The interesting alternative to this is ALSO how many brilliant minds have been stifled because of this majority that is so conditioned to think only one way that, when they encounter another, they stone it to death? How many messiahs were slaughtered by the very people they were sent to save?
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I think I’m just going to bite the bullet and make a couple short videos later today. There’s just so much I want to say about this topic, and in relation to @anna_5588’s comment above, but I cannot get it all out in text.
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Give me a holler if/when you do.
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I’m sort of surprised that in all the philosophical discussion that’s followed this post, that this comment got glossed over. Your friend’s advisor doesn’t seem like he’s given any constructive criticism, just made comments to tear you down. This sounds like typical ‘mean girl’ or ‘build myself or my protege up by tearing the competition down’ behavior, and I wouldn’t put a lot of stock in it. It appears to me that he spent some time sounding out your insecurities, and then metaphorically punched you right in the feels. Dismiss this guy, he’s of no value to you, and in fact has stoked the insecurities you were already carrying.
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I want to be above average professionally.
Since I’m not particularly gifted, the only way to not be a cog is to keep working
There is an economist named Acemoglu, who’s so productive he’s literally a meme.
My micro prof was his PhD student and said that Acemoglu isn’t the “most brilliant” but the most hard working
My friend is like that
I don’t understand how being an above average professional isn’t just another cog.
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I guess all humans are cogs, but some are more important or useful than others.
I hope to be more important/useful than average
I do not imagine I will ever understand.
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yeah…
I definitely got the feeling that he was trying to push me away from the subject (market design), but I’m not entirely convinced it was intentional though. I told him about my weak maths background and that I didn’t want to go to econ grad school. He told me to “find my competitive advantage” and that there were lots of areas in econ that didn’t involve so much maths, both of which I think are valid pieces of advice. His English also isn’t the best, so I’m guessing a lot of what he says comes off more harsh than intended.
The way he spoke of my friend is not unlike the way I describe my friend to my parents or how my other friends speak of this friend
I definitely got this feeling too, but it didn’t seem malicious
The weird thing about this prof is that I’d only ever met him once before taking this class and it was at a zoom coffee chat a year and a half ago. I didn’t have my camera on and there were 10 other ppl. We did brief introductions.
Somehow he remembered my name and that I was interested in Russian studies
I think it does not matter whether you are more important or useful than others if you feel that you are still, at the end of the day, a cog.
And since you sometimes seem a bit obtuse with things people write- please pay attention to the fact that I wrote “you feel that you are still, at the end of the day, a cog.”
I encourage you to spend some time thinking about it.
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To say nothing of the fact that being useful IS the purpose of a cog. Evaluating yourself based on utility and not wanting to be a cog is definitely a road to dissonance.
A goal to live authetnically on the other hand…
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Exactly! You put it better than I ever could have hoped to.
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There is a mass of behaviors behind this that you may be unaware of.
For me at least, I realized that the juice ain’t worth the squeeze. I have worked with people who rationalized working 50-60 hours a week to get a promotion in a year or two, to make an additional 10-20K per year. Then they continued on with that pattern. I guess I realized I already had enough, and that 10-20K per year would not make me happier, but 10-20 hours more per week would make me less happy. Additionally, those hours could be spent on being above average in other areas. For example it is a lot easier to be in the top 5% for fitness, than it is to be in the top 5% at your place of employment. Many of those working long hours would easily trade 20K to be in the top 5% of fitness. It sounds more like achievement is your goal, and not money, so YMMV.
You might discover, that even if you do further your area of research, that it really doesn’t matter much. I have a few patents on medical devices. Maybe those devices are a bit better than what was out there, but it isn’t a game changer or anything. The company will make money off of it though.
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Well, I’d rather talk ‘to’ Anna than ‘about’ her, but I’m aware that there are issues that she has to deal with, this is just the first time I’ve seen her describe someone outside of her family who is willfully feeding into her issues and using them as a club against her.
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Thank you
It is exactly that, trust me I see one in the mirror most days
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Yeah, ok.
I’m referring to her refusal to meet the criteria set out just for the basic writing of papers, and her using a research advisors time to talk about cats & stuff.
Because where I come from that gets assignments thrown straight in the trash and people begin to not take you seriously, be cause one must come correctly to these types of institutions.
How would you, @OTHSteve feel about somebody fresh out of boot camp, put in your charge, talking about a commission when they can’t even shine their shoes?
I’m going to go way out on a limb and say you wouldn’t be too crazy about that, would you?
So, @anna_5588 like I said previously, this isn’t intended to be like a harsh criticism. I’m sorry if it comes off that way.
If you’d like, I’ll bow out, and ask that you don’t harbor any bad feelings about this. It wasn’t intended with any ill will.
I disagree with you on this
The issue isn’t that he called me out. It’s that the reaction isn’t proportional to the mistake. My advisor literally has a reputation for being obsessive and nitpicky. There is a difference between “there’s a comma missing” and “redo the slide deck, the pictures are .3in off”
I don’t go in intending to spend most of the meeting talking about irrelevant stuff. It just happens and he doesn’t stop it. For example, we got into a 20 minute discussion of French soccer teams and sports geopolitics because I noticed that he had a rooster as a screensaver
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I dated my alg. 2 professors daughter in high school, which she was fully aware of from day one.
You know what we talked about in class?
Conic sections and systems of equations.
Do with that what you will.
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