I don't actually know if this is true. Sure, we to think a lot - that's our jobs, after all - so it seems reasonable that we might go too far. But what is "thinking too far?" Considering all possible outcomes, no matter how unlikely? That seems more like practicing good self-preservation to me. Given our culture's current anti-establishment/anti-intellectual zeitgeist, it makes sense that if you want to knock a professor down a peg, you could insult what they do best.
On the other hand, there is something to be said for using your time efficiently. Is it worth thinking twenty moves ahead in a game when the conditions are going to change after each move and you don't have all possible information to make an informed choice? I'd say not. Plus, there's the natural human tendency to show off what we think we can do. Body builders life weights on Venice Beach. Professors go on and on trying to make the most logical decisions.
Maybe overthinking might happen, now that I've thought about it a lot. How likely this happens is hard to say, especially without more data.
My wife and I routinely over-analyze our purchases. That's fine except we have spent so much time comparing prices and features of appliances that we missed the holiday sale. Then we had to analyze everything again.
I always figured I could get a job as a contingency planner if being a professor didn't pan out. The army would pay a good wage to think of all the ways something could go wrong. Being an overthinking, cynical pessimist can pay off.
I you *really* overthink purchases, things get really cheap, because the new version comes out. At that point, the one you decided on may be outdated and/or unavailable, or it may serve your needs just fine.
Not that I'd have any familiarity with the process. I really did mean to replace my non-digital TV in time for the debates. Of course I've been considering my options since shortly after the first Obama inauguration. I suspect I'll be listening to the debate on NPR, as usual.
In my defense, I have managed to buy a smartphone, a tablet, and a laptop in that space of time, but it took me a while. Perhaps paradoxically, the laptop was the easiest decision, because I already had one and knew more or less what I needed.
My wife was a government contingency planner some years back. She found it depressing dealing with questions such as "where would we put the temporary morgue?"
Well, we do tend to be more politically liberal, on average, than the population as a whole. That may be a matter of nature, nurture, or both (but of course we like to believe that more education leads to a more enlightened political stance. Then again, I know some denizens of the more conservative bastions in the academy -- think economists, and some historians and political scientists -- who also believe that, and just think the majority of students are choosing the wrong major for true enlightenment).
We also tend to be long-winded, and hedge our answers, and wander into all sorts of rabbit-trails in response to a simple question. Of course my architect grandfather tended to do that, too, so there isn't necessarily a professional connection, or at least we're looking at a Venn diagram with both overlapping and non-overlapping areas. But he might well have been a professor had he come from a somewhat more privileged background.
Ben and I seem to have been overthinking this question at the same moment, thus proving his point.
It also appears that (some) proffies do, in fact, have a sense of humor about ourselves (but that's counter to stereotype, and thus not responsive to the question).
I can confirm that I raised a lot of eyebrows when people found out I was very liberal only on MOST issues and rather conservative on others.
But everyone I've encountered in academia who was pricked by it was at least willing to engage in high-minded debate on the subject. Whereas many students, if they found out I'm not a fully fledged member of Marxists of America or otherwise not economically liberal enough for their liking, would simply throw a hissifit.
I also had a very conservative student who was without a doubt one of my best students despite holding a lot of social views I disagreed with. He wrote a paper on an economic issue where he more or less prefaced with more or less "I know you probably disagree with this, but I also know you're objective enough to look past that."
It turned out that my beliefs were reflective of his, actually. And I was kind of proud of myself for shielding my views well enough from my students that they had no idea what I believed. I was also a little upset that he ASSUMED he knew my beliefs, but flattered that he didn't think they mattered.
That being said, I did deduct a point for addressing the reader.
The only paper I remember in any detail after almost two decades of teaching is one that recounted in intimate and very specific detail all of the ups and downs of a student's battle with a venereal disease that disfigured his genitalia. I remember it because I still wake up screaming because of it.
We're absent-minded, we usually dress badly, and some of us smell. Lots of us hate--as in can't do and therefore disdain--sports and have never touched a gun.
Sometimes I forget to engage in personal hygiene rituals (e.g. brushing teeth, showering, etc.), so I'm a part of the demographic that smells sometimes. Only when I'm in the middle of trying to write a grant proposal. This time period also involves me forgetting to sleep, or eat.
We do? Oops. I'll have to check my local SPCA (and my condo regulations) this weekend, and see what I can do.
On the other hand, though I am currently catless, I have, for most of my adult life, matched the stereotype of the single female academic who lives with at least one cat (my adult max was three, two of them deliberately acquired and one of them donated by a relative whose home wasn't proving a conducive environment for that particular cat).
arrogant, elitist, pedantic, self-important, petty, socially awkward, booksmart and life dumb
ReplyDeleteYou forgot ugly and bad in the sack.
DeleteThen add snarky
DeleteI think you mean "belief," not "believe."
ReplyDeleteIf that's pedantic, then so be it.
DeleteI want to thank everyone who hopped right to it comments and in email this morning and corrected my typo.
ReplyDeleteWHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU FAB? YOU HAD ONE JOB!!!!!!
DeleteI THINK you meant "hopped right to it IN comments." Very sloppy.
Deletethat when we take our glasses off and let our hair down we are sexy as all hell..
ReplyDeleteSo true. I am mostly bald, but it is still true.
DeleteEverything you heard about proffies and tweed is true.
ReplyDeleteWe overthink things and can't make a decision.
ReplyDeleteI don't actually know if this is true. Sure, we to think a lot - that's our jobs, after all - so it seems reasonable that we might go too far. But what is "thinking too far?" Considering all possible outcomes, no matter how unlikely? That seems more like practicing good self-preservation to me. Given our culture's current anti-establishment/anti-intellectual zeitgeist, it makes sense that if you want to knock a professor down a peg, you could insult what they do best.
