, don’t worry. If everyone sees someone completely badgering a grad student speaker all they are thinking is “OMG what a jerk”, it doesn’t reflect on you at all. | 1 | 21,943 | 1.666667 |
e5l2a7 | askacademia_train | 1 | Stock phrases to answer talk questions Just met with a graduate student who was concerned that a recent talk had been derailed by a persistent questioner. I told them that question management is a skill that develops over time, but also provided a few stock phrases that can be used to deflect questions when you don't have a good answer. Here are some of mine - any suggestions? * For interrupters: "I might address that later in the talk - could you ask me again at the end if I haven't answered the question by then?" * For repeated questioners who won't stop: "This is a really interesting exchange but just because we're short on time and I want to give others a chance to ask questions, can we talk about it afterwards?" * For people who offer dumb criticisms of your methods: "That's an interesting point, what would you have done differently?" * For questions that are nonsensical: "That's an interesting point, what are your thoughts?" * For questions that point out limitations: "That's something I've thought a lot. Although this study wasn't set up to address that comprehensively, it's something we're going to look at in future studies." For context, I'm in social psychology and do quantitative research. | f9lvtpu | f9m1y68 | 1,575,433,386 | 1,575,438,634 | 7 | 10 | For people who offer dumb criticisms of your methods: "That's an interesting point, what would you have done differently?" Is that safe? It sounds like a way to have your talk derailed even more if they use it as an excuse to hold the floor and blather on. Why not just say "That's interesting" and offer a polite "i'll keep it in mind" and move on? | Some advice I got early on as a grad student was the following. When someone asks you a completely stupid question, find some way to "misunderstand" it as a good question and answer that instead. | 0 | 5,248 | 1.428571 |
e5l2a7 | askacademia_train | 1 | Stock phrases to answer talk questions Just met with a graduate student who was concerned that a recent talk had been derailed by a persistent questioner. I told them that question management is a skill that develops over time, but also provided a few stock phrases that can be used to deflect questions when you don't have a good answer. Here are some of mine - any suggestions? * For interrupters: "I might address that later in the talk - could you ask me again at the end if I haven't answered the question by then?" * For repeated questioners who won't stop: "This is a really interesting exchange but just because we're short on time and I want to give others a chance to ask questions, can we talk about it afterwards?" * For people who offer dumb criticisms of your methods: "That's an interesting point, what would you have done differently?" * For questions that are nonsensical: "That's an interesting point, what are your thoughts?" * For questions that point out limitations: "That's something I've thought a lot. Although this study wasn't set up to address that comprehensively, it's something we're going to look at in future studies." For context, I'm in social psychology and do quantitative research. | f9m1y68 | f9kqdsj | 1,575,438,634 | 1,575,405,764 | 10 | 5 | Some advice I got early on as a grad student was the following. When someone asks you a completely stupid question, find some way to "misunderstand" it as a good question and answer that instead. | Another strategy is to preemptively explain how you will deal with questions. Sometimes the person introducing the speaker will do that formally other times it's left up to the speaker to say something like "Today I'll be sharing some developments in Advanced Basket Weaving. My presentation will be about 15 minutes and then we'll have time for questions at the end. If you have clarification questions, please let me know, but other discussion we'll save for the after the presentation." \[or not include that last sentence\] | 1 | 32,870 | 2 |
e5l2a7 | askacademia_train | 1 | Stock phrases to answer talk questions Just met with a graduate student who was concerned that a recent talk had been derailed by a persistent questioner. I told them that question management is a skill that develops over time, but also provided a few stock phrases that can be used to deflect questions when you don't have a good answer. Here are some of mine - any suggestions? * For interrupters: "I might address that later in the talk - could you ask me again at the end if I haven't answered the question by then?" * For repeated questioners who won't stop: "This is a really interesting exchange but just because we're short on time and I want to give others a chance to ask questions, can we talk about it afterwards?" * For people who offer dumb criticisms of your methods: "That's an interesting point, what would you have done differently?" * For questions that are nonsensical: "That's an interesting point, what are your thoughts?" * For questions that point out limitations: "That's something I've thought a lot. Although this study wasn't set up to address that comprehensively, it's something we're going to look at in future studies." For context, I'm in social psychology and do quantitative research. | f9lc8uq | f9m1y68 | 1,575,419,561 | 1,575,438,634 | 5 | 10 | Here's the other thing. If someone is doing this to a speaker, esp. a junior speaker, tell them to STFU. Esp. if you're a senior academic. | Some advice I got early on as a grad student was the following. When someone asks you a completely stupid question, find some way to "misunderstand" it as a good question and answer that instead. | 0 | 19,073 | 2 |
e5l2a7 | askacademia_train | 1 | Stock phrases to answer talk questions Just met with a graduate student who was concerned that a recent talk had been derailed by a persistent questioner. I told them that question management is a skill that develops over time, but also provided a few stock phrases that can be used to deflect questions when you don't have a good answer. Here are some of mine - any suggestions? * For interrupters: "I might address that later in the talk - could you ask me again at the end if I haven't answered the question by then?" * For repeated questioners who won't stop: "This is a really interesting exchange but just because we're short on time and I want to give others a chance to ask questions, can we talk about it afterwards?" * For people who offer dumb criticisms of your methods: "That's an interesting point, what would you have done differently?" * For questions that are nonsensical: "That's an interesting point, what are your thoughts?" * For questions that point out limitations: "That's something I've thought a lot. Although this study wasn't set up to address that comprehensively, it's something we're going to look at in future studies." For context, I'm in social psychology and do quantitative research. | f9m1y68 | f9lcd58 | 1,575,438,634 | 1,575,419,644 | 10 | 5 | Some advice I got early on as a grad student was the following. When someone asks you a completely stupid question, find some way to "misunderstand" it as a good question and answer that instead. | I certainly agree that asking or suggesting that they discuss with you after the talk can be a good idea if the questioner is persistent, or the answer genuinely requires a long technical explanation. But I do find it rather annoying when some speakers immediate response to an interesting question is to discuss it after the talk. That's all well and good but I also wanted to know the answer. It sometimes seems to be prepared as a stock response to avoid embarassment. | 1 | 18,990 | 2 |
e5l2a7 | askacademia_train | 1 | Stock phrases to answer talk questions Just met with a graduate student who was concerned that a recent talk had been derailed by a persistent questioner. I told them that question management is a skill that develops over time, but also provided a few stock phrases that can be used to deflect questions when you don't have a good answer. Here are some of mine - any suggestions? * For interrupters: "I might address that later in the talk - could you ask me again at the end if I haven't answered the question by then?" * For repeated questioners who won't stop: "This is a really interesting exchange but just because we're short on time and I want to give others a chance to ask questions, can we talk about it afterwards?" * For people who offer dumb criticisms of your methods: "That's an interesting point, what would you have done differently?" * For questions that are nonsensical: "That's an interesting point, what are your thoughts?" * For questions that point out limitations: "That's something I've thought a lot. Although this study wasn't set up to address that comprehensively, it's something we're going to look at in future studies." For context, I'm in social psychology and do quantitative research. | f9ll78s | f9m1y68 | 1,575,425,813 | 1,575,438,634 | 4 | 10 | "that's a good question, here is a better one: " then say something that will lead on to your next point. 'how does this affect the energy spectrum? which is shown here in the next figure'. | Some advice I got early on as a grad student was the following. When someone asks you a completely stupid question, find some way to "misunderstand" it as a good question and answer that instead. | 0 | 12,821 | 2.5 |
e5l2a7 | askacademia_train | 1 | Stock phrases to answer talk questions Just met with a graduate student who was concerned that a recent talk had been derailed by a persistent questioner. I told them that question management is a skill that develops over time, but also provided a few stock phrases that can be used to deflect questions when you don't have a good answer. Here are some of mine - any suggestions? * For interrupters: "I might address that later in the talk - could you ask me again at the end if I haven't answered the question by then?" * For repeated questioners who won't stop: "This is a really interesting exchange but just because we're short on time and I want to give others a chance to ask questions, can we talk about it afterwards?" * For people who offer dumb criticisms of your methods: "That's an interesting point, what would you have done differently?" * For questions that are nonsensical: "That's an interesting point, what are your thoughts?" * For questions that point out limitations: "That's something I've thought a lot. Although this study wasn't set up to address that comprehensively, it's something we're going to look at in future studies." For context, I'm in social psychology and do quantitative research. | f9lxjsu | f9m1y68 | 1,575,434,729 | 1,575,438,634 | 5 | 10 | Not sure if this is about job talks, departmental talks, or conference presentations... the context would change my answer but: I think it is a skill as you described, and having prepared/strategic responses is smart. Overall I agree with the approach you’re sharing except for a few differences. I don’t and wouldn’t invite someone to talk about what they would’ve done or elaborate on their own thoughts at a talk I’m giving (if it was off or irrelevant or disruptive). To me that invites wasted time in a room with others who may have better questions, will be annoyed by such an invitation to another audience member, and who I’d rather impress with a deft redirect. | Some advice I got early on as a grad student was the following. When someone asks you a completely stupid question, find some way to "misunderstand" it as a good question and answer that instead. | 0 | 3,905 | 2 |
e5l2a7 | askacademia_train | 1 | Stock phrases to answer talk questions Just met with a graduate student who was concerned that a recent talk had been derailed by a persistent questioner. I told them that question management is a skill that develops over time, but also provided a few stock phrases that can be used to deflect questions when you don't have a good answer. Here are some of mine - any suggestions? * For interrupters: "I might address that later in the talk - could you ask me again at the end if I haven't answered the question by then?" * For repeated questioners who won't stop: "This is a really interesting exchange but just because we're short on time and I want to give others a chance to ask questions, can we talk about it afterwards?" * For people who offer dumb criticisms of your methods: "That's an interesting point, what would you have done differently?" * For questions that are nonsensical: "That's an interesting point, what are your thoughts?" * For questions that point out limitations: "That's something I've thought a lot. Although this study wasn't set up to address that comprehensively, it's something we're going to look at in future studies." For context, I'm in social psychology and do quantitative research. | f9ktkct | f9lvtpu | 1,575,407,598 | 1,575,433,386 | 6 | 7 | >For people who offer dumb criticisms of your methods: "That's an interesting point, what would you have done differently?" Why not just go with "we did not do your suggestion A because of reasons X, and Y, instead we went for our method which has advantages Z." Otherwise you are inviting an even longer flood of probably equally dumb remarks. The other ones are similarly indirect, with the exception of the last one, I see no reason to pretend you are happy with their interruptions when you clearly aren't. Especially for the second one a direct "please save your questions for the end" seems much more appropriate, though it should ideally be the moderators making that point for you. | For people who offer dumb criticisms of your methods: "That's an interesting point, what would you have done differently?" Is that safe? It sounds like a way to have your talk derailed even more if they use it as an excuse to hold the floor and blather on. Why not just say "That's interesting" and offer a polite "i'll keep it in mind" and move on? | 0 | 25,788 | 1.166667 |
e5l2a7 | askacademia_train | 1 | Stock phrases to answer talk questions Just met with a graduate student who was concerned that a recent talk had been derailed by a persistent questioner. I told them that question management is a skill that develops over time, but also provided a few stock phrases that can be used to deflect questions when you don't have a good answer. Here are some of mine - any suggestions? * For interrupters: "I might address that later in the talk - could you ask me again at the end if I haven't answered the question by then?" * For repeated questioners who won't stop: "This is a really interesting exchange but just because we're short on time and I want to give others a chance to ask questions, can we talk about it afterwards?" * For people who offer dumb criticisms of your methods: "That's an interesting point, what would you have done differently?" * For questions that are nonsensical: "That's an interesting point, what are your thoughts?" * For questions that point out limitations: "That's something I've thought a lot. Although this study wasn't set up to address that comprehensively, it's something we're going to look at in future studies." For context, I'm in social psychology and do quantitative research. | f9kqdsj | f9ktkct | 1,575,405,764 | 1,575,407,598 | 5 | 6 | Another strategy is to preemptively explain how you will deal with questions. Sometimes the person introducing the speaker will do that formally other times it's left up to the speaker to say something like "Today I'll be sharing some developments in Advanced Basket Weaving. My presentation will be about 15 minutes and then we'll have time for questions at the end. If you have clarification questions, please let me know, but other discussion we'll save for the after the presentation." \[or not include that last sentence\] | >For people who offer dumb criticisms of your methods: "That's an interesting point, what would you have done differently?" Why not just go with "we did not do your suggestion A because of reasons X, and Y, instead we went for our method which has advantages Z." Otherwise you are inviting an even longer flood of probably equally dumb remarks. The other ones are similarly indirect, with the exception of the last one, I see no reason to pretend you are happy with their interruptions when you clearly aren't. Especially for the second one a direct "please save your questions for the end" seems much more appropriate, though it should ideally be the moderators making that point for you. | 0 | 1,834 | 1.2 |
