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[ { "content": "People who write scientific research papers quickly, what’s your secret? For academic research papers, what are your best tips and tricks for being both efficient and doing high quality work? What order do you write the paper in, and how do you keep from going off on too many tangents? How do you deal efficiently with co-authors?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "ALWAYS figures first. Figures tell the story. If you feel like you're missing a panel of a figure because you don't have that data, put a white box as a placeholder. Then, do that experiment (and hope that the data agrees with your other data). Repeat until all figures are finished. Then write the other parts. And you should start this process when you feel like your story is 50 - 75% done.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "People who write scientific research papers quickly, what’s your secret? For academic research papers, what are your best tips and tricks for being both efficient and doing high quality work? What order do you write the paper in, and how do you keep from going off on too many tangents? How do you deal efficiently with co-authors?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "A solid formula for the structure", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "If I have 6 hours of Zoom meetings everyday, can I really be expected to get anything else done? Postdoc in STEM completely overburdened with meetings at the moment. I'm (co-)supervising 15 student projects, spanning the bachelor to PhD level with students in 4 different countries, on top of which I have all of my normal collaborations that I should make progress on. On top of that, there's seminars and journal clubs everyday. It's just impossible to get anything done at the moment! /rant", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I only read the title. ABSOLUTELY NO is the answer... Meetings are a plague on productivity... edit: typo", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "If I have 6 hours of Zoom meetings everyday, can I really be expected to get anything else done? Postdoc in STEM completely overburdened with meetings at the moment. I'm (co-)supervising 15 student projects, spanning the bachelor to PhD level with students in 4 different countries, on top of which I have all of my normal collaborations that I should make progress on. On top of that, there's seminars and journal clubs everyday. It's just impossible to get anything done at the moment! /rant", "role": "user" }, { "content": "No. :)", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "If I have 6 hours of Zoom meetings everyday, can I really be expected to get anything else done? Postdoc in STEM completely overburdened with meetings at the moment. I'm (co-)supervising 15 student projects, spanning the bachelor to PhD level with students in 4 different countries, on top of which I have all of my normal collaborations that I should make progress on. On top of that, there's seminars and journal clubs everyday. It's just impossible to get anything done at the moment! /rant", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Also how could you possibly mentor 15 students well? This sounds like a bad situation for everyone involved.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "If I have 6 hours of Zoom meetings everyday, can I really be expected to get anything else done? Postdoc in STEM completely overburdened with meetings at the moment. I'm (co-)supervising 15 student projects, spanning the bachelor to PhD level with students in 4 different countries, on top of which I have all of my normal collaborations that I should make progress on. On top of that, there's seminars and journal clubs everyday. It's just impossible to get anything done at the moment! /rant", "role": "user" }, { "content": "No. :)", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "If I have 6 hours of Zoom meetings everyday, can I really be expected to get anything else done? Postdoc in STEM completely overburdened with meetings at the moment. I'm (co-)supervising 15 student projects, spanning the bachelor to PhD level with students in 4 different countries, on top of which I have all of my normal collaborations that I should make progress on. On top of that, there's seminars and journal clubs everyday. It's just impossible to get anything done at the moment! /rant", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Solution: You need to start saying no to a lot of things.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "If I have 6 hours of Zoom meetings everyday, can I really be expected to get anything else done? Postdoc in STEM completely overburdened with meetings at the moment. I'm (co-)supervising 15 student projects, spanning the bachelor to PhD level with students in 4 different countries, on top of which I have all of my normal collaborations that I should make progress on. On top of that, there's seminars and journal clubs everyday. It's just impossible to get anything done at the moment! /rant", "role": "user" }, { "content": "No. :)", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "If I have 6 hours of Zoom meetings everyday, can I really be expected to get anything else done? Postdoc in STEM completely overburdened with meetings at the moment. I'm (co-)supervising 15 student projects, spanning the bachelor to PhD level with students in 4 different countries, on top of which I have all of my normal collaborations that I should make progress on. On top of that, there's seminars and journal clubs everyday. It's just impossible to get anything done at the moment! /rant", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Cut the meeting times in half, move others to email or slide updates and meeting every other week, have a conversation with your PI about overburdening, and start blocking time on your calendar for your priorities.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "If I have 6 hours of Zoom meetings everyday, can I really be expected to get anything else done? Postdoc in STEM completely overburdened with meetings at the moment. I'm (co-)supervising 15 student projects, spanning the bachelor to PhD level with students in 4 different countries, on top of which I have all of my normal collaborations that I should make progress on. On top of that, there's seminars and journal clubs everyday. It's just impossible to get anything done at the moment! /rant", "role": "user" }, { "content": "No. :)", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "If I have 6 hours of Zoom meetings everyday, can I really be expected to get anything else done? Postdoc in STEM completely overburdened with meetings at the moment. I'm (co-)supervising 15 student projects, spanning the bachelor to PhD level with students in 4 different countries, on top of which I have all of my normal collaborations that I should make progress on. On top of that, there's seminars and journal clubs everyday. It's just impossible to get anything done at the moment! /rant", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Cut the meeting times in half, move others to email or slide updates and meeting every other week, have a conversation with your PI about overburdening, and start blocking time on your calendar for your priorities.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "If I have 6 hours of Zoom meetings everyday, can I really be expected to get anything else done? Postdoc in STEM completely overburdened with meetings at the moment. I'm (co-)supervising 15 student projects, spanning the bachelor to PhD level with students in 4 different countries, on top of which I have all of my normal collaborations that I should make progress on. On top of that, there's seminars and journal clubs everyday. It's just impossible to get anything done at the moment! /rant", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I only read the title. ABSOLUTELY NO is the answer... Meetings are a plague on productivity... edit: typo", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "For us average people in academia: When in your academic career did you realize that you weren't going to be a star and what prompted it? Now, if you are a star in your field or are on track to be one, congratulations! But this question isn't for you. I've spent my entire academic career at \"highly-ranked\" R1s, which means that I'm around a lot of people from undergrad students through early professors who have the expectation that they're going to be the stars of their field, and the environment promotes that. This is especially true at the university where I am currently. Most people, even from big-name R1s, do not end up being stars in their field. That's not a bad thing at all and is not even necessarily their fault - it's largely the nature of how reputations in academia are developed. I've also noticed that some are able to adjust to that change in expectation of themselves very easily, while others have a really hard time letting that go. I'm just curious for all of us non-stars, when in your career did you start to recognize that you weren't going to be a star in your field? What prompted you to realize that and what did you do to adjust your frame of mind to be content with it? I'm just interested in what others' experiences are and am not looking for advice or anything - I'm well past the point of being okay with not being on a path to be a big name in my field and am content with where I am (as long as I don't run out of funding!).", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I don't think being a star ever crossed my mind. It's pretty obvious that even if you are very smart and hard working, there's a lot of luck involved and the competition is fierce. I just wanted to do something meaningful with my life.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "For us average people in academia: When in your academic career did you realize that you weren't going to be a star and what prompted it? Now, if you are a star in your field or are on track to be one, congratulations! But this question isn't for you. I've spent my entire academic career at \"highly-ranked\" R1s, which means that I'm around a lot of people from undergrad students through early professors who have the expectation that they're going to be the stars of their field, and the environment promotes that. This is especially true at the university where I am currently. Most people, even from big-name R1s, do not end up being stars in their field. That's not a bad thing at all and is not even necessarily their fault - it's largely the nature of how reputations in academia are developed. I've also noticed that some are able to adjust to that change in expectation of themselves very easily, while others have a really hard time letting that go. I'm just curious for all of us non-stars, when in your career did you start to recognize that you weren't going to be a star in your field? What prompted you to realize that and what did you do to adjust your frame of mind to be content with it? I'm just interested in what others' experiences are and am not looking for advice or anything - I'm well past the point of being okay with not being on a path to be a big name in my field and am content with where I am (as long as I don't run out of funding!).", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I never expected to be a star, but about halfway through my PhD program is when I realized that I was making myself sick with how stressed I was about everything and I decided to just chill out. Plus, my advisors did nothing but put obstacles in my way of doing the research I actually wanted and so... that sort of out a damper on my plans, too.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "For us average people in academia: When in your academic career did you realize that you weren't going to be a star and what prompted it? Now, if you are a star in your field or are on track to be one, congratulations! But this question isn't for you. I've spent my entire academic career at \"highly-ranked\" R1s, which means that I'm around a lot of people from undergrad students through early professors who have the expectation that they're going to be the stars of their field, and the environment promotes that. This is especially true at the university where I am currently. Most people, even from big-name R1s, do not end up being stars in their field. That's not a bad thing at all and is not even necessarily their fault - it's largely the nature of how reputations in academia are developed. I've also noticed that some are able to adjust to that change in expectation of themselves very easily, while others have a really hard time letting that go. I'm just curious for all of us non-stars, when in your career did you start to recognize that you weren't going to be a star in your field? What prompted you to realize that and what did you do to adjust your frame of mind to be content with it? I'm just interested in what others' experiences are and am not looking for advice or anything - I'm well past the point of being okay with not being on a path to be a big name in my field and am content with where I am (as long as I don't run out of funding!).", "role": "user" }, { "content": "When I took a permanent contract at a mid level university, looked at my objectives and the promotion criteria and realised I could have a decent albeit unremarkable career and a life outside work. I do good work, stars in my field have said nice things about my papers but I write three of those a year, they write 9. But then I realised that the answer to 'when do they sleep' is they dont.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "For us average people in academia: When in your academic career did you realize that you weren't going to be a star and what prompted it? Now, if you are a star in your field or are on track to be one, congratulations! But this question isn't for you. I've spent my entire academic career at \"highly-ranked\" R1s, which means that I'm around a lot of people from undergrad students through early professors who have the expectation that they're going to be the stars of their field, and the environment promotes that. This is especially true at the university where I am currently. Most people, even from big-name R1s, do not end up being stars in their field. That's not a bad thing at all and is not even necessarily their fault - it's largely the nature of how reputations in academia are developed. I've also noticed that some are able to adjust to that change in expectation of themselves very easily, while others have a really hard time letting that go. I'm just curious for all of us non-stars, when in your career did you start to recognize that you weren't going to be a star in your field? What prompted you to realize that and what did you do to adjust your frame of mind to be content with it? I'm just interested in what others' experiences are and am not looking for advice or anything - I'm well past the point of being okay with not being on a path to be a big name in my field and am content with where I am (as long as I don't run out of funding!).", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I never expected to be a star, but about halfway through my PhD program is when I realized that I was making myself sick with how stressed I was about everything and I decided to just chill out. Plus, my advisors did nothing but put obstacles in my way of doing the research I actually wanted and so... that sort of out a damper on my plans, too.