On the other hand, there is something to be said for using your time efficiently. Is it worth thinking twenty moves ahead in a game when the conditions are going to change after each move and you don't have all possible information to make an informed choice? I'd say not. Plus, there's the natural human tendency to show off what we think we can do. Body builders life weights on Venice Beach. Professors go on and on trying to make the most logical decisions.
Maybe overthinking might happen, now that I've thought about it a lot. How likely this happens is hard to say, especially without more data.
A good friend of mine once said, "I'm a academic. It's my JOB to overthink things."
DeleteIt's a liberating idea to simply say that overthinking isn't a bad thing. The worst that can happen is that you wasted some brain CPU cycles.
That's a good line.
DeleteMy wife and I routinely over-analyze our purchases. That's fine except we have spent so much time comparing prices and features of appliances that we missed the holiday sale. Then we had to analyze everything again.
I always figured I could get a job as a contingency planner if being a professor didn't pan out. The army would pay a good wage to think of all the ways something could go wrong. Being an overthinking, cynical pessimist can pay off.
Ben, you're a legend for a reason.
DeleteI you *really* overthink purchases, things get really cheap, because the new version comes out. At that point, the one you decided on may be outdated and/or unavailable, or it may serve your needs just fine.
DeleteNot that I'd have any familiarity with the process. I really did mean to replace my non-digital TV in time for the debates. Of course I've been considering my options since shortly after the first Obama inauguration. I suspect I'll be listening to the debate on NPR, as usual.
In my defense, I have managed to buy a smartphone, a tablet, and a laptop in that space of time, but it took me a while. Perhaps paradoxically, the laptop was the easiest decision, because I already had one and knew more or less what I needed.
My wife was a government contingency planner some years back. She found it depressing dealing with questions such as "where would we put the temporary morgue?"
Delete@BB: That you started the 2nd graf with "On the other hand" made me crack up.
DeleteWell, we do tend to be more politically liberal, on average, than the population as a whole. That may be a matter of nature, nurture, or both (but of course we like to believe that more education leads to a more enlightened political stance. Then again, I know some denizens of the more conservative bastions in the academy -- think economists, and some historians and political scientists -- who also believe that, and just think the majority of students are choosing the wrong major for true enlightenment).
ReplyDeleteWe also tend to be long-winded, and hedge our answers, and wander into all sorts of rabbit-trails in response to a simple question. Of course my architect grandfather tended to do that, too, so there isn't necessarily a professional connection, or at least we're looking at a Venn diagram with both overlapping and non-overlapping areas. But he might well have been a professor had he come from a somewhat more privileged background.
Ben and I seem to have been overthinking this question at the same moment, thus proving his point.
DeleteIt also appears that (some) proffies do, in fact, have a sense of humor about ourselves (but that's counter to stereotype, and thus not responsive to the question).
I can confirm that I raised a lot of eyebrows when people found out I was very liberal only on MOST issues and rather conservative on others.
DeleteBut everyone I've encountered in academia who was pricked by it was at least willing to engage in high-minded debate on the subject. Whereas many students, if they found out I'm not a fully fledged member of Marxists of America or otherwise not economically liberal enough for their liking, would simply throw a hissifit.
I also had a very conservative student who was without a doubt one of my best students despite holding a lot of social views I disagreed with. He wrote a paper on an economic issue where he more or less prefaced with more or less "I know you probably disagree with this, but I also know you're objective enough to look past that."
It turned out that my beliefs were reflective of his, actually. And I was kind of proud of myself for shielding my views well enough from my students that they had no idea what I believed. I was also a little upset that he ASSUMED he knew my beliefs, but flattered that he didn't think they mattered.
That being said, I did deduct a point for addressing the reader.
It just occurred to me that if I remember a paper you wrote you were either one of my best students or one of my worst.
DeleteHuh.
The only paper I remember in any detail after almost two decades of teaching is one that recounted in intimate and very specific detail all of the ups and downs of a student's battle with a venereal disease that disfigured his genitalia. I remember it because I still wake up screaming because of it.
DeleteWe are all alcoholics.
ReplyDeleteProfessionally, only 4 people ever read what we write.
ReplyDeleteOn CM, only 4 people ever write what we read.
We're absent-minded, we usually dress badly, and some of us smell. Lots of us hate--as in can't do and therefore disdain--sports and have never touched a gun.
ReplyDeleteYes, absent-minded. I was going to make that comment earlier but forgot.
DeleteSometimes I forget to engage in personal hygiene rituals (e.g. brushing teeth, showering, etc.), so I'm a part of the demographic that smells sometimes.
DeleteOnly when I'm in the middle of trying to write a grant proposal. This time period also involves me forgetting to sleep, or eat.
Which leads to the (in)famous question: Professor or Hobo?.
DeleteThat question is funnier, of course, if you're not, like many adjuncts, one failed-to-make course away from being both.
We marry our (former) students.
ReplyDeletewe actually do keep pet llamas
ReplyDeleteWe do? Oops. I'll have to check my local SPCA (and my condo regulations) this weekend, and see what I can do.
DeleteOn the other hand, though I am currently catless, I have, for most of my adult life, matched the stereotype of the single female academic who lives with at least one cat (my adult max was three, two of them deliberately acquired and one of them donated by a relative whose home wasn't proving a conducive environment for that particular cat).
We keep liquor in our desks.
ReplyDeleteWe look like our advisors, and those of us in physics have wildly unkempt hair (like our advisors).
ReplyDeleteThat we are super sexy. I don't know who started that one, but it's one-hundred percent true.
ReplyDelete