e5l2a7 | askacademia_train | 1 | Stock phrases to answer talk questions Just met with a graduate student who was concerned that a recent talk had been derailed by a persistent questioner. I told them that question management is a skill that develops over time, but also provided a few stock phrases that can be used to deflect questions when you don't have a good answer. Here are some of mine - any suggestions? * For interrupters: "I might address that later in the talk - could you ask me again at the end if I haven't answered the question by then?" * For repeated questioners who won't stop: "This is a really interesting exchange but just because we're short on time and I want to give others a chance to ask questions, can we talk about it afterwards?" * For people who offer dumb criticisms of your methods: "That's an interesting point, what would you have done differently?" * For questions that are nonsensical: "That's an interesting point, what are your thoughts?" * For questions that point out limitations: "That's something I've thought a lot. Although this study wasn't set up to address that comprehensively, it's something we're going to look at in future studies." For context, I'm in social psychology and do quantitative research. | f9l844m | f9lvtpu | 1,575,416,691 | 1,575,433,386 | 6 | 7 | “That’s a really interesting point, I’ll have to look into that further when I get back to the lab, thank you”. Also, don’t worry. If everyone sees someone completely badgering a grad student speaker all they are thinking is “OMG what a jerk”, it doesn’t reflect on you at all. | For people who offer dumb criticisms of your methods: "That's an interesting point, what would you have done differently?" Is that safe? It sounds like a way to have your talk derailed even more if they use it as an excuse to hold the floor and blather on. Why not just say "That's interesting" and offer a polite "i'll keep it in mind" and move on? | 0 | 16,695 | 1.166667 |
e5l2a7 | askacademia_train | 1 | Stock phrases to answer talk questions Just met with a graduate student who was concerned that a recent talk had been derailed by a persistent questioner. I told them that question management is a skill that develops over time, but also provided a few stock phrases that can be used to deflect questions when you don't have a good answer. Here are some of mine - any suggestions? * For interrupters: "I might address that later in the talk - could you ask me again at the end if I haven't answered the question by then?" * For repeated questioners who won't stop: "This is a really interesting exchange but just because we're short on time and I want to give others a chance to ask questions, can we talk about it afterwards?" * For people who offer dumb criticisms of your methods: "That's an interesting point, what would you have done differently?" * For questions that are nonsensical: "That's an interesting point, what are your thoughts?" * For questions that point out limitations: "That's something I've thought a lot. Although this study wasn't set up to address that comprehensively, it's something we're going to look at in future studies." For context, I'm in social psychology and do quantitative research. | f9kqdsj | f9l844m | 1,575,405,764 | 1,575,416,691 | 5 | 6 | Another strategy is to preemptively explain how you will deal with questions. Sometimes the person introducing the speaker will do that formally other times it's left up to the speaker to say something like "Today I'll be sharing some developments in Advanced Basket Weaving. My presentation will be about 15 minutes and then we'll have time for questions at the end. If you have clarification questions, please let me know, but other discussion we'll save for the after the presentation." \[or not include that last sentence\] | “That’s a really interesting point, I’ll have to look into that further when I get back to the lab, thank you”. Also, don’t worry. If everyone sees someone completely badgering a grad student speaker all they are thinking is “OMG what a jerk”, it doesn’t reflect on you at all. | 0 | 10,927 | 1.2 |
e5l2a7 | askacademia_train | 1 | Stock phrases to answer talk questions Just met with a graduate student who was concerned that a recent talk had been derailed by a persistent questioner. I told them that question management is a skill that develops over time, but also provided a few stock phrases that can be used to deflect questions when you don't have a good answer. Here are some of mine - any suggestions? * For interrupters: "I might address that later in the talk - could you ask me again at the end if I haven't answered the question by then?" * For repeated questioners who won't stop: "This is a really interesting exchange but just because we're short on time and I want to give others a chance to ask questions, can we talk about it afterwards?" * For people who offer dumb criticisms of your methods: "That's an interesting point, what would you have done differently?" * For questions that are nonsensical: "That's an interesting point, what are your thoughts?" * For questions that point out limitations: "That's something I've thought a lot. Although this study wasn't set up to address that comprehensively, it's something we're going to look at in future studies." For context, I'm in social psychology and do quantitative research. | f9lvtpu | f9kqdsj | 1,575,433,386 | 1,575,405,764 | 7 | 5 | For people who offer dumb criticisms of your methods: "That's an interesting point, what would you have done differently?" Is that safe? It sounds like a way to have your talk derailed even more if they use it as an excuse to hold the floor and blather on. Why not just say "That's interesting" and offer a polite "i'll keep it in mind" and move on? | Another strategy is to preemptively explain how you will deal with questions. Sometimes the person introducing the speaker will do that formally other times it's left up to the speaker to say something like "Today I'll be sharing some developments in Advanced Basket Weaving. My presentation will be about 15 minutes and then we'll have time for questions at the end. If you have clarification questions, please let me know, but other discussion we'll save for the after the presentation." \[or not include that last sentence\] | 1 | 27,622 | 1.4 |
e5l2a7 | askacademia_train | 1 | Stock phrases to answer talk questions Just met with a graduate student who was concerned that a recent talk had been derailed by a persistent questioner. I told them that question management is a skill that develops over time, but also provided a few stock phrases that can be used to deflect questions when you don't have a good answer. Here are some of mine - any suggestions? * For interrupters: "I might address that later in the talk - could you ask me again at the end if I haven't answered the question by then?" * For repeated questioners who won't stop: "This is a really interesting exchange but just because we're short on time and I want to give others a chance to ask questions, can we talk about it afterwards?" * For people who offer dumb criticisms of your methods: "That's an interesting point, what would you have done differently?" * For questions that are nonsensical: "That's an interesting point, what are your thoughts?" * For questions that point out limitations: "That's something I've thought a lot. Although this study wasn't set up to address that comprehensively, it's something we're going to look at in future studies." For context, I'm in social psychology and do quantitative research. | f9lvtpu | f9lc8uq | 1,575,433,386 | 1,575,419,561 | 7 | 5 | For people who offer dumb criticisms of your methods: "That's an interesting point, what would you have done differently?" Is that safe? It sounds like a way to have your talk derailed even more if they use it as an excuse to hold the floor and blather on. Why not just say "That's interesting" and offer a polite "i'll keep it in mind" and move on? | Here's the other thing. If someone is doing this to a speaker, esp. a junior speaker, tell them to STFU. Esp. if you're a senior academic. | 1 | 13,825 | 1.4 |
e5l2a7 | askacademia_train | 1 | Stock phrases to answer talk questions Just met with a graduate student who was concerned that a recent talk had been derailed by a persistent questioner. I told them that question management is a skill that develops over time, but also provided a few stock phrases that can be used to deflect questions when you don't have a good answer. Here are some of mine - any suggestions? * For interrupters: "I might address that later in the talk - could you ask me again at the end if I haven't answered the question by then?" * For repeated questioners who won't stop: "This is a really interesting exchange but just because we're short on time and I want to give others a chance to ask questions, can we talk about it afterwards?" * For people who offer dumb criticisms of your methods: "That's an interesting point, what would you have done differently?" * For questions that are nonsensical: "That's an interesting point, what are your thoughts?" * For questions that point out limitations: "That's something I've thought a lot. Although this study wasn't set up to address that comprehensively, it's something we're going to look at in future studies." For context, I'm in social psychology and do quantitative research. | f9lcd58 | f9lvtpu | 1,575,419,644 | 1,575,433,386 | 5 | 7 | I certainly agree that asking or suggesting that they discuss with you after the talk can be a good idea if the questioner is persistent, or the answer genuinely requires a long technical explanation. But I do find it rather annoying when some speakers immediate response to an interesting question is to discuss it after the talk. That's all well and good but I also wanted to know the answer. It sometimes seems to be prepared as a stock response to avoid embarassment. | For people who offer dumb criticisms of your methods: "That's an interesting point, what would you have done differently?" Is that safe? It sounds like a way to have your talk derailed even more if they use it as an excuse to hold the floor and blather on. Why not just say "That's interesting" and offer a polite "i'll keep it in mind" and move on? | 0 | 13,742 | 1.4 |
e5l2a7 | askacademia_train | 1 | Stock phrases to answer talk questions Just met with a graduate student who was concerned that a recent talk had been derailed by a persistent questioner. I told them that question management is a skill that develops over time, but also provided a few stock phrases that can be used to deflect questions when you don't have a good answer. Here are some of mine - any suggestions? * For interrupters: "I might address that later in the talk - could you ask me again at the end if I haven't answered the question by then?" * For repeated questioners who won't stop: "This is a really interesting exchange but just because we're short on time and I want to give others a chance to ask questions, can we talk about it afterwards?" * For people who offer dumb criticisms of your methods: "That's an interesting point, what would you have done differently?" * For questions that are nonsensical: "That's an interesting point, what are your thoughts?" * For questions that point out limitations: "That's something I've thought a lot. Although this study wasn't set up to address that comprehensively, it's something we're going to look at in future studies." For context, I'm in social psychology and do quantitative research. | f9lvtpu | f9ll78s | 1,575,433,386 | 1,575,425,813 | 7 | 4 | For people who offer dumb criticisms of your methods: "That's an interesting point, what would you have done differently?" Is that safe? It sounds like a way to have your talk derailed even more if they use it as an excuse to hold the floor and blather on. Why not just say "That's interesting" and offer a polite "i'll keep it in mind" and move on? | "that's a good question, here is a better one: " then say something that will lead on to your next point. 'how does this affect the energy spectrum? which is shown here in the next figure'. | 1 | 7,573 | 1.75 |
e5l2a7 | askacademia_train | 1 | Stock phrases to answer talk questions Just met with a graduate student who was concerned that a recent talk had been derailed by a persistent questioner. I told them that question management is a skill that develops over time, but also provided a few stock phrases that can be used to deflect questions when you don't have a good answer. Here are some of mine - any suggestions? * For interrupters: "I might address that later in the talk - could you ask me again at the end if I haven't answered the question by then?" * For repeated questioners who won't stop: "This is a really interesting exchange but just because we're short on time and I want to give others a chance to ask questions, can we talk about it afterwards?" * For people who offer dumb criticisms of your methods: "That's an interesting point, what would you have done differently?" * For questions that are nonsensical: "That's an interesting point, what are your thoughts?" * For questions that point out limitations: "That's something I've thought a lot. Although this study wasn't set up to address that comprehensively, it's something we're going to look at in future studies." For context, I'm in social psychology and do quantitative research. | f9ll78s | f9lxjsu | 1,575,425,813 | 1,575,434,729 | 4 | 5 | "that's a good question, here is a better one: " then say something that will lead on to your next point. 'how does this affect the energy spectrum? which is shown here in the next figure'. | Not sure if this is about job talks, departmental talks, or conference presentations... the context would change my answer but: I think it is a skill as you described, and having prepared/strategic responses is smart. Overall I agree with the approach you’re sharing except for a few differences. I don’t and wouldn’t invite someone to talk about what they would’ve done or elaborate on their own thoughts at a talk I’m giving (if it was off or irrelevant or disruptive). To me that invites wasted time in a room with others who may have better questions, will be annoyed by such an invitation to another audience member, and who I’d rather impress with a deft redirect. | 0 | 8,916 | 1.25 |
l6s4fw | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Conducted my first lecture today. It did not go well I’m a TA and this term I am conducting classes for one of the intro lectures for first years. It’s like a general knowledge module on my country (so we cover history, econ, politics etc). I had my first independent lecture today on a topic I’m not familiar with at all. And it was so bad. I couldn’t pronounce a few names (it was on the origin of our language), my explanations were all over the place and I couldn’t answer a question a student had (I did answer it later though). I found out the topic yesterday so I didn’t have enough time to prepare. I’m not sure how to deal with this. This was their first impression of me and I’m a little worried that I’ll make things worse for them. Was anyone ever in a similar situation? How do I recover from this? | gl2mzuy | gl2k03w | 1,611,830,882 | 1,611,828,326 | 149 | 19 | Own it. Don't marinade in it. It happens. Rolling into the next class with some version of "Full disclosure guys, I don't know what you thought but I felt like last class was rough. That's not my usual style. Here's how today is going to go differently ... " Praise them for asking good questions that stumped you. That means their listening and thinking critically. Don't make excuses or ask for forgiveness but take some reasonable steps to do better using your personal strengths. If they ask a question and I don't know the answer, I tell them it's a great question and ask if anyone else in the class knows. If not, I joke "me neither - haha! Let's find out. Who can search up the answer fastest?" Edit: now that a re-read your post Idk. Opening the door for possibility while maybe not your ideal lecture, it wasn't as bad as it seems? We're often our own worst critic, especially when we're nervous and being observed. None of what you've described sounds terrible. You didn't insult anyone or make them cry ... Ive had professors do that and still recover. This will be okay for you too. | I don't think that's very representative of most first experiences, I started giving short guest lectures in my supervisors classes, then doing seminars discussing their lectures, then later my own lectures on content I had made myself; that way is a much more smooth transition. So don't take it as a bad sign for the future, just be honest about your experience with whoever assigned you to teach something you didn't know so it doesn't happen again. It might be harder to build up relationship with students again, but you still have the whole semester to do so. Good luck! | 1 | 2,556 | 7.842105 |