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "For us average people in academia: When in your academic career did you realize that you weren't going to be a star and what prompted it? Now, if you are a star in your field or are on track to be one, congratulations! But this question isn't for you. I've spent my entire academic career at \"highly-ranked\" R1s, which means that I'm around a lot of people from undergrad students through early professors who have the expectation that they're going to be the stars of their field, and the environment promotes that. This is especially true at the university where I am currently. Most people, even from big-name R1s, do not end up being stars in their field. That's not a bad thing at all and is not even necessarily their fault - it's largely the nature of how reputations in academia are developed. I've also noticed that some are able to adjust to that change in expectation of themselves very easily, while others have a really hard time letting that go. I'm just curious for all of us non-stars, when in your career did you start to recognize that you weren't going to be a star in your field? What prompted you to realize that and what did you do to adjust your frame of mind to be content with it? I'm just interested in what others' experiences are and am not looking for advice or anything - I'm well past the point of being okay with not being on a path to be a big name in my field and am content with where I am (as long as I don't run out of funding!).", "role": "user" }, { "content": "When I worked with a real star. I saw what it really took. It wasn't putting in a lot of hours or being ruthless or looking out for oneself. It was a real core type of competency and mastery over the field that few have. He was my mentor during one of my postdocs and he was by far the most successful scientist I had ever worked with other than my extremely famous doctoral advisor (who, tellingly, openly admired this other guy - probably 30 years his junior). He didn't play games with his students, he knew how to be supportive and kind without doing their work for them, and he knew which students to carry for a bit and when. He was there at every coffee break in they just chatting with whomever, he always ate with us in the canteen and it never felt like \"the boss\" was there. He's everyone's favorite colleague because he is open, honest, insightful and can see the right thing to do very quickly. People line up to collaborate with him and he is on so many papers it's ridiculous. And he's just great to be around. He has a really dry wit but is not cynical. He has a lot of interests and knows a lot about art and literature, and many other topics. He neither only talks about work nor avoids the topic. He almost never works in the evenings or weekends, only a bit on Sunday nights, and never before the kids go to bed. He takes a month off every August, just to be with his family on some British Isle where he he doesn't have good cell phone service and doesn't bother to get internet access. He has a wonderful marriage, great kids, and seems to really like life, in a British sort of way - meaning, not exuberant, but you can tell. He keeps himself fresh and doesn't burn out. He works efficiently because he keeps work confined to one part of his life. This makes him happier and more productive. When I saw how effortless it was for him, and how people were throwing money and titles his way, I could see what it was to be a star. And it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "For us average people in academia: When in your academic career did you realize that you weren't going to be a star and what prompted it? Now, if you are a star in your field or are on track to be one, congratulations! But this question isn't for you. I've spent my entire academic career at \"highly-ranked\" R1s, which means that I'm around a lot of people from undergrad students through early professors who have the expectation that they're going to be the stars of their field, and the environment promotes that. This is especially true at the university where I am currently. Most people, even from big-name R1s, do not end up being stars in their field. That's not a bad thing at all and is not even necessarily their fault - it's largely the nature of how reputations in academia are developed. I've also noticed that some are able to adjust to that change in expectation of themselves very easily, while others have a really hard time letting that go. I'm just curious for all of us non-stars, when in your career did you start to recognize that you weren't going to be a star in your field? What prompted you to realize that and what did you do to adjust your frame of mind to be content with it? I'm just interested in what others' experiences are and am not looking for advice or anything - I'm well past the point of being okay with not being on a path to be a big name in my field and am content with where I am (as long as I don't run out of funding!).", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Haven’t given up yet! (Jk—I never really believed I would be a “star”) I think it’s kind of funny/interesting how many comments and upvotes attribute not being a star to a choice—not a personal limitation, as if they COULD have been a star, but are average only because they made a choice to be average. Seems delusional. I accept my mediocrity!", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "For us average people in academia: When in your academic career did you realize that you weren't going to be a star and what prompted it? Now, if you are a star in your field or are on track to be one, congratulations! But this question isn't for you. I've spent my entire academic career at \"highly-ranked\" R1s, which means that I'm around a lot of people from undergrad students through early professors who have the expectation that they're going to be the stars of their field, and the environment promotes that. This is especially true at the university where I am currently. Most people, even from big-name R1s, do not end up being stars in their field. That's not a bad thing at all and is not even necessarily their fault - it's largely the nature of how reputations in academia are developed. I've also noticed that some are able to adjust to that change in expectation of themselves very easily, while others have a really hard time letting that go. I'm just curious for all of us non-stars, when in your career did you start to recognize that you weren't going to be a star in your field? What prompted you to realize that and what did you do to adjust your frame of mind to be content with it? I'm just interested in what others' experiences are and am not looking for advice or anything - I'm well past the point of being okay with not being on a path to be a big name in my field and am content with where I am (as long as I don't run out of funding!).", "role": "user" }, { "content": "But what does academic stardom even mean? Some people might think of it as being highly cited, but more and more we've realized that citations tend to be more a popularity game rather than a metric of success. Maybe it's having a ton of patents? Then again, patenting something can be very basic, and tons of people in industry have patents without being academics. Is it maybe coming up with a novel or breakthrough idea or method? I'd say plenty of academics have done this, but it hasn't been the right time or place to successfully get their innovation recognized. Is it having your own research project? Getting a lot of grants, or really big money grants? More and more stardom just sounds like a game of networking and being in the right place at the right time. A lot of it is luck. I'd doubt Jonas Salk thought of himself as a star, and people were giving up their seats on the bus for him. I'm genuinely curious about all of this, because even while I've worked with a number of different fields, I wouldn't say I've met any stars.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "For us average people in academia: When in your academic career did you realize that you weren't going to be a star and what prompted it? Now, if you are a star in your field or are on track to be one, congratulations! But this question isn't for you. I've spent my entire academic career at \"highly-ranked\" R1s, which means that I'm around a lot of people from undergrad students through early professors who have the expectation that they're going to be the stars of their field, and the environment promotes that. This is especially true at the university where I am currently. Most people, even from big-name R1s, do not end up being stars in their field. That's not a bad thing at all and is not even necessarily their fault - it's largely the nature of how reputations in academia are developed. I've also noticed that some are able to adjust to that change in expectation of themselves very easily, while others have a really hard time letting that go. I'm just curious for all of us non-stars, when in your career did you start to recognize that you weren't going to be a star in your field? What prompted you to realize that and what did you do to adjust your frame of mind to be content with it? I'm just interested in what others' experiences are and am not looking for advice or anything - I'm well past the point of being okay with not being on a path to be a big name in my field and am content with where I am (as long as I don't run out of funding!).", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I never expected to be a star, but about halfway through my PhD program is when I realized that I was making myself sick with how stressed I was about everything and I decided to just chill out. Plus, my advisors did nothing but put obstacles in my way of doing the research I actually wanted and so... that sort of out a damper on my plans, too.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "For us average people in academia: When in your academic career did you realize that you weren't going to be a star and what prompted it? Now, if you are a star in your field or are on track to be one, congratulations! But this question isn't for you. I've spent my entire academic career at \"highly-ranked\" R1s, which means that I'm around a lot of people from undergrad students through early professors who have the expectation that they're going to be the stars of their field, and the environment promotes that. This is especially true at the university where I am currently. Most people, even from big-name R1s, do not end up being stars in their field. That's not a bad thing at all and is not even necessarily their fault - it's largely the nature of how reputations in academia are developed. I've also noticed that some are able to adjust to that change in expectation of themselves very easily, while others have a really hard time letting that go. I'm just curious for all of us non-stars, when in your career did you start to recognize that you weren't going to be a star in your field? What prompted you to realize that and what did you do to adjust your frame of mind to be content with it? I'm just interested in what others' experiences are and am not looking for advice or anything - I'm well past the point of being okay with not being on a path to be a big name in my field and am content with where I am (as long as I don't run out of funding!).", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I don't think being a star ever crossed my mind. It's pretty obvious that even if you are very smart and hard working, there's a lot of luck involved and the competition is fierce. I just wanted to do something meaningful with my life.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "For us average people in academia: When in your academic career did you realize that you weren't going to be a star and what prompted it? Now, if you are a star in your field or are on track to be one, congratulations! But this question isn't for you. I've spent my entire academic career at \"highly-ranked\" R1s, which means that I'm around a lot of people from undergrad students through early professors who have the expectation that they're going to be the stars of their field, and the environment promotes that. This is especially true at the university where I am currently. Most people, even from big-name R1s, do not end up being stars in their field. That's not a bad thing at all and is not even necessarily their fault - it's largely the nature of how reputations in academia are developed. I've also noticed that some are able to adjust to that change in expectation of themselves very easily, while others have a really hard time letting that go. I'm just curious for all of us non-stars, when in your career did you start to recognize that you weren't going to be a star in your field? What prompted you to realize that and what did you do to adjust your frame of mind to be content with it? I'm just interested in what others' experiences are and am not looking for advice or anything - I'm well past the point of being okay with not being on a path to be a big name in my field and am content with where I am (as long as I don't run out of funding!).", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I question the premise of your question. No matter how high you rise, you will pretty much always find yourself in the company of peers. As a faculty member, I was more educated than most, more successful than most, paid better than most, and had more secure employment than most, and surrounded by others who were just like me. Was I a star? When I earned full professor and later got an endowed chair, I was still one of many. Was I a star then? As a Vice President, I find myself in exactly the same position. Am I a star now? I guess I think it’s all a matter of perspective, and at this point in my career I personally consider anyone who makes it through a PhD and goes on to an academic career to be a star. Few of us ever reach the height of glory that we perhaps imagined when we were younger, but that’s true of pretty much everyone everywhere and all of us have accomplished far more than most.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "PhD defense in a few hours Just getting this off my chest. I'll defend in a few hours and genuinely think there is a big probability that I will fail. My thesis is an embarrassment to myself, my PI, and the field. Data is limited, analysis is very simple, conclusions are unclear. I could train a master student and the whole data collection could be completed in 2 months. The analysis approach is like the ones done in the 70s or 80s, product of a bygone era. I don't belong on the modern, cutting edge area of science. I have made peace (slightly) that it's ok if I fail. I will go back to my home country this weekend (will be expensive but I don't care anymore), leave science forever (imagine wanting to understand the brain lol, what a nerd), and start my life anew. I just don't want my family and closest friends see me differently if I fail.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I see you posted 5h ago so this might be too late, but the absolute worst thing you can do is go in there with this attitude. If the thesis is really truly that terrible you should never have submitted it. However, more likely it's fine and you're having a wobble. But if you go in there and create the impression you think it's shit and has no merit then you're going to undermine their confidence in the work and it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. How can you expect them to believe in something you don't? How can you expect them to place any value in something you aren't willing to stand by? You chose to submit this work so you have to own it and defend it now. That's a fundamental part of being an academic and if you aren't willing to defend your work, your career options become limited to roles that require no skill, expertise or intellectual input. Lastly, people who love and value you won't judge you for failing at something but only if you truly gave it your best shot. You will never earn people's respect being defeatist and negative and deciding you've failed before you even gave it a go. So if you go in and give it your all, you will be respected and people will be sympathetic. If you think it's better to declare it's a failure so you don't risk trying and then failing, no one will respect you.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "PhD defense in a few hours Just getting this off my chest. I'll defend in a few hours and genuinely think there is a big probability that I will fail. My thesis is an embarrassment to myself, my PI, and the field. Data is limited, analysis is very simple, conclusions are unclear. I could train a master student and the whole data collection could be completed in 2 months. The analysis approach is like the ones done in the 70s or 80s, product of a bygone era. I don't belong on the modern, cutting edge area of science. I have made peace (slightly) that it's ok if I fail. I will go back to my home country this weekend (will be expensive but I don't care anymore), leave science forever (imagine wanting to understand the brain lol, what a nerd), and start my life anew. I just don't want my family and closest friends see me differently if I fail.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Best of luck!! Please update us :) Rooting for you from Spain!", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "PhD defense in a few hours Just getting this off my chest. I'll defend in a few hours and genuinely think there is a big probability that I will fail. My thesis is an embarrassment to myself, my PI, and the field. Data is limited, analysis is very simple, conclusions are unclear. I could train a master student and the whole data collection could be completed in 2 months. The analysis approach is like the ones done in the 70s or 80s, product of a bygone era. I don't belong on the modern, cutting edge area of science. I have made peace (slightly) that it's ok if I fail. I will go back to my home country this weekend (will be expensive but I don't care anymore), leave science forever (imagine wanting to understand the brain lol, what a nerd), and start my life anew. I just don't want my family and closest friends see me differently if I fail.