l6s4fw | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Conducted my first lecture today. It did not go well I’m a TA and this term I am conducting classes for one of the intro lectures for first years. It’s like a general knowledge module on my country (so we cover history, econ, politics etc). I had my first independent lecture today on a topic I’m not familiar with at all. And it was so bad. I couldn’t pronounce a few names (it was on the origin of our language), my explanations were all over the place and I couldn’t answer a question a student had (I did answer it later though). I found out the topic yesterday so I didn’t have enough time to prepare. I’m not sure how to deal with this. This was their first impression of me and I’m a little worried that I’ll make things worse for them. Was anyone ever in a similar situation? How do I recover from this? | gl2kjgy | gl2mzuy | 1,611,828,808 | 1,611,830,882 | 17 | 149 | My first time leading full classes was last semester. I've been in a similar situation with my teaching experience so far. I've TAed for 3 courses all of which I hadn't taken before. I was trusted to just lead classes anyway (which I guess is normal but I still find that super weird). For the first course I TAed for, I led class every other week plus review sessions. It felt super overwhelming to me at first, but I got used to it pretty quickly. My main source of worry before every session is that I will not know the answer to student's questions and that I am somehow letting them down. There have been times I didn't know the answer but I have never had an issue just telling them "I'm not sure but I will find out for you" -- just make sure you actually do find out for them. It feels weird to admit to students that you don't know something, but I try to remind myself that I am a student too and I am also learning (especially so for courses that I have never actually taken lol). When I get worried about them judging me I try to remind myself of when I was in undergrad. Most of the class, myself included sometimes, half payed attention for most lectures. Chances are if you mess up many of them won't even notice. And even if they do, they won't likely remember it -- I can't think of a single time that my professors/TAs messed up during my classes in undergrad. Each time you do this you will get more confident and it will get easier! | Own it. Don't marinade in it. It happens. Rolling into the next class with some version of "Full disclosure guys, I don't know what you thought but I felt like last class was rough. That's not my usual style. Here's how today is going to go differently ... " Praise them for asking good questions that stumped you. That means their listening and thinking critically. Don't make excuses or ask for forgiveness but take some reasonable steps to do better using your personal strengths. If they ask a question and I don't know the answer, I tell them it's a great question and ask if anyone else in the class knows. If not, I joke "me neither - haha! Let's find out. Who can search up the answer fastest?" Edit: now that a re-read your post Idk. Opening the door for possibility while maybe not your ideal lecture, it wasn't as bad as it seems? We're often our own worst critic, especially when we're nervous and being observed. None of what you've described sounds terrible. You didn't insult anyone or make them cry ... Ive had professors do that and still recover. This will be okay for you too. | 0 | 2,074 | 8.764706 |
l6s4fw | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Conducted my first lecture today. It did not go well I’m a TA and this term I am conducting classes for one of the intro lectures for first years. It’s like a general knowledge module on my country (so we cover history, econ, politics etc). I had my first independent lecture today on a topic I’m not familiar with at all. And it was so bad. I couldn’t pronounce a few names (it was on the origin of our language), my explanations were all over the place and I couldn’t answer a question a student had (I did answer it later though). I found out the topic yesterday so I didn’t have enough time to prepare. I’m not sure how to deal with this. This was their first impression of me and I’m a little worried that I’ll make things worse for them. Was anyone ever in a similar situation? How do I recover from this? | gl2u4zt | gl2xq07 | 1,611,836,168 | 1,611,838,387 | 4 | 6 | A couple things. First, as u/imaginary_character said, you weren't set up to succeed. Second, my grandfather said that the best response to a question you can't answer is: 'i'm not sure. i will look it up and get back to you.' I've followed this advice. I think it works. You're modeling to students that you are human as they are. Third, lecturing for the first time is really hard. Takes a a few months to really settle in, tbh. Have an outline. Ask yourself, what do I want to the students to remember from this lesson? Try and produce a narrative. Importantly, students can't distinguish mediocre teaching from bad teaching, in my experience. You experience your own faults at a much higher magnification than they do. What you see as huge mistakes, most don't even notice. ​ Honestly, just keep plowing forward, step-by-step. You will improve! It's clear from your post that you care a lot about your students and want the best from them. That's a great place to start. | Hopefully this is reassuring. I remember being a student when what you described happened to an T.A. (I'm sure everyone else forgot it, but it was a field I was thinking of going into and I wanted to know what the heck a first job looked like.) I thought "Wow, I feel kinda bad for them." And then two days later they got up again, did fine, and they became one of my favorite people to learn from. So the first impression doesn't stick. Students'll remember how well you went on to do. | 0 | 2,219 | 1.5 |
l6s4fw | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Conducted my first lecture today. It did not go well I’m a TA and this term I am conducting classes for one of the intro lectures for first years. It’s like a general knowledge module on my country (so we cover history, econ, politics etc). I had my first independent lecture today on a topic I’m not familiar with at all. And it was so bad. I couldn’t pronounce a few names (it was on the origin of our language), my explanations were all over the place and I couldn’t answer a question a student had (I did answer it later though). I found out the topic yesterday so I didn’t have enough time to prepare. I’m not sure how to deal with this. This was their first impression of me and I’m a little worried that I’ll make things worse for them. Was anyone ever in a similar situation? How do I recover from this? | gl2xq07 | gl2uzwx | 1,611,838,387 | 1,611,836,754 | 6 | 3 | Hopefully this is reassuring. I remember being a student when what you described happened to an T.A. (I'm sure everyone else forgot it, but it was a field I was thinking of going into and I wanted to know what the heck a first job looked like.) I thought "Wow, I feel kinda bad for them." And then two days later they got up again, did fine, and they became one of my favorite people to learn from. So the first impression doesn't stick. Students'll remember how well you went on to do. | Honestly: no one will remember. one lecture over the course of an academic year? they hear literally hundreds of lectures, it all blurs together. they won't have any recall of it in two weeks. Just be better moving forward. | 1 | 1,633 | 2 |
l6s4fw | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Conducted my first lecture today. It did not go well I’m a TA and this term I am conducting classes for one of the intro lectures for first years. It’s like a general knowledge module on my country (so we cover history, econ, politics etc). I had my first independent lecture today on a topic I’m not familiar with at all. And it was so bad. I couldn’t pronounce a few names (it was on the origin of our language), my explanations were all over the place and I couldn’t answer a question a student had (I did answer it later though). I found out the topic yesterday so I didn’t have enough time to prepare. I’m not sure how to deal with this. This was their first impression of me and I’m a little worried that I’ll make things worse for them. Was anyone ever in a similar situation? How do I recover from this? | gl2wyyi | gl2xq07 | 1,611,837,953 | 1,611,838,387 | 3 | 6 | As my professor said to me when I first started teaching (with 11 days notice, 4 classes, I had never taught before), "you only have to be one chapter ahead of the students". I gave a lecture once somewhere in my 3rd year of teaching and realized that it made no chronological or thematic sense. I made a mental note to fix it for next time and then a few years later *gave the same lecture without the corrections*. I also gave a lecture at the beginning of the semester, and realised halfway through that I had lost them (the curse of teaching non-history majors!) and the class was an absolute nightmare for the entire semester, so you just have to soldier on. Sometimes you are Principle Skinner, sometimes it's the kids. | Hopefully this is reassuring. I remember being a student when what you described happened to an T.A. (I'm sure everyone else forgot it, but it was a field I was thinking of going into and I wanted to know what the heck a first job looked like.) I thought "Wow, I feel kinda bad for them." And then two days later they got up again, did fine, and they became one of my favorite people to learn from. So the first impression doesn't stick. Students'll remember how well you went on to do. | 0 | 434 | 2 |
l6s4fw | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Conducted my first lecture today. It did not go well I’m a TA and this term I am conducting classes for one of the intro lectures for first years. It’s like a general knowledge module on my country (so we cover history, econ, politics etc). I had my first independent lecture today on a topic I’m not familiar with at all. And it was so bad. I couldn’t pronounce a few names (it was on the origin of our language), my explanations were all over the place and I couldn’t answer a question a student had (I did answer it later though). I found out the topic yesterday so I didn’t have enough time to prepare. I’m not sure how to deal with this. This was their first impression of me and I’m a little worried that I’ll make things worse for them. Was anyone ever in a similar situation? How do I recover from this? | gl2po2n | gl2xq07 | 1,611,832,935 | 1,611,838,387 | 2 | 6 | It happens. Reflect on what you could do differently or something that would have helped given the circumstances. Remember that and do a little better next time. Your first lecture is a starting point, not representative of your ability as a lecturer. | Hopefully this is reassuring. I remember being a student when what you described happened to an T.A. (I'm sure everyone else forgot it, but it was a field I was thinking of going into and I wanted to know what the heck a first job looked like.) I thought "Wow, I feel kinda bad for them." And then two days later they got up again, did fine, and they became one of my favorite people to learn from. So the first impression doesn't stick. Students'll remember how well you went on to do. | 0 | 5,452 | 3 |
l6s4fw | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Conducted my first lecture today. It did not go well I’m a TA and this term I am conducting classes for one of the intro lectures for first years. It’s like a general knowledge module on my country (so we cover history, econ, politics etc). I had my first independent lecture today on a topic I’m not familiar with at all. And it was so bad. I couldn’t pronounce a few names (it was on the origin of our language), my explanations were all over the place and I couldn’t answer a question a student had (I did answer it later though). I found out the topic yesterday so I didn’t have enough time to prepare. I’m not sure how to deal with this. This was their first impression of me and I’m a little worried that I’ll make things worse for them. Was anyone ever in a similar situation? How do I recover from this? | gl2vunj | gl2xq07 | 1,611,837,291 | 1,611,838,387 | 2 | 6 | I've been teaching for years and still have the occasional train wreck lecture. Sometimes it's even on material I've covered hundreds of times. The best advice I can give is be honest with your students and laugh it off. It's amazing how a little self-deprecating humor can diffuse an awkward classroom. Especially when you mispronounce something. I'm super bad about that. As for not being able to answer all questions off the top of your head... someone else already mentioned admitting that you're not sure but promising you'll look it up and get back to them. This is great advice. Not only does it ensure you give them the proper information it's teaching your students that's it's okay not to have all the answers all the time. My mentor in grad school taught me a lot but the thing that has stuck with me all these years is that unless you have a photographic memory you're never going to remember every little thing about your subject. What you need to learn is what questions you should be asking and where to find the answers. It's a philosophy I live by both in research and teaching. | Hopefully this is reassuring. I remember being a student when what you described happened to an T.A. (I'm sure everyone else forgot it, but it was a field I was thinking of going into and I wanted to know what the heck a first job looked like.) I thought "Wow, I feel kinda bad for them." And then two days later they got up again, did fine, and they became one of my favorite people to learn from. So the first impression doesn't stick. Students'll remember how well you went on to do. | 0 | 1,096 | 3 |
l6s4fw | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Conducted my first lecture today. It did not go well I’m a TA and this term I am conducting classes for one of the intro lectures for first years. It’s like a general knowledge module on my country (so we cover history, econ, politics etc). I had my first independent lecture today on a topic I’m not familiar with at all. And it was so bad. I couldn’t pronounce a few names (it was on the origin of our language), my explanations were all over the place and I couldn’t answer a question a student had (I did answer it later though). I found out the topic yesterday so I didn’t have enough time to prepare. I’m not sure how to deal with this. This was their first impression of me and I’m a little worried that I’ll make things worse for them. Was anyone ever in a similar situation? How do I recover from this? | gl2u4zt | gl310sl | 1,611,836,168 | 1,611,840,052 | 4 | 6 | A couple things. First, as u/imaginary_character said, you weren't set up to succeed. Second, my grandfather said that the best response to a question you can't answer is: 'i'm not sure. i will look it up and get back to you.' I've followed this advice. I think it works. You're modeling to students that you are human as they are. Third, lecturing for the first time is really hard. Takes a a few months to really settle in, tbh. Have an outline. Ask yourself, what do I want to the students to remember from this lesson? Try and produce a narrative. Importantly, students can't distinguish mediocre teaching from bad teaching, in my experience. You experience your own faults at a much higher magnification than they do. What you see as huge mistakes, most don't even notice. ​ Honestly, just keep plowing forward, step-by-step. You will improve! It's clear from your post that you care a lot about your students and want the best from them. That's a great place to start. | I just finished my PhD in curriculum studies, and have continued teaching high school during grad school. When I became a teacher 15 years ago, it was through an accelerated process, that involved a ton of mentoring during my first year of teaching. One of my mentors mentioned, kind of off-handedly, that it was somewhere around his 7th year of teaching the same, narrow subject (chemistry, in his case) that he was able to walk into the room and teach pretty well, without doing several hours of prep for each hour of class. As others have said above, you were put into an unreasonable position, because you didn't have time to prep. Hopefully, you know (or have control over) the content of the second class, and can put the prep in. There's lots of good advice above (even though the suggestions move in several very different directions) on how to address day 1. Pick the one that most appeals to you, and include it as part of how you prepare for the second class. I'll just add to that advice: It's okay to tell your students that you weren't given enough time to prep the first class, and you have prepared much more thoroughly for the second. That can help your students reconcile the different experiences, if they were concerned about your trustworthiness as a TA after that first class, and to recognize that you're better than that first impression might have left. | 0 | 3,884 | 1.5 |
l6s4fw | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Conducted my first lecture today. It did not go well I’m a TA and this term I am conducting classes for one of the intro lectures for first years. It’s like a general knowledge module on my country (so we cover history, econ, politics etc). I had my first independent lecture today on a topic I’m not familiar with at all. And it was so bad. I couldn’t pronounce a few names (it was on the origin of our language), my explanations were all over the place and I couldn’t answer a question a student had (I did answer it later though). I found out the topic yesterday so I didn’t have enough time to prepare. I’m not sure how to deal with this. This was their first impression of me and I’m a little worried that I’ll make things worse for them. Was anyone ever in a similar situation? How do I recover from this? | gl310sl | gl2uzwx | 1,611,840,052 | 1,611,836,754 | 6 | 3 | I just finished my PhD in curriculum studies, and have continued teaching high school during grad school. When I became a teacher 15 years ago, it was through an accelerated process, that involved a ton of mentoring during my first year of teaching. One of my mentors mentioned, kind of off-handedly, that it was somewhere around his 7th year of teaching the same, narrow subject (chemistry, in his case) that he was able to walk into the room and teach pretty well, without doing several hours of prep for each hour of class. As others have said above, you were put into an unreasonable position, because you didn't have time to prep. Hopefully, you know (or have control over) the content of the second class, and can put the prep in. There's lots of good advice above (even though the suggestions move in several very different directions) on how to address day 1. Pick the one that most appeals to you, and include it as part of how you prepare for the second class. I'll just add to that advice: It's okay to tell your students that you weren't given enough time to prep the first class, and you have prepared much more thoroughly for the second. That can help your students reconcile the different experiences, if they were concerned about your trustworthiness as a TA after that first class, and to recognize that you're better than that first impression might have left. | Honestly: no one will remember. one lecture over the course of an academic year? they hear literally hundreds of lectures, it all blurs together. they won't have any recall of it in two weeks. Just be better moving forward. | 1 | 3,298 | 2 |