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I see you posted 5h ago so this might be too late, but the absolute worst thing you can do is go in there with this attitude. If the thesis is really truly that terrible you should never have submitted it. However, more likely it's fine and you're having a wobble. But if you go in there and create the impression you think it's shit and has no merit then you're going to undermine their confidence in the work and it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. How can you expect them to believe in something you don't? How can you expect them to place any value in something you aren't willing to stand by? You chose to submit this work so you have to own it and defend it now. That's a fundamental part of being an academic and if you aren't willing to defend your work, your career options become limited to roles that require no skill, expertise or intellectual input. Lastly, people who love and value you won't judge you for failing at something but only if you truly gave it your best shot. You will never earn people's respect being defeatist and negative and deciding you've failed before you even gave it a go. So if you go in and give it your all, you will be respected and people will be sympathetic. If you think it's better to declare it's a failure so you don't risk trying and then failing, no one will respect you.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "PhD defense in a few hours Just getting this off my chest. I'll defend in a few hours and genuinely think there is a big probability that I will fail. My thesis is an embarrassment to myself, my PI, and the field. Data is limited, analysis is very simple, conclusions are unclear. I could train a master student and the whole data collection could be completed in 2 months. The analysis approach is like the ones done in the 70s or 80s, product of a bygone era. I don't belong on the modern, cutting edge area of science. I have made peace (slightly) that it's ok if I fail. I will go back to my home country this weekend (will be expensive but I don't care anymore), leave science forever (imagine wanting to understand the brain lol, what a nerd), and start my life anew. I just don't want my family and closest friends see me differently if I fail.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "You'll be highly valued in many industries beyond your current subject. Good luck with the defense and I hope it's a relief to have it finished.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "PhD defense in a few hours Just getting this off my chest. I'll defend in a few hours and genuinely think there is a big probability that I will fail. My thesis is an embarrassment to myself, my PI, and the field. Data is limited, analysis is very simple, conclusions are unclear. I could train a master student and the whole data collection could be completed in 2 months. The analysis approach is like the ones done in the 70s or 80s, product of a bygone era. I don't belong on the modern, cutting edge area of science. I have made peace (slightly) that it's ok if I fail. I will go back to my home country this weekend (will be expensive but I don't care anymore), leave science forever (imagine wanting to understand the brain lol, what a nerd), and start my life anew. I just don't want my family and closest friends see me differently if I fail.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "If there was a chance you'd fail, your supervisor wouldn't allow you to defend", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "PhD defense in a few hours Just getting this off my chest. I'll defend in a few hours and genuinely think there is a big probability that I will fail. My thesis is an embarrassment to myself, my PI, and the field. Data is limited, analysis is very simple, conclusions are unclear. I could train a master student and the whole data collection could be completed in 2 months. The analysis approach is like the ones done in the 70s or 80s, product of a bygone era. I don't belong on the modern, cutting edge area of science. I have made peace (slightly) that it's ok if I fail. I will go back to my home country this weekend (will be expensive but I don't care anymore), leave science forever (imagine wanting to understand the brain lol, what a nerd), and start my life anew. I just don't want my family and closest friends see me differently if I fail.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "All the best", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "PhD defense in a few hours Just getting this off my chest. I'll defend in a few hours and genuinely think there is a big probability that I will fail. My thesis is an embarrassment to myself, my PI, and the field. Data is limited, analysis is very simple, conclusions are unclear. I could train a master student and the whole data collection could be completed in 2 months. The analysis approach is like the ones done in the 70s or 80s, product of a bygone era. I don't belong on the modern, cutting edge area of science. I have made peace (slightly) that it's ok if I fail. I will go back to my home country this weekend (will be expensive but I don't care anymore), leave science forever (imagine wanting to understand the brain lol, what a nerd), and start my life anew. I just don't want my family and closest friends see me differently if I fail.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I see you posted 5h ago so this might be too late, but the absolute worst thing you can do is go in there with this attitude. If the thesis is really truly that terrible you should never have submitted it. However, more likely it's fine and you're having a wobble. But if you go in there and create the impression you think it's shit and has no merit then you're going to undermine their confidence in the work and it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. How can you expect them to believe in something you don't? How can you expect them to place any value in something you aren't willing to stand by? You chose to submit this work so you have to own it and defend it now. That's a fundamental part of being an academic and if you aren't willing to defend your work, your career options become limited to roles that require no skill, expertise or intellectual input. Lastly, people who love and value you won't judge you for failing at something but only if you truly gave it your best shot. You will never earn people's respect being defeatist and negative and deciding you've failed before you even gave it a go. So if you go in and give it your all, you will be respected and people will be sympathetic. If you think it's better to declare it's a failure so you don't risk trying and then failing, no one will respect you.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "PhD defense in a few hours Just getting this off my chest. I'll defend in a few hours and genuinely think there is a big probability that I will fail. My thesis is an embarrassment to myself, my PI, and the field. Data is limited, analysis is very simple, conclusions are unclear. I could train a master student and the whole data collection could be completed in 2 months. The analysis approach is like the ones done in the 70s or 80s, product of a bygone era. I don't belong on the modern, cutting edge area of science. I have made peace (slightly) that it's ok if I fail. I will go back to my home country this weekend (will be expensive but I don't care anymore), leave science forever (imagine wanting to understand the brain lol, what a nerd), and start my life anew. I just don't want my family and closest friends see me differently if I fail.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "So did you pass? Let us know!", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "PhD defense in a few hours Just getting this off my chest. I'll defend in a few hours and genuinely think there is a big probability that I will fail. My thesis is an embarrassment to myself, my PI, and the field. Data is limited, analysis is very simple, conclusions are unclear. I could train a master student and the whole data collection could be completed in 2 months. The analysis approach is like the ones done in the 70s or 80s, product of a bygone era. I don't belong on the modern, cutting edge area of science. I have made peace (slightly) that it's ok if I fail. I will go back to my home country this weekend (will be expensive but I don't care anymore), leave science forever (imagine wanting to understand the brain lol, what a nerd), and start my life anew. I just don't want my family and closest friends see me differently if I fail.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Please check back in this thread and tell us how it went. Good luck!", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "PhD defense in a few hours Just getting this off my chest. I'll defend in a few hours and genuinely think there is a big probability that I will fail. My thesis is an embarrassment to myself, my PI, and the field. Data is limited, analysis is very simple, conclusions are unclear. I could train a master student and the whole data collection could be completed in 2 months. The analysis approach is like the ones done in the 70s or 80s, product of a bygone era. I don't belong on the modern, cutting edge area of science. I have made peace (slightly) that it's ok if I fail. I will go back to my home country this weekend (will be expensive but I don't care anymore), leave science forever (imagine wanting to understand the brain lol, what a nerd), and start my life anew. I just don't want my family and closest friends see me differently if I fail.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "good luck!!!!! please have hope and remember that failing is part of our journey. do your best as there’s nothing else that could be done today. you never know how things might turn out as you’re just nervous..", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How do you turn off the “academic” portion of your brain and just be a normal person? I’m always “on” and it’s not helping my relationships. Or is this just an occupational hazard?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "You don't. You find someone just like you and become that weird couple who alienate all your friends", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How do you turn off the “academic” portion of your brain and just be a normal person? I’m always “on” and it’s not helping my relationships. Or is this just an occupational hazard?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Weird, in my lab/office we're always as childish, foolish and stupid as legally possible. Noone likes a smart ass, and noone needs to know details about everything, that academic behaviour is only present in external presentations and when writing.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How do you turn off the “academic” portion of your brain and just be a normal person? I’m always “on” and it’s not helping my relationships. Or is this just an occupational hazard?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Graduating helped. Now I think of myself as polite party host, asking my family and kids to tell me things about themselves and so forth.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How do you turn off the “academic” portion of your brain and just be a normal person? I’m always “on” and it’s not helping my relationships. Or is this just an occupational hazard?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Mood altering chemicals.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How do you turn off the “academic” portion of your brain and just be a normal person? I’m always “on” and it’s not helping my relationships. Or is this just an occupational hazard?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I just had a major surgery and the medication they give to ensure you don’t form memories is fat soluble. So I’m a week out and still wouldn’t be able to give an undergrad mechanics lecture, let alone explain my research. So I guess what I’m saying is go get an organ removed. Or at least take the drugs.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How do you turn off the “academic” portion of your brain and just be a normal person? I’m always “on” and it’s not helping my relationships. Or is this just an occupational hazard?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "This might be a bit of a faux pas but... w\\*\\*d helps", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How do you turn off the “academic” portion of your brain and just be a normal person? I’m always “on” and it’s not helping my relationships. Or is this just an occupational hazard?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "This is the struggle of an academic. I very regularly cannot sleep at night because I thought of a new study idea or that perfect opening sentence for my grant. I have a few tidbits of advice that have worked for me. 1. Keep a notebook with you at all times and when you have that idea write it down immediately or as soon as convenient. 2. Read for fun. I know this sounds silly, but it is so helpful for me to do some reading that isn’t on the subject I study or even better isn’t science at all. 3. Set and try to maintain specific boundaries on time. It’s important to have time dedicated to you, your partner, your friends, your family etc. 4. And in my experience most helpful, avoid talking about your academic pursuits. Keep it super short, unless the other person is super engaged in the conversation.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How do you turn off the “academic” portion of your brain and just be a normal person? I’m always “on” and it’s not helping my relationships. Or is this just an occupational hazard?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "This might be a bit of a faux pas but... w\\*\\*d helps", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How do you turn off the “academic” portion of your brain and just be a normal person? I’m always “on” and it’s not helping my relationships. Or is this just an occupational hazard?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "This is the struggle of an academic. I very regularly cannot sleep at night because I thought of a new study idea or that perfect opening sentence for my grant. I have a few tidbits of advice that have worked for me. 1. Keep a notebook with you at all times and when you have that idea write it down immediately or as soon as convenient. 2. Read for fun. I know this sounds silly, but it is so helpful for me to do some reading that isn’t on the subject I study or even better isn’t science at all. 3. Set and try to maintain specific boundaries on time. It’s important to have time dedicated to you, your partner, your friends, your family etc. 4. And in my experience most helpful, avoid talking about your academic pursuits. Keep it super short, unless the other person is super engaged in the conversation.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How do you turn off the “academic” portion of your brain and just be a normal person? I’m always “on” and it’s not helping my relationships. Or is this just an occupational hazard?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I find it hard to turn off my academic side. My SO finds it difficult to turn off his sales side. We both listen to each other and learn new things all the time. I have figured out that if someone doesn't want to listen and invest their time in what you're passionate about, they are not worth it.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How to be happy for getting accepted in PhD when it seems like family and friends can't relate? Hi guys, So I'm a first year phD in the Social Sciences and I've been struggling to be happy for myself and celebrate my accomplishments without the enthusiastic support of my family and some friends? Being the first PhD in my family from an inner city and female and African American, I feel like none of my inner family can relate and are so busy trying to get by the don't have the bandwidth to be truly happy for me and express support. Personally, I am proud of myself as I am fully funded and received additional external fellowship, but I am truly disappointed. It seems lonely at the \"top\". I worked so hard to get in and stay in during the pandemic but my family just doesn't seem to care and I want to be able to celebrate with them and feel loved/support. This is just not what I expected. It feels like the further along I move in my education the more I alienate or distinguish myself from \"normal\" non academic peers and family/friends. Do you all have any advice on this subject?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Same boat here and similar demographics! I am finishing my clinical masters and entering a program to start Fall 2022. The responses to my acceptance from my family (extremely low SES background and first gen for most of my educational experiences): - people thinking I’m smarter about specific subjects I haven’t even studied/intend to study and lots of misconceptions of what a Ph.D is. - extremely flat reactions with “congrats” seeming more like a long sigh almost saying “oh great, more school”. - less celebration and more shrugs as I explain the place I’m moving to/what I’ll study. - lots and lots of disconnect from the people I grew up with and even my current cohort as they go into the workforce with their clinical degrees and I’m still heading into another 4 years of having a lower income and not practicing. I learned these lessons after constant disappointment even entering my masters: - have friends in your program and “academic friends”. These are the people you talk passionately with about research, your subject, your interests. These people fill the void that may exist talking with family and friends who don’t have your educational background. I personally really surround myself with this crowd because my family and friends from my childhood are so disconnected I almost feel isolated. No one in my life has made it this far. - have a significant other or romantic partner completely separate from research and school. My partner is my rock and my biggest cheerleader but has no idea what I’m talking about when I bring school up. His family and mine are very supportive but show a lot of misunderstanding towards what I’m doing and will often view or reference me as “the super smart one in the room” yet my imposter syndrome tells me otherwise. This additional support and minimal questioning of what I’m doing (although I’d love for them to be curious and ask me anything related to it) makes me feel like I can do anything I need/want related to my work and research without hindrance. It’s tough when you want to talk about it with loved ones but it honestly is a blessing in disguise. - have a crew of people who show love and support but don’t necessarily fall in the other two categories. These are your fun people who will be understanding of your circumstances when you dip for a few months due to burnout and being overworked but help you break out of the shell that can come when you are only surrounded by fellow academics. You can easily burn yourself out listening to the complaints or negativity of fellow Ph.Ds as we all seek to listen and support each other. - FIND HOBBIES AND OUTLETS! Workout, go birding, hike, be a craft beer enthusiast, anything. Expand your life beyond the work of the Ph.D. so it’s not the only thing you feel is defining you and I promise it helps take off the edge of pain you get when people don’t understand how hard you’re working. I am slowly realizing people are more interested in hearing about my hobbies and side passions than my academic work and I guess it makes sense - how often do you like hearing about others on their work or even work accomplishments we don’t know anything about? It really really sucks but it gets better and having multiple support systems will even it out. But part of it is accepting that you are doing more than your family and that’s not a bad thing to feel a little isolated. You can love those around you but receive the support and congratulations from the people who get it. Congrats, you are a rockstar for doing this us strangers are very proud of you. Virtual celebrations!!", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How to be happy for getting accepted in PhD when it seems like family and friends can't relate? Hi guys, So I'm a first year phD in the Social Sciences and I've been struggling to be happy for myself and celebrate my accomplishments without the enthusiastic support of my family and some friends? Being the first PhD in my family from an inner city and female and African American, I feel like none of my inner family can relate and are so busy trying to get by the don't have the bandwidth to be truly happy for me and express support. Personally, I am proud of myself as I am fully funded and received additional external fellowship, but I am truly disappointed. It seems lonely at the \"top\". I worked so hard to get in and stay in during the pandemic but my family just doesn't seem to care and I want to be able to celebrate with them and feel loved/support. This is just not what I expected. It feels like the further along I move in my education the more I alienate or distinguish myself from \"normal\" non academic peers and family/friends. Do you all have any advice on this subject?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Im not saying your family is narcissistic, but I had this problem alot in mine. Its not that they arent supportive, they do say like oh wow thats great, etc, but its almost like they dont care at all because it has nothing to do with them. I graduated with my 3rd degree, retired from the military, two kids, the kids they were into for the first couple years, but all in all absolutely lackluster response. But i've learned also thats its toxic of me to not have boundaries around my expectation for other people. Just because somebody doesnt treat me the way I want doesnt make it their fault exactly and im trying to unlearn it, but I can definetaly call a spade, a spade, and I know that I am very appreciative and I definetaly know how to spot somebody with talent and skill. If youre not like your family and this is the response you get when you get accomplishments, most likely are dealing with a narcissistic family dynamic, where you outgrew the family's expectation for you, usually parents gas light to keep their children under a certain par for the course so they never really excel. I cant vouche if this is your case but I can tell you right now if i met you and you said your story I'd say youre one of the most talented peopel I met that day from your display of perservance and dedication to your craft. Some people also to simplify my narc rant, some people cant stand being outshined, outperformed, especially when they have expectation for you to follow and in your own organic way you fashion a life together that is completely unlike the one everyone envisioned for you, and in the end you were happier, more successful while looking back you can see that it was other peoples guilts keeping you down. I know it sucks, all you want to do is have a party to celebrate your achievements and half the time youre dealing with other people not caring enough. I say it was you that got you on your own path, maybe its time to go off and find people who really deserve to celebrate with you. Lastly I do recongize people can be energy draining so maybe celebrate by yourself as well. Learning how to appreciate yourself and do things for you and learning how to bond with yourself and your accolades personally is a much stronger connection to oneself than finding other people to pull it out from. This way if youre somebody who likes to just do their own thing , be on their own way when you do meet people its not so important what they think of you cause your value is placed within yourself. ​ This takes alot of mental strength as this turns out to be so much more than degrees, retirement, accolades, Ph.d. We're literally learning how to rewire ourselves and breaking down the ego. That is what is very hard for people is letting the ego go, thats really the biggest problem with being alone is simplifying thought patterns and understanding other people are you and you are them. I know that sounds ridiculous but its true, the more i stop creating boundaries between how different i am to people I dislike or people I hate or i have indifference too, I take it in and think I too could have become that if I wasnt so aware of being better than that. But that alone doesnt justify bringing the wall down to protect you against malevolent nature. Some people just raised in rubble and some people are raised beside it. Your entire life is a constant filtering and vetting of picking the best DragonBall Z squad", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How to be happy for getting accepted in PhD when it seems like family and friends can't relate? Hi guys, So I'm a first year phD in the Social Sciences and I've been struggling to be happy for myself and celebrate my accomplishments without the enthusiastic support of my family and some friends? Being the first PhD in my family from an inner city and female and African American, I feel like none of my inner family can relate and are so busy trying to get by the don't have the bandwidth to be truly happy for me and express support. Personally, I am proud of myself as I am fully funded and received additional external fellowship, but I am truly disappointed. It seems lonely at the \"top\". I worked so hard to get in and stay in during the pandemic but my family just doesn't seem to care and I want to be able to celebrate with them and feel loved/support. This is just not what I expected. It feels like the further along I move in my education the more I alienate or distinguish myself from \"normal\" non academic peers and family/friends. Do you all have any advice on this subject?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Do you frequently ask about your family members’ jobs and professional lives? Do you know about all of their accomplishments and goings-on at work? If you’re constantly talking about their job and work accomplishments, but the conversation never turns to your professional life, then you can try to drop your own professional anecdotes in the conversation to let them know you’re in the ‘adult world’ now and can relate. I’m in a PhD program. My extended family talks about our professional lives sometimes but mostly we like to talk about family stuff or other fun stuff. Which seems pretty normal to me. I don’t think most of them even remember I’m in a PhD program. I sometimes discuss it with parents and siblings, mostly because sometimes we have to plan around my study schedule. They all had to go through job training for their job. What’s so exceptional about me going through job training for mine (which essentially is what a PhD *is* - job training for academia)? Don’t think of yourself as “at the top” just because you are in a PhD program. The only thing that differentiates you from others is that you chose to go into academia, and others chose to go into different fields (that are just as worthwhile). Someone who knows their field inside and out, has the respect of their peers, and brings positive changes to their workplace - that’s someone who is “at the top” - whether they’re a plumber, a teacher, an engineer, or a secretary. I’m sure your family is proud of you even if they don’t bring it up all the time. They probably just see you as an adult now. And adults don’t get as much constant praise as kids. But you don’t need that anymore anyway, because you’re doing this for yourself, to train for your job.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How to be happy for getting accepted in PhD when it seems like family and friends can't relate? Hi guys, So I'm a first year phD in the Social Sciences and I've been struggling to be happy for myself and celebrate my accomplishments without the enthusiastic support of my family and some friends? Being the first PhD in my family from an inner city and female and African American, I feel like none of my inner family can relate and are so busy trying to get by the don't have the bandwidth to be truly happy for me and express support. Personally, I am proud of myself as I am fully funded and received additional external fellowship, but I am truly disappointed. It seems lonely at the \"top\". I worked so hard to get in and stay in during the pandemic but my family just doesn't seem to care and I want to be able to celebrate with them and feel loved/support. This is just not what I expected. It feels like the further along I move in my education the more I alienate or distinguish myself from \"normal\" non academic peers and family/friends. Do you all have any advice on this subject?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I am sorry that you're in this position. I don't have any specific advice but all I can say is that at the end of the day, it's your happiness that matters the most. It sucks when you're not able to share your happiness with friends and families but sometimes that's how it is. It's ok to outgrow your friends and families. In your case, if you really want them to be feel happy and be proud of you, perhaps you can talk to them. Very often people don't understand how academia and PhD work, and tend to think that it's just a few more years of taking classes instead of getting an actual job. Maybe you can try explaining to them (if you haven't already) how much you've achieved and how much their support means to you, then maybe things will take a turn.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How to be happy for getting accepted in PhD when it seems like family and friends can't relate? Hi guys, So I'm a first year phD in the Social Sciences and I've been struggling to be happy for myself and celebrate my accomplishments without the enthusiastic support of my family and some friends? Being the first PhD in my family from an inner city and female and African American, I feel like none of my inner family can relate and are so busy trying to get by the don't have the bandwidth to be truly happy for me and express support. Personally, I am proud of myself as I am fully funded and received additional external fellowship, but I am truly disappointed. It seems lonely at the \"top\". I worked so hard to get in and stay in during the pandemic but my family just doesn't seem to care and I want to be able to celebrate with them and feel loved/support. This is just not what I expected. It feels like the further along I move in my education the more I alienate or distinguish myself from \"normal\" non academic peers and family/friends. Do you all have any advice on this subject?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Learn to not need others validation. You do not need others happiness to validate your happiness. If you are happy, that is enough. Soak the moment in alone. Be grateful to the universe, be proud of yourself, and let your happiness shine. Oh and congratulations.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How to be happy for getting accepted in PhD when it seems like family and friends can't relate? Hi guys, So I'm a first year phD in the Social Sciences and I've been struggling to be happy for myself and celebrate my accomplishments without the enthusiastic support of my family and some friends? Being the first PhD in my family from an inner city and female and African American, I feel like none of my inner family can relate and are so busy trying to get by the don't have the bandwidth to be truly happy for me and express support. Personally, I am proud of myself as I am fully funded and received additional external fellowship, but I am truly disappointed. It seems lonely at the \"top\". I worked so hard to get in and stay in during the pandemic but my family just doesn't seem to care and I want to be able to celebrate with them and feel loved/support. This is just not what I expected. It feels like the further along I move in my education the more I alienate or distinguish myself from \"normal\" non academic peers and family/friends. Do you all have any advice on this subject?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I’m proud of you! Congrats!!!", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How to be happy for getting accepted in PhD when it seems like family and friends can't relate? Hi guys, So I'm a first year phD in the Social Sciences and I've been struggling to be happy for myself and celebrate my accomplishments without the enthusiastic support of my family and some friends? Being the first PhD in my family from an inner city and female and African American, I feel like none of my inner family can relate and are so busy trying to get by the don't have the bandwidth to be truly happy for me and express support. Personally, I am proud of myself as I am fully funded and received additional external fellowship, but I am truly disappointed. It seems lonely at the \"top\". I worked so hard to get in and stay in during the pandemic but my family just doesn't seem to care and I want to be able to celebrate with them and feel loved/support. This is just not what I expected. It feels like the further along I move in my education the more I alienate or distinguish myself from \"normal\" non academic peers and family/friends. Do you all have any advice on this subject?