l6s4fw | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Conducted my first lecture today. It did not go well I’m a TA and this term I am conducting classes for one of the intro lectures for first years. It’s like a general knowledge module on my country (so we cover history, econ, politics etc). I had my first independent lecture today on a topic I’m not familiar with at all. And it was so bad. I couldn’t pronounce a few names (it was on the origin of our language), my explanations were all over the place and I couldn’t answer a question a student had (I did answer it later though). I found out the topic yesterday so I didn’t have enough time to prepare. I’m not sure how to deal with this. This was their first impression of me and I’m a little worried that I’ll make things worse for them. Was anyone ever in a similar situation? How do I recover from this? | gl2wyyi | gl310sl | 1,611,837,953 | 1,611,840,052 | 3 | 6 | As my professor said to me when I first started teaching (with 11 days notice, 4 classes, I had never taught before), "you only have to be one chapter ahead of the students". I gave a lecture once somewhere in my 3rd year of teaching and realized that it made no chronological or thematic sense. I made a mental note to fix it for next time and then a few years later *gave the same lecture without the corrections*. I also gave a lecture at the beginning of the semester, and realised halfway through that I had lost them (the curse of teaching non-history majors!) and the class was an absolute nightmare for the entire semester, so you just have to soldier on. Sometimes you are Principle Skinner, sometimes it's the kids. | I just finished my PhD in curriculum studies, and have continued teaching high school during grad school. When I became a teacher 15 years ago, it was through an accelerated process, that involved a ton of mentoring during my first year of teaching. One of my mentors mentioned, kind of off-handedly, that it was somewhere around his 7th year of teaching the same, narrow subject (chemistry, in his case) that he was able to walk into the room and teach pretty well, without doing several hours of prep for each hour of class. As others have said above, you were put into an unreasonable position, because you didn't have time to prep. Hopefully, you know (or have control over) the content of the second class, and can put the prep in. There's lots of good advice above (even though the suggestions move in several very different directions) on how to address day 1. Pick the one that most appeals to you, and include it as part of how you prepare for the second class. I'll just add to that advice: It's okay to tell your students that you weren't given enough time to prep the first class, and you have prepared much more thoroughly for the second. That can help your students reconcile the different experiences, if they were concerned about your trustworthiness as a TA after that first class, and to recognize that you're better than that first impression might have left. | 0 | 2,099 | 2 |
l6s4fw | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Conducted my first lecture today. It did not go well I’m a TA and this term I am conducting classes for one of the intro lectures for first years. It’s like a general knowledge module on my country (so we cover history, econ, politics etc). I had my first independent lecture today on a topic I’m not familiar with at all. And it was so bad. I couldn’t pronounce a few names (it was on the origin of our language), my explanations were all over the place and I couldn’t answer a question a student had (I did answer it later though). I found out the topic yesterday so I didn’t have enough time to prepare. I’m not sure how to deal with this. This was their first impression of me and I’m a little worried that I’ll make things worse for them. Was anyone ever in a similar situation? How do I recover from this? | gl310sl | gl2ytfo | 1,611,840,052 | 1,611,838,983 | 6 | 3 | I just finished my PhD in curriculum studies, and have continued teaching high school during grad school. When I became a teacher 15 years ago, it was through an accelerated process, that involved a ton of mentoring during my first year of teaching. One of my mentors mentioned, kind of off-handedly, that it was somewhere around his 7th year of teaching the same, narrow subject (chemistry, in his case) that he was able to walk into the room and teach pretty well, without doing several hours of prep for each hour of class. As others have said above, you were put into an unreasonable position, because you didn't have time to prep. Hopefully, you know (or have control over) the content of the second class, and can put the prep in. There's lots of good advice above (even though the suggestions move in several very different directions) on how to address day 1. Pick the one that most appeals to you, and include it as part of how you prepare for the second class. I'll just add to that advice: It's okay to tell your students that you weren't given enough time to prep the first class, and you have prepared much more thoroughly for the second. That can help your students reconcile the different experiences, if they were concerned about your trustworthiness as a TA after that first class, and to recognize that you're better than that first impression might have left. | Teaching is difficult. It takes time to learn what techniques work best for you and the population of students you are teaching. Think of teaching like research. You are probably going to be bad at it at first. As you put time in, you will get better. Don’t beat yourself up about a bad class. Think about how to use your experience to do better next time. If you would like, you can address the first class with your students. I don’t even like to think of my first class or really first couple years of teaching. After 15 years, my bad lectures are few and far between. | 1 | 1,069 | 2 |
l6s4fw | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Conducted my first lecture today. It did not go well I’m a TA and this term I am conducting classes for one of the intro lectures for first years. It’s like a general knowledge module on my country (so we cover history, econ, politics etc). I had my first independent lecture today on a topic I’m not familiar with at all. And it was so bad. I couldn’t pronounce a few names (it was on the origin of our language), my explanations were all over the place and I couldn’t answer a question a student had (I did answer it later though). I found out the topic yesterday so I didn’t have enough time to prepare. I’m not sure how to deal with this. This was their first impression of me and I’m a little worried that I’ll make things worse for them. Was anyone ever in a similar situation? How do I recover from this? | gl310sl | gl2po2n | 1,611,840,052 | 1,611,832,935 | 6 | 2 | I just finished my PhD in curriculum studies, and have continued teaching high school during grad school. When I became a teacher 15 years ago, it was through an accelerated process, that involved a ton of mentoring during my first year of teaching. One of my mentors mentioned, kind of off-handedly, that it was somewhere around his 7th year of teaching the same, narrow subject (chemistry, in his case) that he was able to walk into the room and teach pretty well, without doing several hours of prep for each hour of class. As others have said above, you were put into an unreasonable position, because you didn't have time to prep. Hopefully, you know (or have control over) the content of the second class, and can put the prep in. There's lots of good advice above (even though the suggestions move in several very different directions) on how to address day 1. Pick the one that most appeals to you, and include it as part of how you prepare for the second class. I'll just add to that advice: It's okay to tell your students that you weren't given enough time to prep the first class, and you have prepared much more thoroughly for the second. That can help your students reconcile the different experiences, if they were concerned about your trustworthiness as a TA after that first class, and to recognize that you're better than that first impression might have left. | It happens. Reflect on what you could do differently or something that would have helped given the circumstances. Remember that and do a little better next time. Your first lecture is a starting point, not representative of your ability as a lecturer. | 1 | 7,117 | 3 |
l6s4fw | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Conducted my first lecture today. It did not go well I’m a TA and this term I am conducting classes for one of the intro lectures for first years. It’s like a general knowledge module on my country (so we cover history, econ, politics etc). I had my first independent lecture today on a topic I’m not familiar with at all. And it was so bad. I couldn’t pronounce a few names (it was on the origin of our language), my explanations were all over the place and I couldn’t answer a question a student had (I did answer it later though). I found out the topic yesterday so I didn’t have enough time to prepare. I’m not sure how to deal with this. This was their first impression of me and I’m a little worried that I’ll make things worse for them. Was anyone ever in a similar situation? How do I recover from this? | gl310sl | gl2vunj | 1,611,840,052 | 1,611,837,291 | 6 | 2 | I just finished my PhD in curriculum studies, and have continued teaching high school during grad school. When I became a teacher 15 years ago, it was through an accelerated process, that involved a ton of mentoring during my first year of teaching. One of my mentors mentioned, kind of off-handedly, that it was somewhere around his 7th year of teaching the same, narrow subject (chemistry, in his case) that he was able to walk into the room and teach pretty well, without doing several hours of prep for each hour of class. As others have said above, you were put into an unreasonable position, because you didn't have time to prep. Hopefully, you know (or have control over) the content of the second class, and can put the prep in. There's lots of good advice above (even though the suggestions move in several very different directions) on how to address day 1. Pick the one that most appeals to you, and include it as part of how you prepare for the second class. I'll just add to that advice: It's okay to tell your students that you weren't given enough time to prep the first class, and you have prepared much more thoroughly for the second. That can help your students reconcile the different experiences, if they were concerned about your trustworthiness as a TA after that first class, and to recognize that you're better than that first impression might have left. | I've been teaching for years and still have the occasional train wreck lecture. Sometimes it's even on material I've covered hundreds of times. The best advice I can give is be honest with your students and laugh it off. It's amazing how a little self-deprecating humor can diffuse an awkward classroom. Especially when you mispronounce something. I'm super bad about that. As for not being able to answer all questions off the top of your head... someone else already mentioned admitting that you're not sure but promising you'll look it up and get back to them. This is great advice. Not only does it ensure you give them the proper information it's teaching your students that's it's okay not to have all the answers all the time. My mentor in grad school taught me a lot but the thing that has stuck with me all these years is that unless you have a photographic memory you're never going to remember every little thing about your subject. What you need to learn is what questions you should be asking and where to find the answers. It's a philosophy I live by both in research and teaching. | 1 | 2,761 | 3 |
l6s4fw | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Conducted my first lecture today. It did not go well I’m a TA and this term I am conducting classes for one of the intro lectures for first years. It’s like a general knowledge module on my country (so we cover history, econ, politics etc). I had my first independent lecture today on a topic I’m not familiar with at all. And it was so bad. I couldn’t pronounce a few names (it was on the origin of our language), my explanations were all over the place and I couldn’t answer a question a student had (I did answer it later though). I found out the topic yesterday so I didn’t have enough time to prepare. I’m not sure how to deal with this. This was their first impression of me and I’m a little worried that I’ll make things worse for them. Was anyone ever in a similar situation? How do I recover from this? | gl2po2n | gl2u4zt | 1,611,832,935 | 1,611,836,168 | 2 | 4 | It happens. Reflect on what you could do differently or something that would have helped given the circumstances. Remember that and do a little better next time. Your first lecture is a starting point, not representative of your ability as a lecturer. | A couple things. First, as u/imaginary_character said, you weren't set up to succeed. Second, my grandfather said that the best response to a question you can't answer is: 'i'm not sure. i will look it up and get back to you.' I've followed this advice. I think it works. You're modeling to students that you are human as they are. Third, lecturing for the first time is really hard. Takes a a few months to really settle in, tbh. Have an outline. Ask yourself, what do I want to the students to remember from this lesson? Try and produce a narrative. Importantly, students can't distinguish mediocre teaching from bad teaching, in my experience. You experience your own faults at a much higher magnification than they do. What you see as huge mistakes, most don't even notice. ​ Honestly, just keep plowing forward, step-by-step. You will improve! It's clear from your post that you care a lot about your students and want the best from them. That's a great place to start. | 0 | 3,233 | 2 |
l6s4fw | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Conducted my first lecture today. It did not go well I’m a TA and this term I am conducting classes for one of the intro lectures for first years. It’s like a general knowledge module on my country (so we cover history, econ, politics etc). I had my first independent lecture today on a topic I’m not familiar with at all. And it was so bad. I couldn’t pronounce a few names (it was on the origin of our language), my explanations were all over the place and I couldn’t answer a question a student had (I did answer it later though). I found out the topic yesterday so I didn’t have enough time to prepare. I’m not sure how to deal with this. This was their first impression of me and I’m a little worried that I’ll make things worse for them. Was anyone ever in a similar situation? How do I recover from this? | gl2po2n | gl2uzwx | 1,611,832,935 | 1,611,836,754 | 2 | 3 | It happens. Reflect on what you could do differently or something that would have helped given the circumstances. Remember that and do a little better next time. Your first lecture is a starting point, not representative of your ability as a lecturer. | Honestly: no one will remember. one lecture over the course of an academic year? they hear literally hundreds of lectures, it all blurs together. they won't have any recall of it in two weeks. Just be better moving forward. | 0 | 3,819 | 1.5 |