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "First off, huge congratulations!! Seriously, it's fucking awesome (in every sense of the word). I'm a first gen college graduate. Male, white, working-class background from the middle of nowhere KY, raised in a fundamentalist household. I did my Bachelor's > Master's > double PhD with no break. My family never seemed impressed or expressed genuine happiness for my advances in life. The more education I received, the more alienated I felt from family/home. When I received my bachelor's degree, I was told the entire family wanted to chip in to purchase a handmade guitar for me (I played and taught guitar lessons all through HS and undergrad). They didn't do that. In fact, they never even bothered to try (we were poor, but they also constantly overspent, were financially unstable, and had 4-5 car loans, despite only needing 2 cars, etc., etc.). Instead, my mother bought me cheese fries at Long Horn (a fancy meal for us) and my father made fun of the phrase \"summa cum laude when my name was called for graduation. For my master's...we ate at Burger King. I celebrated my dissertation defense completely alone in an Airbnb w/ a pizza. It was lonely. I hope your experience is better (celebrate with friends). I clearly articulated that I wanted some sort of support to my family, but they don't really \"do emotions\" outside of the context of speaking in tongues in church and the like. Anyway, all this to say, I've experienced something similar on my educational/career trajectory. It can be extremely lonely and alienating, as you said. I will add this though, in hindsight, I wish I had celebrated and been proud of myself/my accomplishments more (I was indoctrinated to be celebration was sort of sinful/conceited). Congratulations on all of your accomplishments thus far.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How to be happy for getting accepted in PhD when it seems like family and friends can't relate? Hi guys, So I'm a first year phD in the Social Sciences and I've been struggling to be happy for myself and celebrate my accomplishments without the enthusiastic support of my family and some friends? Being the first PhD in my family from an inner city and female and African American, I feel like none of my inner family can relate and are so busy trying to get by the don't have the bandwidth to be truly happy for me and express support. Personally, I am proud of myself as I am fully funded and received additional external fellowship, but I am truly disappointed. It seems lonely at the \"top\". I worked so hard to get in and stay in during the pandemic but my family just doesn't seem to care and I want to be able to celebrate with them and feel loved/support. This is just not what I expected. It feels like the further along I move in my education the more I alienate or distinguish myself from \"normal\" non academic peers and family/friends. Do you all have any advice on this subject?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "You just learn to accept the loneliness of it. I'm similar to you and grew up in a working class,borderline working poor household. My family still doesn't understand what I do really. I'm post tenure and my mom is both jealous and proud. She wasted her potential but it's not her fault, she had a lot of trauma that she didn't know how to handle. But, she did her best. She projects that I look down on her somehow. I mean, I don't. But in her head I do. There's nothing I can really do about that. It's weird because it's like, don't you want your kids to do better than you did? And by better, I mean both financially as well as having the ability to live authentically. Do what you love, and accept that optionally not everyone is going to come with you on the ride. I'm not African American but I am a mixed person of color, so I can't comment on how race might impact your specific situation, but class is a big part of it. Here's a relatable blog post https://cupofjo.com/2018/03/class-differences-with-parents/", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How to be happy for getting accepted in PhD when it seems like family and friends can't relate? Hi guys, So I'm a first year phD in the Social Sciences and I've been struggling to be happy for myself and celebrate my accomplishments without the enthusiastic support of my family and some friends? Being the first PhD in my family from an inner city and female and African American, I feel like none of my inner family can relate and are so busy trying to get by the don't have the bandwidth to be truly happy for me and express support. Personally, I am proud of myself as I am fully funded and received additional external fellowship, but I am truly disappointed. It seems lonely at the \"top\". I worked so hard to get in and stay in during the pandemic but my family just doesn't seem to care and I want to be able to celebrate with them and feel loved/support. This is just not what I expected. It feels like the further along I move in my education the more I alienate or distinguish myself from \"normal\" non academic peers and family/friends. Do you all have any advice on this subject?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Same boat here and similar demographics! I am finishing my clinical masters and entering a program to start Fall 2022. The responses to my acceptance from my family (extremely low SES background and first gen for most of my educational experiences): - people thinking I’m smarter about specific subjects I haven’t even studied/intend to study and lots of misconceptions of what a Ph.D is. - extremely flat reactions with “congrats” seeming more like a long sigh almost saying “oh great, more school”. - less celebration and more shrugs as I explain the place I’m moving to/what I’ll study. - lots and lots of disconnect from the people I grew up with and even my current cohort as they go into the workforce with their clinical degrees and I’m still heading into another 4 years of having a lower income and not practicing. I learned these lessons after constant disappointment even entering my masters: - have friends in your program and “academic friends”. These are the people you talk passionately with about research, your subject, your interests. These people fill the void that may exist talking with family and friends who don’t have your educational background. I personally really surround myself with this crowd because my family and friends from my childhood are so disconnected I almost feel isolated. No one in my life has made it this far. - have a significant other or romantic partner completely separate from research and school. My partner is my rock and my biggest cheerleader but has no idea what I’m talking about when I bring school up. His family and mine are very supportive but show a lot of misunderstanding towards what I’m doing and will often view or reference me as “the super smart one in the room” yet my imposter syndrome tells me otherwise. This additional support and minimal questioning of what I’m doing (although I’d love for them to be curious and ask me anything related to it) makes me feel like I can do anything I need/want related to my work and research without hindrance. It’s tough when you want to talk about it with loved ones but it honestly is a blessing in disguise. - have a crew of people who show love and support but don’t necessarily fall in the other two categories. These are your fun people who will be understanding of your circumstances when you dip for a few months due to burnout and being overworked but help you break out of the shell that can come when you are only surrounded by fellow academics. You can easily burn yourself out listening to the complaints or negativity of fellow Ph.Ds as we all seek to listen and support each other. - FIND HOBBIES AND OUTLETS! Workout, go birding, hike, be a craft beer enthusiast, anything. Expand your life beyond the work of the Ph.D. so it’s not the only thing you feel is defining you and I promise it helps take off the edge of pain you get when people don’t understand how hard you’re working. I am slowly realizing people are more interested in hearing about my hobbies and side passions than my academic work and I guess it makes sense - how often do you like hearing about others on their work or even work accomplishments we don’t know anything about? It really really sucks but it gets better and having multiple support systems will even it out. But part of it is accepting that you are doing more than your family and that’s not a bad thing to feel a little isolated. You can love those around you but receive the support and congratulations from the people who get it. Congrats, you are a rockstar for doing this us strangers are very proud of you. Virtual celebrations!!", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How to be happy for getting accepted in PhD when it seems like family and friends can't relate? Hi guys, So I'm a first year phD in the Social Sciences and I've been struggling to be happy for myself and celebrate my accomplishments without the enthusiastic support of my family and some friends? Being the first PhD in my family from an inner city and female and African American, I feel like none of my inner family can relate and are so busy trying to get by the don't have the bandwidth to be truly happy for me and express support. Personally, I am proud of myself as I am fully funded and received additional external fellowship, but I am truly disappointed. It seems lonely at the \"top\". I worked so hard to get in and stay in during the pandemic but my family just doesn't seem to care and I want to be able to celebrate with them and feel loved/support. This is just not what I expected. It feels like the further along I move in my education the more I alienate or distinguish myself from \"normal\" non academic peers and family/friends. Do you all have any advice on this subject?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I am in a similar boat. I come from a poor family in the boonies - first BA ever let alone PhD. I often get less than optimism and happiness from family - i sometimes get extremely negative feedback. My BA was from a very prestigious school that was well known for Vietnam era protests and leftism in general. Family members would jipe at the liberal hippy BS good for nothing brainwashing i was wasting my time with. Now I'm in a very prestigious department in a smaller university and they jipe at me for more wasted time and can't even get into as good of a school as my BA (this department and my advisor are THE #1 choice for what I'm doing. I legit jackpot hit this out of the park getting in here fully funded). Not a sob story for me - but just wanted to relate with you. You aren't alone at all, although it feels like it. We are often alone in our departments too. My cohort had one dude who ever had a job outside of academia cuz he took a break after his BA and one other student who came from a working family. The rest are either from elite families in the states or abroad. There is nobody in this entire department that watched their parent(s) struggle to make bills, live in a place that got condemned, or had to struggle to survive themselves. Coming from a poor, uneducated urban family (or rural in my case) leaves us in a situation that we are so different than our peers. So we neither have that commonality here or back home. We are the odd ducklings. Thus, it is important that we don't rely on outside sources to make us feel good about ourselves. We must find self satisfaction and know that what we are doing is special. What we are doing is unique. And what we are doing is damn well harder than what people realize, either back home or among our peers here at our institute. It's OUR journey, OUR education, and OUR success.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Anyone so frustrated they literally start to cry? I am so frustrated with my self for not being able to focus on my online assignments that I literally feel like i’m going to cry. my house is loud and i can’t find anywhere where it’s completely silent even with noise cancelling headphones. i have so much work to do but even with my medication i just couldn’t do it. my medication usually helps but it’s not doing anything except making it hard for me to eat. i hate this. i feel like i’m on the verge of a breakdown", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I cry all the time lol.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Anyone so frustrated they literally start to cry? I am so frustrated with my self for not being able to focus on my online assignments that I literally feel like i’m going to cry. my house is loud and i can’t find anywhere where it’s completely silent even with noise cancelling headphones. i have so much work to do but even with my medication i just couldn’t do it. my medication usually helps but it’s not doing anything except making it hard for me to eat. i hate this. i feel like i’m on the verge of a breakdown", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Omg, I just went through this Saturday. I took a day off..well, two. Starting back today feeling fresh. Ugh. I empathize with you. Hang in there.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Anyone so frustrated they literally start to cry? I am so frustrated with my self for not being able to focus on my online assignments that I literally feel like i’m going to cry. my house is loud and i can’t find anywhere where it’s completely silent even with noise cancelling headphones. i have so much work to do but even with my medication i just couldn’t do it. my medication usually helps but it’s not doing anything except making it hard for me to eat. i hate this. i feel like i’m on the verge of a breakdown", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I totally get it! A few things from a fellow medication user who still frequently copes with focusing issues... (1) Exercise! I know there are studies out there to back it up, but I'm not going to go down a rabbit hole to find them since I only have a few minutes left on my Pomodoro timer. I find that I am ***so*** much more focused when I go for a run/bike ride in the morning. There are days when I convince myself I \"don't have time\" to exercise for 20 minutes and then spend the day kicking myself because I waste waaaay more than 20 minutes trying to find focus. (2) Pomodoro timer 25 minutes of intense, focused studying/5 minute break. There are plenty of apps for this (I use Focus Keeper but also occasionally Seconds Pro which is actually a timer for HIIT exercise lol). Play around with the time intervals and see what works for you, then STICK TO IT and treat it like it's a law you can't break. The minute that break ends, get back to work. (3) Foam ear plugs underneath noise cancelling headphones If you have over-the-ear noise cancelling headphones, invest in a large container of foam earplugs. This + noise cancelling + brown noise (personally find it way more tolerable than white noise...buy a track of your choice and play it on repeat) are a MUST. COVID has seriously screwed up my finely honed work habits, but this helped immensely. (4) Freedom App I found this really useful as well. There are days where no matter how much I tried, I could NOT get myself off time-wasting websites. There's a free version you can try, but it basically blocks whatever apps and websites you want on all your devices and there's an option you can choose so that there's no way to un-do it until the session is over. I have these set up for repeating sessions throughout the day, which helps keep me focused. (5) Positive talk Ok, ok, this one might sound cheesy but it's real. Tell yourself over and over that you are good at working from home/with distraction/etc until you believe it. Take it from someone who had a few breakdowns early on in the pandemic... you have to acknowledge what you're feeling and how crummy the situation is, but then decide that you're stronger than that, and get back to work. (6) Stick with a schedule This one is another crucial one. Set boundaries for yourself. Working from home has made it difficult for everyone...now all of a sudden you're expected to be available via email/zoom/etc at all hours because they know you haven't gone anywhere. I stick with a schedule of when I'm going to work, and when I'm going to call it quits. There is ALWAYS more work to be done, so don't fool yourself into thinking that you have to work for just one more hour. You could work forever and you probably wouldn't be done/caught up. (7) Know when to take a break If you set up a schedule and get into a rhythm, but then find that there are days when you **just can't focus** no matter what you do? Call it quits. Trying to force yourself to do work is going to make you miserable, and is just going to cause you to burn out more/be less efficient/repeat the cycle. Take the day off, do something you find truly relaxing and enjoyable, get some exercise, then start again the next day. It's probably a good practice to do this once a week or so....as you go, you'll start to figure out what time span you need between days off. For me, it's around the 9 day mark that I start to crack and know I need to take a day off, so I just build it into my schedule one day before that happens. . . I hope that some of this is helpful. I apologize for writing a post a third the length of Moby Dick, but I totally know the feeling of being miserable because you so desperately want to work but can't. I sincerely hope you (and everyone else feeling this way!) can find some ways to work effectively in these crummy times, while simultaneously taking care of yourself. Wishing you good mental health and a good day.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Anyone so frustrated they literally start to cry? I am so frustrated with my self for not being able to focus on my online assignments that I literally feel like i’m going to cry. my house is loud and i can’t find anywhere where it’s completely silent even with noise cancelling headphones. i have so much work to do but even with my medication i just couldn’t do it. my medication usually helps but it’s not doing anything except making it hard for me to eat. i hate this. i feel like i’m on the verge of a breakdown", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Is your school's library open? Or perhaps another building on campus? If your campus is anything like ours (i.e. a ghost town) then there are plenty of quiet places where you can study while maintaining social distance.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Anyone so frustrated they literally start to cry? I am so frustrated with my self for not being able to focus on my online assignments that I literally feel like i’m going to cry. my house is loud and i can’t find anywhere where it’s completely silent even with noise cancelling headphones. i have so much work to do but even with my medication i just couldn’t do it. my medication usually helps but it’s not doing anything except making it hard for me to eat. i hate this. i feel like i’m on the verge of a breakdown", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I cry all the time lol.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Anyone so frustrated they literally start to cry? I am so frustrated with my self for not being able to focus on my online assignments that I literally feel like i’m going to cry. my house is loud and i can’t find anywhere where it’s completely silent even with noise cancelling headphones. i have so much work to do but even with my medication i just couldn’t do it. my medication usually helps but it’s not doing anything except making it hard for me to eat. i hate this. i feel like i’m on the verge of a breakdown", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Is your school's library open? Or perhaps another building on campus? If your campus is anything like ours (i.e. a ghost town) then there are plenty of quiet places where you can study while maintaining social distance.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Anyone so frustrated they literally start to cry? I am so frustrated with my self for not being able to focus on my online assignments that I literally feel like i’m going to cry. my house is loud and i can’t find anywhere where it’s completely silent even with noise cancelling headphones. i have so much work to do but even with my medication i just couldn’t do it. my medication usually helps but it’s not doing anything except making it hard for me to eat. i hate this. i feel like i’m on the verge of a breakdown", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I cry all the time lol.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Anyone so frustrated they literally start to cry? I am so frustrated with my self for not being able to focus on my online assignments that I literally feel like i’m going to cry. my house is loud and i can’t find anywhere where it’s completely silent even with noise cancelling headphones. i have so much work to do but even with my medication i just couldn’t do it. my medication usually helps but it’s not doing anything except making it hard for me to eat. i hate this. i feel like i’m on the verge of a breakdown", "role": "user" }, { "content": "This is a suuuper common reaction for me when I get overwhelmed. It’s like the emotions are trying to escape my body via my eyes lol. I agree with the above advice, plus I highly recommend the strategy of breaking down bigger tasks into smaller ones. Even if that means watching a lectures in chunks. You watched 10 mins? That’s a win! Take it slow, and be forgiving of yourself :) you got this!", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Anyone so frustrated they literally start to cry? I am so frustrated with my self for not being able to focus on my online assignments that I literally feel like i’m going to cry. my house is loud and i can’t find anywhere where it’s completely silent even with noise cancelling headphones. i have so much work to do but even with my medication i just couldn’t do it. my medication usually helps but it’s not doing anything except making it hard for me to eat. i hate this. i feel like i’m on the verge of a breakdown", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I totally get it! A few things from a fellow medication user who still frequently copes with focusing issues... (1) Exercise! I know there are studies out there to back it up, but I'm not going to go down a rabbit hole to find them since I only have a few minutes left on my Pomodoro timer. I find that I am ***so*** much more focused when I go for a run/bike ride in the morning. There are days when I convince myself I \"don't have time\" to exercise for 20 minutes and then spend the day kicking myself because I waste waaaay more than 20 minutes trying to find focus. (2) Pomodoro timer 25 minutes of intense, focused studying/5 minute break. There are plenty of apps for this (I use Focus Keeper but also occasionally Seconds Pro which is actually a timer for HIIT exercise lol). Play around with the time intervals and see what works for you, then STICK TO IT and treat it like it's a law you can't break. The minute that break ends, get back to work. (3) Foam ear plugs underneath noise cancelling headphones If you have over-the-ear noise cancelling headphones, invest in a large container of foam earplugs. This + noise cancelling + brown noise (personally find it way more tolerable than white noise...buy a track of your choice and play it on repeat) are a MUST. COVID has seriously screwed up my finely honed work habits, but this helped immensely. (4) Freedom App I found this really useful as well. There are days where no matter how much I tried, I could NOT get myself off time-wasting websites. There's a free version you can try, but it basically blocks whatever apps and websites you want on all your devices and there's an option you can choose so that there's no way to un-do it until the session is over. I have these set up for repeating sessions throughout the day, which helps keep me focused. (5) Positive talk Ok, ok, this one might sound cheesy but it's real. Tell yourself over and over that you are good at working from home/with distraction/etc until you believe it. Take it from someone who had a few breakdowns early on in the pandemic... you have to acknowledge what you're feeling and how crummy the situation is, but then decide that you're stronger than that, and get back to work. (6) Stick with a schedule This one is another crucial one. Set boundaries for yourself. Working from home has made it difficult for everyone...now all of a sudden you're expected to be available via email/zoom/etc at all hours because they know you haven't gone anywhere. I stick with a schedule of when I'm going to work, and when I'm going to call it quits. There is ALWAYS more work to be done, so don't fool yourself into thinking that you have to work for just one more hour. You could work forever and you probably wouldn't be done/caught up. (7) Know when to take a break If you set up a schedule and get into a rhythm, but then find that there are days when you **just can't focus** no matter what you do? Call it quits. Trying to force yourself to do work is going to make you miserable, and is just going to cause you to burn out more/be less efficient/repeat the cycle. Take the day off, do something you find truly relaxing and enjoyable, get some exercise, then start again the next day. It's probably a good practice to do this once a week or so....as you go, you'll start to figure out what time span you need between days off. For me, it's around the 9 day mark that I start to crack and know I need to take a day off, so I just build it into my schedule one day before that happens. . . I hope that some of this is helpful. I apologize for writing a post a third the length of Moby Dick, but I totally know the feeling of being miserable because you so desperately want to work but can't. I sincerely hope you (and everyone else feeling this way!) can find some ways to work effectively in these crummy times, while simultaneously taking care of yourself. Wishing you good mental health and a good day.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Anyone so frustrated they literally start to cry? I am so frustrated with my self for not being able to focus on my online assignments that I literally feel like i’m going to cry. my house is loud and i can’t find anywhere where it’s completely silent even with noise cancelling headphones. i have so much work to do but even with my medication i just couldn’t do it. my medication usually helps but it’s not doing anything except making it hard for me to eat. i hate this. i feel like i’m on the verge of a breakdown", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Sounds like sensory overload, and I very much relate! I couldn't do work at my parents' house for the same reasons, and I struggled to focus in my dorm in undergrad. I would get around it by playing wordless music fairly loud in my headphones; there are playlists on YouTube and Spotify. Does your institution offer free counseling? Many colleges are offering telehealth counseling and Zoom sessions. I find those to be helpful when I am overwhelmed.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Thank you all I finished my PhD in spring of 2020 and stayed at my university in a different lab as a post doc. The new lab is awesome and I was happy there, even in a pandemic. But, I’m happy to say that I’ve accepted an TT assistant professor job in my dream city at a great school for this fall (R2, ranked top 20% in my field (allied health-related). I could literally spend my career there. Scouring this subreddit for guidance, tips, etc. was a lifesaver. You all rock. But, I know I’m lucky and I will strife to be mindful of that privilege.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Congratulations! I spent my career at one place. It was great and very interesting to become the senior faculty member toward the end of my career.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Thank you all I finished my PhD in spring of 2020 and stayed at my university in a different lab as a post doc. The new lab is awesome and I was happy there, even in a pandemic. But, I’m happy to say that I’ve accepted an TT assistant professor job in my dream city at a great school for this fall (R2, ranked top 20% in my field (allied health-related). I could literally spend my career there. Scouring this subreddit for guidance, tips, etc. was a lifesaver. You all rock. But, I know I’m lucky and I will strife to be mindful of that privilege.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Congradulations.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Do you think that life would be easier if there was just one universally accepted citation style? I know it sounds a rhetorical question. But as a TA, I have noticed that students in my institution often have a very difficult time with correct citation style. My class follows APA. Somehow, even with widely available internet sources (and even citation generators) many still do not seem to get it. Sometimes I wonder if a universally accepted, standardized citation style, across disciplines would make more sense. Perhaps this is more of a rant out of frustration. But I figured I would extend this question to the crowd to see what others think.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "The answer is Chicago. 🤷🏼‍♀️", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Do you think that life would be easier if there was just one universally accepted citation style? I know it sounds a rhetorical question. But as a TA, I have noticed that students in my institution often have a very difficult time with correct citation style. My class follows APA. Somehow, even with widely available internet sources (and even citation generators) many still do not seem to get it. Sometimes I wonder if a universally accepted, standardized citation style, across disciplines would make more sense. Perhaps this is more of a rant out of frustration. But I figured I would extend this question to the crowd to see what others think.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "oh yeah, 100% - but it would have to be my citation style because at this point I'm not investing in learning anyone else's.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Do you think that life would be easier if there was just one universally accepted citation style? I know it sounds a rhetorical question. But as a TA, I have noticed that students in my institution often have a very difficult time with correct citation style. My class follows APA. Somehow, even with widely available internet sources (and even citation generators) many still do not seem to get it. Sometimes I wonder if a universally accepted, standardized citation style, across disciplines would make more sense. Perhaps this is more of a rant out of frustration. But I figured I would extend this question to the crowd to see what others think.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Depending on the level of the course I try not to be too strict on citation. As long as the name/author/date are in there somewhere I don’t really care. I’ve noticed that my students focus on little things like citations and waste time that could’ve been spent writing a better argument.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Do you think that life would be easier if there was just one universally accepted citation style? I know it sounds a rhetorical question. But as a TA, I have noticed that students in my institution often have a very difficult time with correct citation style. My class follows APA. Somehow, even with widely available internet sources (and even citation generators) many still do not seem to get it. Sometimes I wonder if a universally accepted, standardized citation style, across disciplines would make more sense. Perhaps this is more of a rant out of frustration. But I figured I would extend this question to the crowd to see what others think.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "oh yeah, 100% - but it would have to be my citation style because at this point I'm not investing in learning anyone else's.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Do you think that life would be easier if there was just one universally accepted citation style? I know it sounds a rhetorical question. But as a TA, I have noticed that students in my institution often have a very difficult time with correct citation style. My class follows APA. Somehow, even with widely available internet sources (and even citation generators) many still do not seem to get it. Sometimes I wonder if a universally accepted, standardized citation style, across disciplines would make more sense. Perhaps this is more of a rant out of frustration. But I figured I would extend this question to the crowd to see what others think.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Different citation styles emphasize different information, which is important, as different information is important in different disciplines. (for instance, some styles emphasize Authors, others the Year, others Publishers... depends on what's most important.) So the differences can be useful. But here's a different thought: it's a test. And a VERY important one for students to master. There are two reasons that students DON'T use the right style: laziness, and lateness. Waaaay back when, when I was in college, I hated trying to suss out and use the \"correct\" style, because I was always skating close to the deadline... and in those rare moments when I *wasn't*, I still felt like it was a \"waste of (my important) time.\" My students today have the same problem. But here's the thing: there are a LOT of incredibly important things in life that have to be done PRECISELY, in the correct format. Not just your 1040 Form 6251-AMT... but also any scholarship or grant application, most serious job applications, paperwork for your Residency Permit, etc. etc. In high school, and in many college classes, students are cut a lot of slack. (\"She's a smart kid; this is a good paper; yes, the citations are wrong, but the paper has great ideas--I'll still give it an A.