l6s4fw | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Conducted my first lecture today. It did not go well I’m a TA and this term I am conducting classes for one of the intro lectures for first years. It’s like a general knowledge module on my country (so we cover history, econ, politics etc). I had my first independent lecture today on a topic I’m not familiar with at all. And it was so bad. I couldn’t pronounce a few names (it was on the origin of our language), my explanations were all over the place and I couldn’t answer a question a student had (I did answer it later though). I found out the topic yesterday so I didn’t have enough time to prepare. I’m not sure how to deal with this. This was their first impression of me and I’m a little worried that I’ll make things worse for them. Was anyone ever in a similar situation? How do I recover from this? | gl2wyyi | gl2po2n | 1,611,837,953 | 1,611,832,935 | 3 | 2 | As my professor said to me when I first started teaching (with 11 days notice, 4 classes, I had never taught before), "you only have to be one chapter ahead of the students". I gave a lecture once somewhere in my 3rd year of teaching and realized that it made no chronological or thematic sense. I made a mental note to fix it for next time and then a few years later *gave the same lecture without the corrections*. I also gave a lecture at the beginning of the semester, and realised halfway through that I had lost them (the curse of teaching non-history majors!) and the class was an absolute nightmare for the entire semester, so you just have to soldier on. Sometimes you are Principle Skinner, sometimes it's the kids. | It happens. Reflect on what you could do differently or something that would have helped given the circumstances. Remember that and do a little better next time. Your first lecture is a starting point, not representative of your ability as a lecturer. | 1 | 5,018 | 1.5 |
l6s4fw | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Conducted my first lecture today. It did not go well I’m a TA and this term I am conducting classes for one of the intro lectures for first years. It’s like a general knowledge module on my country (so we cover history, econ, politics etc). I had my first independent lecture today on a topic I’m not familiar with at all. And it was so bad. I couldn’t pronounce a few names (it was on the origin of our language), my explanations were all over the place and I couldn’t answer a question a student had (I did answer it later though). I found out the topic yesterday so I didn’t have enough time to prepare. I’m not sure how to deal with this. This was their first impression of me and I’m a little worried that I’ll make things worse for them. Was anyone ever in a similar situation? How do I recover from this? | gl2wyyi | gl2vunj | 1,611,837,953 | 1,611,837,291 | 3 | 2 | As my professor said to me when I first started teaching (with 11 days notice, 4 classes, I had never taught before), "you only have to be one chapter ahead of the students". I gave a lecture once somewhere in my 3rd year of teaching and realized that it made no chronological or thematic sense. I made a mental note to fix it for next time and then a few years later *gave the same lecture without the corrections*. I also gave a lecture at the beginning of the semester, and realised halfway through that I had lost them (the curse of teaching non-history majors!) and the class was an absolute nightmare for the entire semester, so you just have to soldier on. Sometimes you are Principle Skinner, sometimes it's the kids. | I've been teaching for years and still have the occasional train wreck lecture. Sometimes it's even on material I've covered hundreds of times. The best advice I can give is be honest with your students and laugh it off. It's amazing how a little self-deprecating humor can diffuse an awkward classroom. Especially when you mispronounce something. I'm super bad about that. As for not being able to answer all questions off the top of your head... someone else already mentioned admitting that you're not sure but promising you'll look it up and get back to them. This is great advice. Not only does it ensure you give them the proper information it's teaching your students that's it's okay not to have all the answers all the time. My mentor in grad school taught me a lot but the thing that has stuck with me all these years is that unless you have a photographic memory you're never going to remember every little thing about your subject. What you need to learn is what questions you should be asking and where to find the answers. It's a philosophy I live by both in research and teaching. | 1 | 662 | 1.5 |
l6s4fw | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Conducted my first lecture today. It did not go well I’m a TA and this term I am conducting classes for one of the intro lectures for first years. It’s like a general knowledge module on my country (so we cover history, econ, politics etc). I had my first independent lecture today on a topic I’m not familiar with at all. And it was so bad. I couldn’t pronounce a few names (it was on the origin of our language), my explanations were all over the place and I couldn’t answer a question a student had (I did answer it later though). I found out the topic yesterday so I didn’t have enough time to prepare. I’m not sure how to deal with this. This was their first impression of me and I’m a little worried that I’ll make things worse for them. Was anyone ever in a similar situation? How do I recover from this? | gl2ytfo | gl2po2n | 1,611,838,983 | 1,611,832,935 | 3 | 2 | Teaching is difficult. It takes time to learn what techniques work best for you and the population of students you are teaching. Think of teaching like research. You are probably going to be bad at it at first. As you put time in, you will get better. Don’t beat yourself up about a bad class. Think about how to use your experience to do better next time. If you would like, you can address the first class with your students. I don’t even like to think of my first class or really first couple years of teaching. After 15 years, my bad lectures are few and far between. | It happens. Reflect on what you could do differently or something that would have helped given the circumstances. Remember that and do a little better next time. Your first lecture is a starting point, not representative of your ability as a lecturer. | 1 | 6,048 | 1.5 |
l6s4fw | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Conducted my first lecture today. It did not go well I’m a TA and this term I am conducting classes for one of the intro lectures for first years. It’s like a general knowledge module on my country (so we cover history, econ, politics etc). I had my first independent lecture today on a topic I’m not familiar with at all. And it was so bad. I couldn’t pronounce a few names (it was on the origin of our language), my explanations were all over the place and I couldn’t answer a question a student had (I did answer it later though). I found out the topic yesterday so I didn’t have enough time to prepare. I’m not sure how to deal with this. This was their first impression of me and I’m a little worried that I’ll make things worse for them. Was anyone ever in a similar situation? How do I recover from this? | gl2ytfo | gl2vunj | 1,611,838,983 | 1,611,837,291 | 3 | 2 | Teaching is difficult. It takes time to learn what techniques work best for you and the population of students you are teaching. Think of teaching like research. You are probably going to be bad at it at first. As you put time in, you will get better. Don’t beat yourself up about a bad class. Think about how to use your experience to do better next time. If you would like, you can address the first class with your students. I don’t even like to think of my first class or really first couple years of teaching. After 15 years, my bad lectures are few and far between. | I've been teaching for years and still have the occasional train wreck lecture. Sometimes it's even on material I've covered hundreds of times. The best advice I can give is be honest with your students and laugh it off. It's amazing how a little self-deprecating humor can diffuse an awkward classroom. Especially when you mispronounce something. I'm super bad about that. As for not being able to answer all questions off the top of your head... someone else already mentioned admitting that you're not sure but promising you'll look it up and get back to them. This is great advice. Not only does it ensure you give them the proper information it's teaching your students that's it's okay not to have all the answers all the time. My mentor in grad school taught me a lot but the thing that has stuck with me all these years is that unless you have a photographic memory you're never going to remember every little thing about your subject. What you need to learn is what questions you should be asking and where to find the answers. It's a philosophy I live by both in research and teaching. | 1 | 1,692 | 1.5 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipkcr0c | ipjyisy | 1,663,910,339 | 1,663,901,401 | 381 | 164 | "other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic" This is an unrealistic expectation of work ethic. Academia sets us up for outrageous burnout. The fact that you are 'cycling' in your ability to focus is actually a symptom of chronic burnout. I have moved from academia to industry, and am noticing a stark difference in the way people protect their off-work time. I work 7.5 hours a day, monday to friday, no more, no less (and if more, claim overtime) and am far more effective day after day than I was in academia pulling 12-16 hr days. As is a constant theme in these subreddits and I'm sure you know - A lot of aspects of academia are extremely toxic. I think a way to 'turn it around' is to realize that the expectations are unreasonable and that it's okay if it doesn't work for you. Work for a few isolated hours a day. Build those up if you can. If you can't but are still productive, that's fine. Lower the bar to something reasonable for you, because you are your own worst critic. | Why does it matter if others work more hours than you? As long as you're getting your shit done, the "work ethic" isn't an issue. Hell, your work ethic sounds much healthier. | 1 | 8,938 | 2.323171 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipkau3a | ipkcr0c | 1,663,908,961 | 1,663,910,339 | 55 | 381 | Sounds a bit like me. I was recently diagnosed with ADHD which probably at least partially explains my productivity problems. I have found I need external deadlines and accountability to keep me on track. | "other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic" This is an unrealistic expectation of work ethic. Academia sets us up for outrageous burnout. The fact that you are 'cycling' in your ability to focus is actually a symptom of chronic burnout. I have moved from academia to industry, and am noticing a stark difference in the way people protect their off-work time. I work 7.5 hours a day, monday to friday, no more, no less (and if more, claim overtime) and am far more effective day after day than I was in academia pulling 12-16 hr days. As is a constant theme in these subreddits and I'm sure you know - A lot of aspects of academia are extremely toxic. I think a way to 'turn it around' is to realize that the expectations are unreasonable and that it's okay if it doesn't work for you. Work for a few isolated hours a day. Build those up if you can. If you can't but are still productive, that's fine. Lower the bar to something reasonable for you, because you are your own worst critic. | 0 | 1,378 | 6.927273 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipkc6qe | ipkcr0c | 1,663,909,929 | 1,663,910,339 | 19 | 381 | I’m here to tell you I do struggle with the same things. When I work “full-on” I feel like I’m a beast. Great presentations, reports what not. And then there are days that are so slow I want to do nothing but binge watch or scroll through Reddit. My husband is a workaholic constantly powering through but he is on the verge of a serious breakdown if he doesn’t stop. So I’m not sure which is worse, to be honest. I have noticed, I work better with white noise in the background, taking regular breaks & accepting that there are certain days of the month that I’m going to be “hazy”. It does coincide with my PMS dates and I’m trying to make my peace with that. | "other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic" This is an unrealistic expectation of work ethic. Academia sets us up for outrageous burnout. The fact that you are 'cycling' in your ability to focus is actually a symptom of chronic burnout. I have moved from academia to industry, and am noticing a stark difference in the way people protect their off-work time. I work 7.5 hours a day, monday to friday, no more, no less (and if more, claim overtime) and am far more effective day after day than I was in academia pulling 12-16 hr days. As is a constant theme in these subreddits and I'm sure you know - A lot of aspects of academia are extremely toxic. I think a way to 'turn it around' is to realize that the expectations are unreasonable and that it's okay if it doesn't work for you. Work for a few isolated hours a day. Build those up if you can. If you can't but are still productive, that's fine. Lower the bar to something reasonable for you, because you are your own worst critic. | 0 | 410 | 20.052632 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipkcr0c | ipjzyu7 | 1,663,910,339 | 1,663,902,167 | 381 | 10 | "other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic" This is an unrealistic expectation of work ethic. Academia sets us up for outrageous burnout. The fact that you are 'cycling' in your ability to focus is actually a symptom of chronic burnout. I have moved from academia to industry, and am noticing a stark difference in the way people protect their off-work time. I work 7.5 hours a day, monday to friday, no more, no less (and if more, claim overtime) and am far more effective day after day than I was in academia pulling 12-16 hr days. As is a constant theme in these subreddits and I'm sure you know - A lot of aspects of academia are extremely toxic. I think a way to 'turn it around' is to realize that the expectations are unreasonable and that it's okay if it doesn't work for you. Work for a few isolated hours a day. Build those up if you can. If you can't but are still productive, that's fine. Lower the bar to something reasonable for you, because you are your own worst critic. | Hey have you considered PMDD? It is very common for mensturating women to go through changes in motivation, energy throughout their cycle and it can be quiet drastic for women with PMDD. I find it very hard to stay focused or exert energy in the 7-10 days before my period and even my cognitive skills drop a few notches during this time. Often resorting to low energy activities like scrolling the internet etc. | 1 | 8,172 | 38.1 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipkau3a | ipjzyu7 | 1,663,908,961 | 1,663,902,167 | 55 | 10 | Sounds a bit like me. I was recently diagnosed with ADHD which probably at least partially explains my productivity problems. I have found I need external deadlines and accountability to keep me on track. | Hey have you considered PMDD? It is very common for mensturating women to go through changes in motivation, energy throughout their cycle and it can be quiet drastic for women with PMDD. I find it very hard to stay focused or exert energy in the 7-10 days before my period and even my cognitive skills drop a few notches during this time. Often resorting to low energy activities like scrolling the internet etc. | 1 | 6,794 | 5.5 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipkdn3o | ipkc6qe | 1,663,911,001 | 1,663,909,929 | 44 | 19 | I have an approach to productivity. The day before I list stuff I want to get done and break it down into stupidly easy tasks. For example, "open textbook on relevant page" is a task. I choose a subset of tasks I need to get done no matter what, i.e. the strict minimum I have to do before I am allowed to call it quits. Usually it's about 4 hours worth of work, sometimes less. Once I complete that amount of work I am allowed to not work for the rest of the day. Some days I actually do work only for 4 hours, most days I get caught up with it and end up doing 8-10 hours. The hardest thing is to start, so my goal is never to get as much done, but rather that every single day, something gets done. | I’m here to tell you I do struggle with the same things. When I work “full-on” I feel like I’m a beast. Great presentations, reports what not. And then there are days that are so slow I want to do nothing but binge watch or scroll through Reddit. My husband is a workaholic constantly powering through but he is on the verge of a serious breakdown if he doesn’t stop. So I’m not sure which is worse, to be honest. I have noticed, I work better with white noise in the background, taking regular breaks & accepting that there are certain days of the month that I’m going to be “hazy”. It does coincide with my PMS dates and I’m trying to make my peace with that. | 1 | 1,072 | 2.315789 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipkdn3o | ipjzyu7 | 1,663,911,001 | 1,663,902,167 | 44 | 10 | I have an approach to productivity. The day before I list stuff I want to get done and break it down into stupidly easy tasks. For example, "open textbook on relevant page" is a task. I choose a subset of tasks I need to get done no matter what, i.e. the strict minimum I have to do before I am allowed to call it quits. Usually it's about 4 hours worth of work, sometimes less. Once I complete that amount of work I am allowed to not work for the rest of the day. Some days I actually do work only for 4 hours, most days I get caught up with it and end up doing 8-10 hours. The hardest thing is to start, so my goal is never to get as much done, but rather that every single day, something gets done. | Hey have you considered PMDD? It is very common for mensturating women to go through changes in motivation, energy throughout their cycle and it can be quiet drastic for women with PMDD. I find it very hard to stay focused or exert energy in the 7-10 days before my period and even my cognitive skills drop a few notches during this time. Often resorting to low energy activities like scrolling the internet etc. | 1 | 8,834 | 4.4 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipkq22n | ipkdpho | 1,663,921,797 | 1,663,911,051 | 34 | 21 | Humanities professor here. Keep in mind that the postdoc is pretty much the last time you'll be able to focus exclusively on the research. After that it's teaching, committees, supervision of grad students, not to mention family commitments, parenting etc. My point is that 'slacking off' is a must. You need it to stay balanced and it will result in better work later. The mind works even when you're off so you're doing yourself a good service by just taking time off to chill. Otherwise it's burnout, like everyone else here has said. I still make time for aimless scrolling, naps etc. | As a postdoc myself, I feel this way all the time. I think the main issue is that you feel guilt and shame for the way you’re getting work done. One thing I’ve realized is that since I moved from my PhD to my postdoc, I’ve just gotten better at a lot of the things I do. When things aren’t as challenging, they take less time. So you end up feeling guilty for not spending all day working, even though you’ve done everything you needed to. | 1 | 10,746 | 1.619048 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipkc6qe | ipkq22n | 1,663,909,929 | 1,663,921,797 | 19 | 34 | I’m here to tell you I do struggle with the same things. When I work “full-on” I feel like I’m a beast. Great presentations, reports what not. And then there are days that are so slow I want to do nothing but binge watch or scroll through Reddit. My husband is a workaholic constantly powering through but he is on the verge of a serious breakdown if he doesn’t stop. So I’m not sure which is worse, to be honest. I have noticed, I work better with white noise in the background, taking regular breaks & accepting that there are certain days of the month that I’m going to be “hazy”. It does coincide with my PMS dates and I’m trying to make my peace with that. | Humanities professor here. Keep in mind that the postdoc is pretty much the last time you'll be able to focus exclusively on the research. After that it's teaching, committees, supervision of grad students, not to mention family commitments, parenting etc. My point is that 'slacking off' is a must. You need it to stay balanced and it will result in better work later. The mind works even when you're off so you're doing yourself a good service by just taking time off to chill. Otherwise it's burnout, like everyone else here has said. I still make time for aimless scrolling, naps etc. | 0 | 11,868 | 1.789474 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipkdua3 | ipkq22n | 1,663,911,152 | 1,663,921,797 | 17 | 34 | Science and innovation do not progress in a linear fashion, and neither do humans. As long as you’re getting your work done and succeeding, I don’t see a problem. Embrace when you are feeling productive and don’t sweat it when you are not. | Humanities professor here. Keep in mind that the postdoc is pretty much the last time you'll be able to focus exclusively on the research. After that it's teaching, committees, supervision of grad students, not to mention family commitments, parenting etc. My point is that 'slacking off' is a must. You need it to stay balanced and it will result in better work later. The mind works even when you're off so you're doing yourself a good service by just taking time off to chill. Otherwise it's burnout, like everyone else here has said. I still make time for aimless scrolling, naps etc. | 0 | 10,645 | 2 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipkq22n | ipkf1xh | 1,663,921,797 | 1,663,912,089 | 34 | 13 | Humanities professor here. Keep in mind that the postdoc is pretty much the last time you'll be able to focus exclusively on the research. After that it's teaching, committees, supervision of grad students, not to mention family commitments, parenting etc. My point is that 'slacking off' is a must. You need it to stay balanced and it will result in better work later. The mind works even when you're off so you're doing yourself a good service by just taking time off to chill. Otherwise it's burnout, like everyone else here has said. I still make time for aimless scrolling, naps etc. | You are pretty much describing exactly how I have worked throughout my entire career. I have ADHD, and I sometimes think of my work habits as something akin to a punctuated equilibrium. I never "turned it around," but instead learned to roll with it and developed lots of life hacks and time management strategies that are absolutely essential to my academic life. Medication has also helped me to improve self-regulation, but these strategies are even more important, and effective time management is critical for anyone on the TT. | 1 | 9,708 | 2.615385 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipjzyu7 | ipkq22n | 1,663,902,167 | 1,663,921,797 | 10 | 34 | Hey have you considered PMDD? It is very common for mensturating women to go through changes in motivation, energy throughout their cycle and it can be quiet drastic for women with PMDD. I find it very hard to stay focused or exert energy in the 7-10 days before my period and even my cognitive skills drop a few notches during this time. Often resorting to low energy activities like scrolling the internet etc. | Humanities professor here. Keep in mind that the postdoc is pretty much the last time you'll be able to focus exclusively on the research. After that it's teaching, committees, supervision of grad students, not to mention family commitments, parenting etc. My point is that 'slacking off' is a must. You need it to stay balanced and it will result in better work later. The mind works even when you're off so you're doing yourself a good service by just taking time off to chill. Otherwise it's burnout, like everyone else here has said. I still make time for aimless scrolling, naps etc. | 0 | 19,630 | 3.4 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipkq22n | ipkjf7h | 1,663,921,797 | 1,663,915,662 | 34 | 8 | Humanities professor here. Keep in mind that the postdoc is pretty much the last time you'll be able to focus exclusively on the research. After that it's teaching, committees, supervision of grad students, not to mention family commitments, parenting etc. My point is that 'slacking off' is a must. You need it to stay balanced and it will result in better work later. The mind works even when you're off so you're doing yourself a good service by just taking time off to chill. Otherwise it's burnout, like everyone else here has said. I still make time for aimless scrolling, naps etc. | Reading this matches my PhD experience and work ethic almost precisely. I put out good work, I love what I study and why I study it, I've won an NIH F31 and am on track for a solid dissertation and hopeful postdoc. I feel so fucking lazy most of the time. But it all gets done... | 1 | 6,135 | 4.25 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipkq22n | ipkenkz | 1,663,921,797 | 1,663,911,776 | 34 | 6 | Humanities professor here. Keep in mind that the postdoc is pretty much the last time you'll be able to focus exclusively on the research. After that it's teaching, committees, supervision of grad students, not to mention family commitments, parenting etc. My point is that 'slacking off' is a must. You need it to stay balanced and it will result in better work later. The mind works even when you're off so you're doing yourself a good service by just taking time off to chill. Otherwise it's burnout, like everyone else here has said. I still make time for aimless scrolling, naps etc. | so long as you're producing what you're expected to, what does it matter how many hours you work or what you do to get the work done? The value of the product of your labour has nothing to do with the quantity nor quality of your labour. | 1 | 10,021 | 5.666667 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipkq22n | ipkhjue | 1,663,921,797 | 1,663,914,101 | 34 | 5 | Humanities professor here. Keep in mind that the postdoc is pretty much the last time you'll be able to focus exclusively on the research. After that it's teaching, committees, supervision of grad students, not to mention family commitments, parenting etc. My point is that 'slacking off' is a must. You need it to stay balanced and it will result in better work later. The mind works even when you're off so you're doing yourself a good service by just taking time off to chill. Otherwise it's burnout, like everyone else here has said. I still make time for aimless scrolling, naps etc. | Sounds like you are burned out. It happens to all of us and working when you are burned out is not good. You just develop unhealthy working habits and tolerance to an unhealthy mindset. I would suggest to take a few days off and fully embrace doing nothing to recharge. | 1 | 7,696 | 6.8 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipkq22n | ipkjk02 | 1,663,921,797 | 1,663,915,771 | 34 | 3 | Humanities professor here. Keep in mind that the postdoc is pretty much the last time you'll be able to focus exclusively on the research. After that it's teaching, committees, supervision of grad students, not to mention family commitments, parenting etc. My point is that 'slacking off' is a must. You need it to stay balanced and it will result in better work later. The mind works even when you're off so you're doing yourself a good service by just taking time off to chill. Otherwise it's burnout, like everyone else here has said. I still make time for aimless scrolling, naps etc. | Oh gosh! I can feel you because I suffer from the same problem. I am constantly finding myself caught in procrastination. Somedays I struggle with focusing on work, reading and experiments. I asked myself several times if I hqve ADHD. | 1 | 6,026 | 11.333333 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipkjpqb | ipkq22n | 1,663,915,905 | 1,663,921,797 | 3 | 34 | It seems to me that you are working fine. You have a problem of judging yourself very hard. Maybe it calms you that I am reading your problems while I could really spend my time better, but I try not to care too much. You can't be perfect, you won't be perfect. You judge yourself because you feel obligated to spend your time better. It is also important to waste time and not feeling bad about it. | Humanities professor here. Keep in mind that the postdoc is pretty much the last time you'll be able to focus exclusively on the research. After that it's teaching, committees, supervision of grad students, not to mention family commitments, parenting etc. My point is that 'slacking off' is a must. You need it to stay balanced and it will result in better work later. The mind works even when you're off so you're doing yourself a good service by just taking time off to chill. Otherwise it's burnout, like everyone else here has said. I still make time for aimless scrolling, naps etc. | 0 | 5,892 | 11.333333 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipkn09k | ipkq22n | 1,663,918,874 | 1,663,921,797 | 4 | 34 | I'm just an undergraduate with no plans to go I to academia, but is it really that much of a problem? I do pretty much the same thing and don't find it too difficult to work around, so especially if your job is flexible you should simply keep doing it. You're a professional theoretical astrophysicist (!) maybe your brain just needs to rest sometimes. | Humanities professor here. Keep in mind that the postdoc is pretty much the last time you'll be able to focus exclusively on the research. After that it's teaching, committees, supervision of grad students, not to mention family commitments, parenting etc. My point is that 'slacking off' is a must. You need it to stay balanced and it will result in better work later. The mind works even when you're off so you're doing yourself a good service by just taking time off to chill. Otherwise it's burnout, like everyone else here has said. I still make time for aimless scrolling, naps etc. | 0 | 2,923 | 8.5 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipkdpho | ipkc6qe | 1,663,911,051 | 1,663,909,929 | 21 | 19 | As a postdoc myself, I feel this way all the time. I think the main issue is that you feel guilt and shame for the way you’re getting work done. One thing I’ve realized is that since I moved from my PhD to my postdoc, I’ve just gotten better at a lot of the things I do. When things aren’t as challenging, they take less time. So you end up feeling guilty for not spending all day working, even though you’ve done everything you needed to. | I’m here to tell you I do struggle with the same things. When I work “full-on” I feel like I’m a beast. Great presentations, reports what not. And then there are days that are so slow I want to do nothing but binge watch or scroll through Reddit. My husband is a workaholic constantly powering through but he is on the verge of a serious breakdown if he doesn’t stop. So I’m not sure which is worse, to be honest. I have noticed, I work better with white noise in the background, taking regular breaks & accepting that there are certain days of the month that I’m going to be “hazy”. It does coincide with my PMS dates and I’m trying to make my peace with that. | 1 | 1,122 | 1.105263 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipkdpho | ipjzyu7 | 1,663,911,051 | 1,663,902,167 | 21 | 10 | As a postdoc myself, I feel this way all the time. I think the main issue is that you feel guilt and shame for the way you’re getting work done. One thing I’ve realized is that since I moved from my PhD to my postdoc, I’ve just gotten better at a lot of the things I do. When things aren’t as challenging, they take less time. So you end up feeling guilty for not spending all day working, even though you’ve done everything you needed to. | Hey have you considered PMDD? It is very common for mensturating women to go through changes in motivation, energy throughout their cycle and it can be quiet drastic for women with PMDD. I find it very hard to stay focused or exert energy in the 7-10 days before my period and even my cognitive skills drop a few notches during this time. Often resorting to low energy activities like scrolling the internet etc. | 1 | 8,884 | 2.1 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipkc6qe | ipjzyu7 | 1,663,909,929 | 1,663,902,167 | 19 | 10 | I’m here to tell you I do struggle with the same things. When I work “full-on” I feel like I’m a beast. Great presentations, reports what not. And then there are days that are so slow I want to do nothing but binge watch or scroll through Reddit. My husband is a workaholic constantly powering through but he is on the verge of a serious breakdown if he doesn’t stop. So I’m not sure which is worse, to be honest. I have noticed, I work better with white noise in the background, taking regular breaks & accepting that there are certain days of the month that I’m going to be “hazy”. It does coincide with my PMS dates and I’m trying to make my peace with that. | Hey have you considered PMDD? It is very common for mensturating women to go through changes in motivation, energy throughout their cycle and it can be quiet drastic for women with PMDD. I find it very hard to stay focused or exert energy in the 7-10 days before my period and even my cognitive skills drop a few notches during this time. Often resorting to low energy activities like scrolling the internet etc. | 1 | 7,762 | 1.9 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipkdua3 | ipjzyu7 | 1,663,911,152 | 1,663,902,167 | 17 | 10 | Science and innovation do not progress in a linear fashion, and neither do humans. As long as you’re getting your work done and succeeding, I don’t see a problem. Embrace when you are feeling productive and don’t sweat it when you are not. | Hey have you considered PMDD? It is very common for mensturating women to go through changes in motivation, energy throughout their cycle and it can be quiet drastic for women with PMDD. I find it very hard to stay focused or exert energy in the 7-10 days before my period and even my cognitive skills drop a few notches during this time. Often resorting to low energy activities like scrolling the internet etc. | 1 | 8,985 | 1.7 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipjzyu7 | ipkf1xh | 1,663,902,167 | 1,663,912,089 | 10 | 13 | Hey have you considered PMDD? It is very common for mensturating women to go through changes in motivation, energy throughout their cycle and it can be quiet drastic for women with PMDD. I find it very hard to stay focused or exert energy in the 7-10 days before my period and even my cognitive skills drop a few notches during this time. Often resorting to low energy activities like scrolling the internet etc. | You are pretty much describing exactly how I have worked throughout my entire career. I have