\") But then, a decade later, they find themselves applying for something really important--a major Federal grant, for example, or for naturalized citizenship. And very suddenly, with the stakes incredibly high, formatting perfection is make-or-break: if you make ONE mistake, and you're done. Students who have been cut a lot of slack can't make this adjustment. Actually, I think one of the real determinants for whether a smart undergrad gets into a grad program or not is exactly this minutia--attention to detail. (I say this as a former grad director, who's read a lot of application files.) So, yes: students don't \"get\" citation styles. (and really--how important *is* the correct style, in the cosmic scheme of things...???) But if they are forced to do it anyway--forced to look up the appropriate style, interpret it, apply it perfectly--then this will prepare them for a whole range of really important application-processes. But *only* if they are forced to do it, and held to it. One underappreciated reason, I would argue, that students with college degrees do so much better, career-wise, is that some of the 'administrative bullshit' of college--applying correct citation styles, running afoul of add/drop dates, pleading your piteous case to a hard-nosed professor, dealing with a difficult roommate, finding someone to explain a problem-set you just don't *understand*--prepares you for the \"real world.\" Prepares you for *life itself.* In a way that high school never could. TLDR: it's for their own good.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Do you think that life would be easier if there was just one universally accepted citation style? I know it sounds a rhetorical question. But as a TA, I have noticed that students in my institution often have a very difficult time with correct citation style. My class follows APA. Somehow, even with widely available internet sources (and even citation generators) many still do not seem to get it. Sometimes I wonder if a universally accepted, standardized citation style, across disciplines would make more sense. Perhaps this is more of a rant out of frustration. But I figured I would extend this question to the crowd to see what others think.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "oh yeah, 100% - but it would have to be my citation style because at this point I'm not investing in learning anyone else's.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Do you think that life would be easier if there was just one universally accepted citation style? I know it sounds a rhetorical question. But as a TA, I have noticed that students in my institution often have a very difficult time with correct citation style. My class follows APA. Somehow, even with widely available internet sources (and even citation generators) many still do not seem to get it. Sometimes I wonder if a universally accepted, standardized citation style, across disciplines would make more sense. Perhaps this is more of a rant out of frustration. But I figured I would extend this question to the crowd to see what others think.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "If I thought people could behave themselves and not keep making their own versions of styles, I'd be delighted if we could settle on two styles: one numbered and one author-date. I think those both have their place. Sometimes author-date is very reader-friendly because it's easy to keep track of who the author is talking about, and at other times it's totally reader-hostile because the flow of reading is broken up by massive strings of names and dates.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Do you think that life would be easier if there was just one universally accepted citation style? I know it sounds a rhetorical question. But as a TA, I have noticed that students in my institution often have a very difficult time with correct citation style. My class follows APA. Somehow, even with widely available internet sources (and even citation generators) many still do not seem to get it. Sometimes I wonder if a universally accepted, standardized citation style, across disciplines would make more sense. Perhaps this is more of a rant out of frustration. But I figured I would extend this question to the crowd to see what others think.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I think things like Mendeley and Zotero make it manageable for one-off assignments. What I hate is when a journal article gets rejected and you need to convert it to another citation style. If you made some changes after removing Mendeley fields, it sucks to either go back to an old version or fix citations manually. This happened twice and I don't seem to learn my lesson.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Do you think that life would be easier if there was just one universally accepted citation style? I know it sounds a rhetorical question. But as a TA, I have noticed that students in my institution often have a very difficult time with correct citation style. My class follows APA. Somehow, even with widely available internet sources (and even citation generators) many still do not seem to get it. Sometimes I wonder if a universally accepted, standardized citation style, across disciplines would make more sense. Perhaps this is more of a rant out of frustration. But I figured I would extend this question to the crowd to see what others think.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Depending on the level of the course I try not to be too strict on citation. As long as the name/author/date are in there somewhere I don’t really care. I’ve noticed that my students focus on little things like citations and waste time that could’ve been spent writing a better argument.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Do you think that life would be easier if there was just one universally accepted citation style? I know it sounds a rhetorical question. But as a TA, I have noticed that students in my institution often have a very difficult time with correct citation style. My class follows APA. Somehow, even with widely available internet sources (and even citation generators) many still do not seem to get it. Sometimes I wonder if a universally accepted, standardized citation style, across disciplines would make more sense. Perhaps this is more of a rant out of frustration. But I figured I would extend this question to the crowd to see what others think.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "In computer science, we have a rather lax view on citation styles. I think that's good so, because I don't want to have anything to do with the anal pedantry of strictly following citation style guidelines. In my view, such issues detract from the actually important issues of doing proper science.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "My work just got published, it's my first publication What are the things I should do? I've already created a Google Scholar Profile.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Congratulations! Some things to consider: * Create an orcid profile. * Check your university's or institution's policy on parallel publishing. Some universities will even require you to upload a final manuscript draft of the publication to their archives where the manuscript will be openly available. * Check other possible actions that your institution requires you to do after a publication has been accepted. * If you have outside funding, it is a very good practice to notify the funding party that you have a new publication; this will make them happy, they have got something back for their investment. * LinkedIn is also a social platform worth considering to disseminate your new work. * Update your CVs. * Update your research plan. These are some things that pop into my mind.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "My work just got published, it's my first publication What are the things I should do? I've already created a Google Scholar Profile.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Congratulations, 🍾🎈 have a pint with your colleagues", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "My work just got published, it's my first publication What are the things I should do? I've already created a Google Scholar Profile.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I suggest celebrating.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "My work just got published, it's my first publication What are the things I should do? I've already created a Google Scholar Profile.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Congratulations, 🍾🎈 have a pint with your colleagues", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "My work just got published, it's my first publication What are the things I should do? I've already created a Google Scholar Profile.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "A couple of other possible things to do:\r \r \\- Post it to ResearchGate.\r \r \\- Email it to people who you think might want to see it. Maybe someone you cited a lot in the paper? Someone you chatted with at a conference when you said this was a project you were working on?\r \r \\- Post on Twitter. Maybe consider writing up a few key takeaways in accessible language as a thread for folks who can't or won't read an academic article.\r \r Also, find some way to celebrate!", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "My work just got published, it's my first publication What are the things I should do? I've already created a Google Scholar Profile.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Grab a beer, celebrate with friends/colleagues and focus on your next work 👍", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "My work just got published, it's my first publication What are the things I should do? I've already created a Google Scholar Profile.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "As others said, celebrate. Congratulation. Also probably create Researchgate account, I had a lot of people asking my papers there. Another account on Web of Science and make a RSS feed with the citation alert so you get mail when someone uses it in their paper.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "My work just got published, it's my first publication What are the things I should do? I've already created a Google Scholar Profile.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Grab a beer, celebrate with friends/colleagues and focus on your next work 👍", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "My work just got published, it's my first publication What are the things I should do? I've already created a Google Scholar Profile.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Congrats, welcome to the rat race", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "My work just got published, it's my first publication What are the things I should do? I've already created a Google Scholar Profile.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Grab a beer, celebrate with friends/colleagues and focus on your next work 👍", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Posting grades back in the '90s Thinking back to when I was in undergrad (early '90s). You would be in a big lecture course, and after an exam the prof would post everyone's grades on the wall outside the classroom so you could walk up and see what you got. (Not everyone had e-mail yet, and course management systems were years off.) The grades were not organized by name, because that would be too easy to know someone else's grade. No, by Social Security number.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I remember doing this -- I started teaching in the mid-90s. And I don't recall ever hearing anyone complain about privacy, although obviously it was even back then a huge privacy violation. As awful as the Covid-19 pandemic has been, I frequently thank our lucky stars this didn't happen 20 years ago, or the entire system of higher ed would have to shut down indefinitely ala Oxford and Cambridge during the Black Death. (Although we *did* get calculus from that particular deal.)", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Posting grades back in the '90s Thinking back to when I was in undergrad (early '90s). You would be in a big lecture course, and after an exam the prof would post everyone's grades on the wall outside the classroom so you could walk up and see what you got. (Not everyone had e-mail yet, and course management systems were years off.) The grades were not organized by name, because that would be too easy to know someone else's grade. No, by Social Security number.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Some of my undergrad teachers used to do this... In 2015!", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Posting grades back in the '90s Thinking back to when I was in undergrad (early '90s). You would be in a big lecture course, and after an exam the prof would post everyone's grades on the wall outside the classroom so you could walk up and see what you got. (Not everyone had e-mail yet, and course management systems were years off.) The grades were not organized by name, because that would be too easy to know someone else's grade. No, by Social Security number.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I remember my Social Security Number being my student ID and being printed ON my student ID. Those were the days.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Posting grades back in the '90s Thinking back to when I was in undergrad (early '90s). You would be in a big lecture course, and after an exam the prof would post everyone's grades on the wall outside the classroom so you could walk up and see what you got. (Not everyone had e-mail yet, and course management systems were years off.) The grades were not organized by name, because that would be too easy to know someone else's grade. No, by Social Security number.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "They still do this at my university. Not with exams but general course and test marks", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Posting grades back in the '90s Thinking back to when I was in undergrad (early '90s). You would be in a big lecture course, and after an exam the prof would post everyone's grades on the wall outside the classroom so you could walk up and see what you got. (Not everyone had e-mail yet, and course management systems were years off.) The grades were not organized by name, because that would be too easy to know someone else's grade. No, by Social Security number.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I remember my Social Security Number being my student ID and being printed ON my student ID. Those were the days.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Posting grades back in the '90s Thinking back to when I was in undergrad (early '90s). You would be in a big lecture course, and after an exam the prof would post everyone's grades on the wall outside the classroom so you could walk up and see what you got. (Not everyone had e-mail yet, and course management systems were years off.) The grades were not organized by name, because that would be too easy to know someone else's grade. No, by Social Security number.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Some of my undergrad teachers used to do this... In 2015!", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Posting grades back in the '90s Thinking back to when I was in undergrad (early '90s). You would be in a big lecture course, and after an exam the prof would post everyone's grades on the wall outside the classroom so you could walk up and see what you got. (Not everyone had e-mail yet, and course management systems were years off.) The grades were not organized by name, because that would be too easy to know someone else's grade. No, by Social Security number.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "UCLA early 90s, we were mailed postcards with final grades. We had comouter access but it was dos and used for informational purposes rather than registration. We could access the library however I believe.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Posting grades back in the '90s Thinking back to when I was in undergrad (early '90s). You would be in a big lecture course, and after an exam the prof would post everyone's grades on the wall outside the classroom so you could walk up and see what you got. (Not everyone had e-mail yet, and course management systems were years off.) The grades were not organized by name, because that would be too easy to know someone else's grade. No, by Social Security number.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Some of my undergrad teachers used to do this... In 2015!", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Posting grades back in the '90s Thinking back to when I was in undergrad (early '90s). You would be in a big lecture course, and after an exam the prof would post everyone's grades on the wall outside the classroom so you could walk up and see what you got. (Not everyone had e-mail yet, and course management systems were years off.) The grades were not organized by name, because that would be too easy to know someone else's grade. No, by Social Security number.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "They did this at my high school in the early 00s too. My poor boyfriend had an SSN that started with a 0, which the school's system didn't recognize so everyone always knew his grade because he was the one with an 8-digit social.