ADHD, and I sometimes think of my work habits as something akin to a punctuated equilibrium. I never "turned it around," but instead learned to roll with it and developed lots of life hacks and time management strategies that are absolutely essential to my academic life. Medication has also helped me to improve self-regulation, but these strategies are even more important, and effective time management is critical for anyone on the TT. | 0 | 9,922 | 1.3 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipkf1xh | ipkenkz | 1,663,912,089 | 1,663,911,776 | 13 | 6 | You are pretty much describing exactly how I have worked throughout my entire career. I have ADHD, and I sometimes think of my work habits as something akin to a punctuated equilibrium. I never "turned it around," but instead learned to roll with it and developed lots of life hacks and time management strategies that are absolutely essential to my academic life. Medication has also helped me to improve self-regulation, but these strategies are even more important, and effective time management is critical for anyone on the TT. | so long as you're producing what you're expected to, what does it matter how many hours you work or what you do to get the work done? The value of the product of your labour has nothing to do with the quantity nor quality of your labour. | 1 | 313 | 2.166667 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipl6pof | ipkjf7h | 1,663,935,188 | 1,663,915,662 | 10 | 8 | A few phrases caught my attention: "every few weeks"... "cycle"... "30F" While I don't have experience with ADHD, I do have experience with PMS as a grad student. I'm 37 and my cycle symptoms definitely changed in my early 30s. What you're describing reminds me of my "slack week" I experience every month (around the 2nd-3rd week of my cycle). My drive, motivation, and interest are zapped. I started tracking my symptoms with an app that tells me what my hormones levels might look like on any day of my cycle and what effects the fluctuation migh have. It showed me that my slack week is directly related to the big drop in estrogen that occurs toward the end of my 2nd week. It helped me understand why I felt like I had no control. It helps me plan things that require my peak performance, too. Hormone Horoscope (no astrology involved) https://www.myhormonology.com/apps/ | Reading this matches my PhD experience and work ethic almost precisely. I put out good work, I love what I study and why I study it, I've won an NIH F31 and am on track for a solid dissertation and hopeful postdoc. I feel so fucking lazy most of the time. But it all gets done... | 1 | 19,526 | 1.25 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipl6pof | ipkenkz | 1,663,935,188 | 1,663,911,776 | 10 | 6 | A few phrases caught my attention: "every few weeks"... "cycle"... "30F" While I don't have experience with ADHD, I do have experience with PMS as a grad student. I'm 37 and my cycle symptoms definitely changed in my early 30s. What you're describing reminds me of my "slack week" I experience every month (around the 2nd-3rd week of my cycle). My drive, motivation, and interest are zapped. I started tracking my symptoms with an app that tells me what my hormones levels might look like on any day of my cycle and what effects the fluctuation migh have. It showed me that my slack week is directly related to the big drop in estrogen that occurs toward the end of my 2nd week. It helped me understand why I felt like I had no control. It helps me plan things that require my peak performance, too. Hormone Horoscope (no astrology involved) https://www.myhormonology.com/apps/ | so long as you're producing what you're expected to, what does it matter how many hours you work or what you do to get the work done? The value of the product of your labour has nothing to do with the quantity nor quality of your labour. | 1 | 23,412 | 1.666667 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipl58xg | ipl6pof | 1,663,934,266 | 1,663,935,188 | 7 | 10 | In my culture there is a story about a legendary grass harvester, known to be able to cut the grass of two other men with ease. A wealthy farmer challenges him to cut the grass of three men, and promises him the pay of four men for his effort. When the grass cutting season begins, the men each start harvesting their portion of the field, except the legend. He sits in the grass, chews straws, and takes naps. The farmer complains but the man does not move. This goes on for a full week, until grass season is almost over. The farmer is livid, makes threats to withhold is pay etc. On the last day, the legend stands up and says to the farmer "you are paying me to cut grass, not listen to insults", and proceeds to cut down his three shares within that day. The farmer, remorseful, pays him extra for his bad behavior. There are many parallels with academia there. At the end of the day, we are evaluated by our outputs, not the inputs. I find myself going through cycles of doing less some weeks. Sometimes I go days mostly procrastinating, and it can be mentally challenging because of guilt etc. But I've realized that these days are fine as long as I get my work done. I don't think my coworkers have stamina for 14 hours of productive work. I think they might spend these hours, but not productively. I also have days where everything clicks. I think my brain is just processing stuff, or resting between bouts of effort. In those days I'm like the grasscutter and get very much done. This year I've submitted a large grant application and authored multiple papers, second only in productivity to full professors that arent first authors. I've done that not despite cycles of procrastination but because I respect that this is how I operate and I work with it, not against it. I would not compete in hours spent against anyone, just in outputs. Who cares if you chew grass for 10 days so long as you cut the grass in time. | A few phrases caught my attention: "every few weeks"... "cycle"... "30F" While I don't have experience with ADHD, I do have experience with PMS as a grad student. I'm 37 and my cycle symptoms definitely changed in my early 30s. What you're describing reminds me of my "slack week" I experience every month (around the 2nd-3rd week of my cycle). My drive, motivation, and interest are zapped. I started tracking my symptoms with an app that tells me what my hormones levels might look like on any day of my cycle and what effects the fluctuation migh have. It showed me that my slack week is directly related to the big drop in estrogen that occurs toward the end of my 2nd week. It helped me understand why I felt like I had no control. It helps me plan things that require my peak performance, too. Hormone Horoscope (no astrology involved) https://www.myhormonology.com/apps/ | 0 | 922 | 1.428571 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipkhjue | ipl6pof | 1,663,914,101 | 1,663,935,188 | 5 | 10 | Sounds like you are burned out. It happens to all of us and working when you are burned out is not good. You just develop unhealthy working habits and tolerance to an unhealthy mindset. I would suggest to take a few days off and fully embrace doing nothing to recharge. | A few phrases caught my attention: "every few weeks"... "cycle"... "30F" While I don't have experience with ADHD, I do have experience with PMS as a grad student. I'm 37 and my cycle symptoms definitely changed in my early 30s. What you're describing reminds me of my "slack week" I experience every month (around the 2nd-3rd week of my cycle). My drive, motivation, and interest are zapped. I started tracking my symptoms with an app that tells me what my hormones levels might look like on any day of my cycle and what effects the fluctuation migh have. It showed me that my slack week is directly related to the big drop in estrogen that occurs toward the end of my 2nd week. It helped me understand why I felt like I had no control. It helps me plan things that require my peak performance, too. Hormone Horoscope (no astrology involved) https://www.myhormonology.com/apps/ | 0 | 21,087 | 2 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipl6pof | ipkjk02 | 1,663,935,188 | 1,663,915,771 | 10 | 3 | A few phrases caught my attention: "every few weeks"... "cycle"... "30F" While I don't have experience with ADHD, I do have experience with PMS as a grad student. I'm 37 and my cycle symptoms definitely changed in my early 30s. What you're describing reminds me of my "slack week" I experience every month (around the 2nd-3rd week of my cycle). My drive, motivation, and interest are zapped. I started tracking my symptoms with an app that tells me what my hormones levels might look like on any day of my cycle and what effects the fluctuation migh have. It showed me that my slack week is directly related to the big drop in estrogen that occurs toward the end of my 2nd week. It helped me understand why I felt like I had no control. It helps me plan things that require my peak performance, too. Hormone Horoscope (no astrology involved) https://www.myhormonology.com/apps/ | Oh gosh! I can feel you because I suffer from the same problem. I am constantly finding myself caught in procrastination. Somedays I struggle with focusing on work, reading and experiments. I asked myself several times if I hqve ADHD. | 1 | 19,417 | 3.333333 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipkjpqb | ipl6pof | 1,663,915,905 | 1,663,935,188 | 3 | 10 | It seems to me that you are working fine. You have a problem of judging yourself very hard. Maybe it calms you that I am reading your problems while I could really spend my time better, but I try not to care too much. You can't be perfect, you won't be perfect. You judge yourself because you feel obligated to spend your time better. It is also important to waste time and not feeling bad about it. | A few phrases caught my attention: "every few weeks"... "cycle"... "30F" While I don't have experience with ADHD, I do have experience with PMS as a grad student. I'm 37 and my cycle symptoms definitely changed in my early 30s. What you're describing reminds me of my "slack week" I experience every month (around the 2nd-3rd week of my cycle). My drive, motivation, and interest are zapped. I started tracking my symptoms with an app that tells me what my hormones levels might look like on any day of my cycle and what effects the fluctuation migh have. It showed me that my slack week is directly related to the big drop in estrogen that occurs toward the end of my 2nd week. It helped me understand why I felt like I had no control. It helps me plan things that require my peak performance, too. Hormone Horoscope (no astrology involved) https://www.myhormonology.com/apps/ | 0 | 19,283 | 3.333333 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipkn09k | ipl6pof | 1,663,918,874 | 1,663,935,188 | 4 | 10 | I'm just an undergraduate with no plans to go I to academia, but is it really that much of a problem? I do pretty much the same thing and don't find it too difficult to work around, so especially if your job is flexible you should simply keep doing it. You're a professional theoretical astrophysicist (!) maybe your brain just needs to rest sometimes. | A few phrases caught my attention: "every few weeks"... "cycle"... "30F" While I don't have experience with ADHD, I do have experience with PMS as a grad student. I'm 37 and my cycle symptoms definitely changed in my early 30s. What you're describing reminds me of my "slack week" I experience every month (around the 2nd-3rd week of my cycle). My drive, motivation, and interest are zapped. I started tracking my symptoms with an app that tells me what my hormones levels might look like on any day of my cycle and what effects the fluctuation migh have. It showed me that my slack week is directly related to the big drop in estrogen that occurs toward the end of my 2nd week. It helped me understand why I felt like I had no control. It helps me plan things that require my peak performance, too. Hormone Horoscope (no astrology involved) https://www.myhormonology.com/apps/ | 0 | 16,314 | 2.5 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipl6pof | ipl4ryi | 1,663,935,188 | 1,663,933,968 | 10 | 5 | A few phrases caught my attention: "every few weeks"... "cycle"... "30F" While I don't have experience with ADHD, I do have experience with PMS as a grad student. I'm 37 and my cycle symptoms definitely changed in my early 30s. What you're describing reminds me of my "slack week" I experience every month (around the 2nd-3rd week of my cycle). My drive, motivation, and interest are zapped. I started tracking my symptoms with an app that tells me what my hormones levels might look like on any day of my cycle and what effects the fluctuation migh have. It showed me that my slack week is directly related to the big drop in estrogen that occurs toward the end of my 2nd week. It helped me understand why I felt like I had no control. It helps me plan things that require my peak performance, too. Hormone Horoscope (no astrology involved) https://www.myhormonology.com/apps/ | Also keep in mind that for every hour of actual writing, there are often many hours of thinking involved including a lot of times outside of those 9-5 hours and even sometimes at night. As for those lawyers and surgeons pulling 12 hour shifts on paper, that's just stupid. Outside of mindless tasks, everything beyond a certain point is done at an insufficient level of concentration. That's why there are so many medical malpractice lawsuits in the US. At top law firms where lawyers MUST bill a certain amount of hours to keep their job, you don't think some of those hours are seriously fudged at the end of the month? If they just think about a case and work through it in their head, they are billing that time. It workers IT theory work a lot of hours per week, but a lot of their time is being "on-call", so let's not pretend that most of them aren't playing video games at home when the systems are up and running fine and nobody is calling. A goof friend of mine worked a normal 9-5 office job. He explained that yes, they have to be there the whole time, but everyone just knows that nobody does any work on Monday mornings, Friday afternoons, or the first hours of each work day. In short, hours logged is a shit metric for productivity. Some of the countries with the highest productivity rates, have some of the shortest working weeks. That may seem strange at first, but of course that is the way it is -- after a certain point each extra hour of course has diminishing returns. Big companies sell their services as if the people working for them as super-humans, but none of them are -- we all have limits to the time we can spend concentrating and staring at a screen. For us academics, it just looks like we are not that productive because we are not sitting at a desk writing for 8-10 hours a day, but that doesn't give you the whole picture. My wife sat down and wrote 2 hours a day 5 days a week during her PhD. That's it. The rest of the time was just to think and read and be involved in things. She just won a prize for the best article by a young researcher at her university. | 1 | 1,220 | 2 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipkenkz | ipkjf7h | 1,663,911,776 | 1,663,915,662 | 6 | 8 | so long as you're producing what you're expected to, what does it matter how many hours you work or what you do to get the work done? The value of the product of your labour has nothing to do with the quantity nor quality of your labour. | Reading this matches my PhD experience and work ethic almost precisely. I put out good work, I love what I study and why I study it, I've won an NIH F31 and am on track for a solid dissertation and hopeful postdoc. I feel so fucking lazy most of the time. But it all gets done... | 0 | 3,886 | 1.333333 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipkhjue | ipkjf7h | 1,663,914,101 | 1,663,915,662 | 5 | 8 | Sounds like you are burned out. It happens to all of us and working when you are burned out is not good. You just develop unhealthy working habits and tolerance to an unhealthy mindset. I would suggest to take a few days off and fully embrace doing nothing to recharge. | Reading this matches my PhD experience and work ethic almost precisely. I put out good work, I love what I study and why I study it, I've won an NIH F31 and am on track for a solid dissertation and hopeful postdoc. I feel so fucking lazy most of the time. But it all gets done... | 0 | 1,561 | 1.6 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipkenkz | ipl58xg | 1,663,911,776 | 1,663,934,266 | 6 | 7 | so long as you're producing what you're expected to, what does it matter how many hours you work or what you do to get the work done? The value of the product of your labour has nothing to do with the quantity nor quality of your labour. | In my culture there is a story about a legendary grass harvester, known to be able to cut the grass of two other men with ease. A wealthy farmer challenges him to cut the grass of three men, and promises him the pay of four men for his effort. When the grass cutting season begins, the men each start harvesting their portion of the field, except the legend. He sits in the grass, chews straws, and takes naps. The farmer complains but the man does not move. This goes on for a full week, until grass season is almost over. The farmer is livid, makes threats to withhold is pay etc. On the last day, the legend stands up and says to the farmer "you are paying me to cut grass, not listen to insults", and proceeds to cut down his three shares within that day. The farmer, remorseful, pays him extra for his bad behavior. There are many parallels with academia there. At the end of the day, we are evaluated by our outputs, not the inputs. I find myself going through cycles of doing less some weeks. Sometimes I go days mostly procrastinating, and it can be mentally challenging because of guilt etc. But I've realized that these days are fine as long as I get my work done. I don't think my coworkers have stamina for 14 hours of productive work. I think they might spend these hours, but not productively. I also have days where everything clicks. I think my brain is just processing stuff, or resting between bouts of effort. In those days I'm like the grasscutter and get very much done. This year I've submitted a large grant application and authored multiple papers, second only in productivity to full professors that arent first authors. I've done that not despite cycles of procrastination but because I respect that this is how I operate and I work with it, not against it. I would not compete in hours spent against anyone, just in outputs. Who cares if you chew grass for 10 days so long as you cut the grass in time. | 0 | 22,490 | 1.166667 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipl58xg | ipkhjue | 1,663,934,266 | 1,663,914,101 | 7 | 5 | In my culture there is a story about a legendary grass harvester, known to be able to cut the grass of two other men with ease. A wealthy farmer challenges him to cut the grass of three men, and promises him the pay of four men for his effort. When the grass cutting season begins, the men each start harvesting their portion of the field, except the legend. He sits in the grass, chews straws, and takes naps. The farmer complains but the man does not move. This goes on for a full week, until grass season is almost over. The farmer is livid, makes threats to withhold is pay etc. On the last day, the legend stands up and says to the farmer "you are paying me to cut grass, not listen to insults", and proceeds to cut down his three shares within that day. The farmer, remorseful, pays him extra for his bad behavior. There are many parallels with academia there. At the end of the day, we are evaluated by our outputs, not the inputs. I find myself going through cycles of doing less some weeks. Sometimes I go days mostly procrastinating, and it can be mentally challenging because of guilt etc. But I've realized that these days are fine as long as I get my work done. I don't think my coworkers have stamina for 14 hours of productive work. I think they might spend these hours, but not productively. I also have days where everything clicks. I think my brain is just processing stuff, or resting between bouts of effort. In those days I'm like the grasscutter and get very much done. This year I've submitted a large grant application and authored multiple papers, second only in productivity to full professors that arent first authors. I've done that not despite cycles of procrastination but because I respect that this is how I operate and I work with it, not against it. I would not compete in hours spent against anyone, just in outputs. Who cares if you chew grass for 10 days so long as you cut the grass in time. | Sounds like you are burned out. It happens to all of us and working when you are burned out is not good. You just develop unhealthy working habits and tolerance to an unhealthy mindset. I would suggest to take a few days off and fully embrace doing nothing to recharge. | 1 | 20,165 | 1.4 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipl58xg | ipkjk02 | 1,663,934,266 | 1,663,915,771 | 7 | 3 | In my culture there is a story about a legendary grass harvester, known to be able to cut the grass of two other men with ease. A wealthy farmer challenges him to cut the grass of three men, and promises him the pay of four men for his effort. When the grass cutting season begins, the men each start harvesting their portion of the field, except the legend. He sits in the grass, chews straws, and takes naps. The farmer complains but the man does not move. This goes on for a full week, until grass season is almost over. The farmer is livid, makes threats to withhold is pay etc. On the last day, the legend stands up and says to the farmer "you are paying me to cut grass, not listen to insults", and proceeds to cut down his three shares within that day. The farmer, remorseful, pays him extra for his bad behavior. There are many parallels with academia there. At the end of the day, we are evaluated by our outputs, not the inputs. I find myself going through cycles of doing less some weeks. Sometimes I go days mostly procrastinating, and it can be mentally challenging because of guilt etc. But I've realized that these days are fine as long as I get my work done. I don't think my coworkers have stamina for 14 hours of productive work. I think they might spend these hours, but not productively. I also have days where everything clicks. I think my brain is just processing stuff, or resting between bouts of effort. In those days I'm like the grasscutter and get very much done. This year I've submitted a large grant application and authored multiple papers, second only in productivity to full professors that arent first authors. I've done that not despite cycles of procrastination but because I respect that this is how I operate and I work with it, not against it. I would not compete in hours spent against anyone, just in outputs. Who cares if you chew grass for 10 days so long as you cut the grass in time. | Oh gosh! I can feel you because I suffer from the same problem. I am constantly finding myself caught in procrastination. Somedays I struggle with focusing on work, reading and experiments. I asked myself several times if I hqve ADHD. | 1 | 18,495 | 2.333333 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipl58xg | ipkjpqb | 1,663,934,266 | 1,663,915,905 | 7 | 3 | In my culture there is a story about a legendary grass harvester, known to be able to cut the grass of two other men with ease. A wealthy farmer challenges him to cut the grass of three men, and promises him the pay of four men for his effort. When the grass cutting season begins, the men each start harvesting their portion of the field, except the legend. He sits in the grass, chews straws, and takes naps. The farmer complains but the man does not move. This goes on for a full week, until grass season is almost over. The farmer is livid, makes threats to withhold is pay etc. On the last day, the legend stands up and says to the farmer "you are paying me to cut grass, not listen to insults", and proceeds to cut down his three shares within that day. The farmer, remorseful, pays him extra for his bad behavior. There are many parallels with academia there. At the end of the day, we are evaluated by our outputs, not the inputs. I find myself going through cycles of doing less some weeks. Sometimes I go days mostly procrastinating, and it can be mentally challenging because of guilt etc. But I've realized that these days are fine as long as I get my work done. I don't think my coworkers have stamina for 14 hours of productive work. I think they might spend these hours, but not productively. I also have days where everything clicks. I think my brain is just processing stuff, or resting between bouts of effort. In those days I'm like the grasscutter and get very much done. This year I've submitted a large grant application and authored multiple papers, second only in productivity to full professors that arent first authors. I've done that not despite cycles of procrastination but because I respect that this is how I operate and I work with it, not against it. I would not compete in hours spent against anyone, just in outputs. Who cares if you chew grass for 10 days so long as you cut the grass in time. | It seems to me that you are working fine. You have a problem of judging yourself very hard. Maybe it calms you that I am reading your problems while I could really spend my time better, but I try not to care too much. You can't be perfect, you won't be perfect. You judge yourself because you feel obligated to spend your time better. It is also important to waste time and not feeling bad about it. | 1 | 18,361 | 2.333333 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipl58xg | ipkn09k | 1,663,934,266 | 1,663,918,874 | 7 | 4 | In my culture there is a story about a legendary grass harvester, known to be able to cut the grass of two other men with ease. A wealthy farmer challenges him to cut the grass of three men, and promises him the pay of four men for his effort. When the grass cutting season begins, the men each start harvesting their portion of the field, except the legend. He sits in the grass, chews straws, and takes naps. The farmer complains but the man does not move. This goes on for a full week, until grass season is almost over. The farmer is livid, makes threats to withhold is pay etc. On the last day, the legend stands up and says to the farmer "you are paying me to cut grass, not listen to insults", and proceeds to cut down his three shares within that day. The farmer, remorseful, pays him extra for his bad behavior. There are many parallels with academia there. At the end of the day, we are evaluated by our outputs, not the inputs. I find myself going through cycles of doing less some weeks. Sometimes I go days mostly procrastinating, and it can be mentally challenging because of guilt etc. But I've realized that these days are fine as long as I get my work done. I don't think my coworkers have stamina for 14 hours of productive work. I think they might spend these hours, but not productively. I also have days where everything clicks. I think my brain is just processing stuff, or resting between bouts of effort. In those days I'm like the grasscutter and get very much done. This year I've submitted a large grant application and authored multiple papers, second only in productivity to full professors that arent first authors. I've done that not despite cycles of procrastination but because I respect that this is how I operate and I work with it, not against it. I would not compete in hours spent against anyone, just in outputs. Who cares if you chew grass for 10 days so long as you cut the grass in time. | I'm just an undergraduate with no plans to go I to academia, but is it really that much of a problem? I do pretty much the same thing and don't find it too difficult to work around, so especially if your job is flexible you should simply keep doing it. You're a professional theoretical astrophysicist (!) maybe your brain just needs to rest sometimes. | 1 | 15,392 | 1.75 |
xllc9i | askacademia_train | 0.96 | Why am I slacking off days even in my post-PhD life? Background: I recently received my PhD (30F). I worked very hard to secure a good postdoc fellowship during my PhD. Now that I am here, I am finding myself in some patterns and old habits of slacking off that I am quite alarmed by. During graduate school I had a cycles that once every few weeks I had developed a habit of just lazing around and binge watching or slacking off. This was true even I managed to shutt off all SM on phone and laptop. I would find just some way to surf the internet and search random stuff...the day(s) would just pass by. Until, I snapped out of it and back to work. Somehow this cycle felt more acceptable in graduate school because I was just a "student" after all. Now that I am officially in a postdoc position, for the first time it's hitting me that this is goddamn real job with real money. It's hitting me that there are other 30 year olds in other fields working their ass of 10 -12hours a day for a living, with a serious work ethic. I guess part of being an academic is that you set your own milestones and there is a very little accountability to others. Everyone in my work place kinda works remotely (theoretical astrophysics) and so I don't have a community around me. I am not lonely. I am currently staying with parents (Asian fam here), eat well and excercise regularly. Yet, this last 10 days, when I go back to my computer I have found every excuse to not work (even with all SM blocked). I am sitting here feeling so alarmed because I realize this is an unhealthy work ethic. Don't get me wrong - I am good at what I do..I've published in top journals, won many awards, and this prestigious postdoc fellowship - but I've come to realize that I am appalled by the sloth and inconsistency with which I approach it. I feel ashamed of talking about this with anyone else. I feel like I'm in 30s (and not an undergrad) and I should have figured out this by now. I get so queasy thinking..if I were in a tenure tracked job as an assistant professor and continued with these habits, that would be simply be awful! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and how they turned it around. More importantly, how they remained consistent about it. | ipl58xg | ipl4ryi | 1,663,934,266 | 1,663,933,968 | 7 | 5 | In my culture there is a story about a legendary grass harvester, known to be able to cut the grass of two other men with ease. A wealthy farmer challenges him to cut the grass of three men, and promises him the pay of four men for his effort. When the grass cutting season begins, the men each start harvesting their portion of the field, except the legend. He sits in the grass, chews straws, and takes naps. The farmer complains but the man does not move. This goes on for a full week, until grass season is almost over. The farmer is livid, makes threats to withhold is pay etc. On the last day, the legend stands up and says to the farmer "you are paying me to cut grass, not listen to insults", and proceeds to cut down his three shares within that day. The farmer, remorseful, pays him extra for his bad behavior. There are many parallels with academia there. At the end of the day, we are evaluated by our outputs, not the inputs. I find myself going through cycles of doing less some weeks. Sometimes I go days mostly procrastinating, and it can be mentally challenging because of guilt etc. But I've realized that these days are fine as long as I get my work done. I don't think my coworkers have stamina for 14 hours of productive work. I think they might spend these hours, but not productively. I also have days where everything clicks. I think my brain is just processing stuff, or resting between bouts of effort. In those days I'm like the grasscutter and get very much done. This year I've submitted a large grant application and authored multiple papers, second only in productivity to full professors that arent first authors. I've done that not despite cycles of procrastination but because I respect that this is how I operate and I work with it, not against it. I would not compete in hours spent against anyone, just in outputs. Who cares if you chew grass for 10 days so long as you cut the grass in time. | Also keep in mind that for every hour of actual writing, there are often many hours of thinking involved including a lot of times outside of those 9-5 hours and even sometimes at night. As for those lawyers and surgeons pulling 12 hour shifts on paper, that's just stupid. Outside of mindless tasks, everything beyond a certain point is done at an insufficient level of concentration. That's why there are so many medical malpractice lawsuits in the US. At top law firms where lawyers MUST bill a certain amount of hours to keep their job, you don't think some of those hours are seriously fudged at the end of the month? If they just think about a case and work through it in their head, they are billing that time. It workers IT theory work a lot of hours per week, but a lot of their time is being "on-call", so let's not pretend that most of them aren't playing video games at home when the systems are up and running fine and nobody is calling. A goof friend of mine worked a normal 9-5 office job. He explained that yes, they have to be there the whole time, but everyone just knows that nobody does any work on Monday mornings, Friday afternoons, or the first hours of each work day. In short, hours logged is a shit metric for productivity. Some of the countries with the highest productivity rates, have some of the shortest working weeks. That may seem strange at first, but of course that is the way it is -- after a certain point each extra hour of course has diminishing returns. Big companies sell their services as if the people working for them as super-humans, but none of them are -- we all have limits to the time we can spend concentrating and staring at a screen. For us academics, it just looks like we are not that productive because we are not sitting at a desk writing for 8-10 hours a day, but that doesn't give you the whole picture. My wife sat down and wrote 2 hours a day 5 days a week during her PhD. That's it. The rest of the time was just to think and read and be involved in things. She just won a prize for the best article by a young researcher at her university. | 1 | 298 | 1.4 |
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