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Posting grades back in the '90s Thinking back to when I was in undergrad (early '90s). You would be in a big lecture course, and after an exam the prof would post everyone's grades on the wall outside the classroom so you could walk up and see what you got. (Not everyone had e-mail yet, and course management systems were years off.) The grades were not organized by name, because that would be too easy to know someone else's grade. No, by Social Security number.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I remember this. Ours had alternate green and white bars because the SSN and grade were on OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE DAMN PAGE!!!", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Postdocs under pressure: long hours and a lack of job security, combined with workplace bullying and discrimination, are forcing many to consider leaving science, finds Nature’s inaugural survey of postdoctoral researchers. There is a lot of relevant information here for people in various stages of their academic career, so I wanted to share it with the community: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03235-y", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Imagine that, people want better work culture, pay and hours like you get in industry instead of spending your 30s into 40s as an indentured servant", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Postdocs under pressure: long hours and a lack of job security, combined with workplace bullying and discrimination, are forcing many to consider leaving science, finds Nature’s inaugural survey of postdoctoral researchers. There is a lot of relevant information here for people in various stages of their academic career, so I wanted to share it with the community: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03235-y", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Well, duh.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Postdocs under pressure: long hours and a lack of job security, combined with workplace bullying and discrimination, are forcing many to consider leaving science, finds Nature’s inaugural survey of postdoctoral researchers. There is a lot of relevant information here for people in various stages of their academic career, so I wanted to share it with the community: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03235-y", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I was so looking forward to postdocing — more money! No teaching! No classes! — but the reality is so much harder than I imagined. Being on a 2-yr contract and constantly looking for jobs while also trying to write the best papers of my career is exhausting. Coupled with a miserable job market I just feel a deep hopelessness.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Postdocs under pressure: long hours and a lack of job security, combined with workplace bullying and discrimination, are forcing many to consider leaving science, finds Nature’s inaugural survey of postdoctoral researchers. There is a lot of relevant information here for people in various stages of their academic career, so I wanted to share it with the community: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03235-y", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I'm not even a scientist/academic, yet seeing all the \"postdoc subhuman trash lolol\" memes in academic groups I'm somehow not surprised by the OP.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Postdocs under pressure: long hours and a lack of job security, combined with workplace bullying and discrimination, are forcing many to consider leaving science, finds Nature’s inaugural survey of postdoctoral researchers. There is a lot of relevant information here for people in various stages of their academic career, so I wanted to share it with the community: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03235-y", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I was so looking forward to postdocing — more money! No teaching! No classes! — but the reality is so much harder than I imagined. Being on a 2-yr contract and constantly looking for jobs while also trying to write the best papers of my career is exhausting. Coupled with a miserable job market I just feel a deep hopelessness.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Postdocs under pressure: long hours and a lack of job security, combined with workplace bullying and discrimination, are forcing many to consider leaving science, finds Nature’s inaugural survey of postdoctoral researchers. There is a lot of relevant information here for people in various stages of their academic career, so I wanted to share it with the community: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03235-y", "role": "user" }, { "content": "it is true. Job security is essential. 2 years here 2 years there buy if you suck well or can eat your ego you maybe can be assistant professor", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Postdocs under pressure: long hours and a lack of job security, combined with workplace bullying and discrimination, are forcing many to consider leaving science, finds Nature’s inaugural survey of postdoctoral researchers. There is a lot of relevant information here for people in various stages of their academic career, so I wanted to share it with the community: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03235-y", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Postdocs should be abolished. It also doesn't help that tonnes of them were endowed in the 70s and the money wasn't invested well so stipends that were generous in 1980 and adequate through the 90s are fucking paltry 30 years later.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Postdocs under pressure: long hours and a lack of job security, combined with workplace bullying and discrimination, are forcing many to consider leaving science, finds Nature’s inaugural survey of postdoctoral researchers. There is a lot of relevant information here for people in various stages of their academic career, so I wanted to share it with the community: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03235-y", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Well, duh.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Postdocs under pressure: long hours and a lack of job security, combined with workplace bullying and discrimination, are forcing many to consider leaving science, finds Nature’s inaugural survey of postdoctoral researchers. There is a lot of relevant information here for people in various stages of their academic career, so I wanted to share it with the community: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03235-y", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I was so looking forward to postdocing — more money! No teaching! No classes! — but the reality is so much harder than I imagined. Being on a 2-yr contract and constantly looking for jobs while also trying to write the best papers of my career is exhausting. Coupled with a miserable job market I just feel a deep hopelessness.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Postdocs under pressure: long hours and a lack of job security, combined with workplace bullying and discrimination, are forcing many to consider leaving science, finds Nature’s inaugural survey of postdoctoral researchers. There is a lot of relevant information here for people in various stages of their academic career, so I wanted to share it with the community: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03235-y", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Well, duh.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "New research suggests that metrics that are used to measure academic success, such as the number of publications, number of citations, and impact factor, have become targets and follow Goodhart’s Law, according to which, “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” The original study can be found here: https://academic.oup.com/gigascience/article/8/6/giz053/5506490 Abstract: **Background** > The academic publishing world is changing significantly, with ever-growing numbers of publications each year and shifting publishing patterns. However, the metrics used to measure academic success, such as the number of publications, citation number, and impact factor, have not changed for decades. Moreover, recent studies indicate that these metrics have become targets and follow Goodhart’s Law, according to which, “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” **Results** > In this study, we analyzed >120 million papers to examine how the academic publishing world has evolved over the last century, with a deeper look into the specific field of biology. Our study shows that the validity of citation-based measures is being compromised and their usefulness is lessening. In particular, the number of publications has ceased to be a good metric as a result of longer author lists, shorter papers, and surging publication numbers. Citation-based metrics, such citation number and h-index, are likewise affected by the flood of papers, self-citations, and lengthy reference lists. Measures such as a journal’s impact factor have also ceased to be good metrics due to the soaring numbers of papers that are published in top journals, particularly from the same pool of authors. Moreover, by analyzing properties of >2,600 research fields, we observed that citation-based metrics are not beneficial for comparing researchers in different fields, or even in the same department. **Conclusions** > Academic publishing has changed considerably; now we need to reconsider how we measure success.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I agree with everything except a *Very Hard Disagree* On \"shorter papers\" in biology as an issue. At least in my field papers are now *gigantic* and the smallest publishable unit is the equivalent of 3-5 papers from 25 years ago. And what used to be 3 papers spread over 6 years (concept/problem isolation, innovation, and finally molecular/genetic mechanism) are now one single paper because without mechanism nowadays you might as well just publish your data on Facebook (sarcasm but...). As far as author lists growing, I think that is understandable because papers have to explain so much now there could easily be 20 different experimental techniques used (including in silico). So author lists include all of the people who had the expertise to do those different experiments quickly and reliably. It's difficult for one lab to produce to all of the different kinds of data needed to tell some stories in biology today so there are a lot of collaborating authors. More data = more authors. And as far as gaming the system, I know I'll get down voted for saying this, but this is actually a case where journal impact and citations/paper matters - a short paper written to pad a resume will not get published in a high impact journal, and a dozen short papers with no citations in low impact journals could also say something. I'm not disagreeing that our metrics suck. But it feels like surely the papers are not shorter *and* with more authors now compared to 20 years ago?", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "New research suggests that metrics that are used to measure academic success, such as the number of publications, number of citations, and impact factor, have become targets and follow Goodhart’s Law, according to which, “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” The original study can be found here: https://academic.oup.com/gigascience/article/8/6/giz053/5506490 Abstract: **Background** > The academic publishing world is changing significantly, with ever-growing numbers of publications each year and shifting publishing patterns. However, the metrics used to measure academic success, such as the number of publications, citation number, and impact factor, have not changed for decades. Moreover, recent studies indicate that these metrics have become targets and follow Goodhart’s Law, according to which, “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” **Results** > In this study, we analyzed >120 million papers to examine how the academic publishing world has evolved over the last century, with a deeper look into the specific field of biology. Our study shows that the validity of citation-based measures is being compromised and their usefulness is lessening. In particular, the number of publications has ceased to be a good metric as a result of longer author lists, shorter papers, and surging publication numbers. Citation-based metrics, such citation number and h-index, are likewise affected by the flood of papers, self-citations, and lengthy reference lists. Measures such as a journal’s impact factor have also ceased to be good metrics due to the soaring numbers of papers that are published in top journals, particularly from the same pool of authors. Moreover, by analyzing properties of >2,600 research fields, we observed that citation-based metrics are not beneficial for comparing researchers in different fields, or even in the same department. **Conclusions** > Academic publishing has changed considerably; now we need to reconsider how we measure success.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I have a lot of feelings about indices/rankings/ratings which can be summed up as, they're all bullshit, and I think it's a real shame that the ranking craze has taken over the world (obligatory Romer at World Bank shoutout). Mainly my beef is with the fact that people, even eminently qualified insiders who should know better, keep trying to measure shit that we don't need to measure. Like, what journals are good journals is known to anyone who is active in a field. If you're not sure about subfield journals, you can call up a friend in that subfield and find out. Committees can form a reasonable idea of your work output from looking at your CV. Why do we need these impact factors and h-indices and sundry?", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "New research suggests that metrics that are used to measure academic success, such as the number of publications, number of citations, and impact factor, have become targets and follow Goodhart’s Law, according to which, “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” The original study can be found here: https://academic.oup.com/gigascience/article/8/6/giz053/5506490 Abstract: **Background** > The academic publishing world is changing significantly, with ever-growing numbers of publications each year and shifting publishing patterns. However, the metrics used to measure academic success, such as the number of publications, citation number, and impact factor, have not changed for decades. Moreover, recent studies indicate that these metrics have become targets and follow Goodhart’s Law, according to which, “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” **Results** > In this study, we analyzed >120 million papers to examine how the academic publishing world has evolved over the last century, with a deeper look into the specific field of biology. Our study shows that the validity of citation-based measures is being compromised and their usefulness is lessening. In particular, the number of publications has ceased to be a good metric as a result of longer author lists, shorter papers, and surging publication numbers. Citation-based metrics, such citation number and h-index, are likewise affected by the flood of papers, self-citations, and lengthy reference lists. Measures such as a journal’s impact factor have also ceased to be good metrics due to the soaring numbers of papers that are published in top journals, particularly from the same pool of authors. Moreover, by analyzing properties of >2,600 research fields, we observed that citation-based metrics are not beneficial for comparing researchers in different fields, or even in the same department. **Conclusions** > Academic publishing has changed considerably; now we need to reconsider how we measure success.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "At least in the social sciences, the number of citations/publications has ceased to have any real meaning and should not be used as a metric for success or influence. My doctoral program did not teach us this, but a colleague who attended a large program said they were taught to be strategic by doing the following: * Create a \"research group\" comprised of your friends in the discipline in which members take turns researching and writing, yet normally only the PI does any work, and the rest are just thrown on the publication (the others may proofread/edit so that ethically they can say they contributed); members of the group are then expected to return the favor to the others by adding them to their publications they did no work for. * Start their own online journal, and/or guest edit for an established journal, and/or become an editor of an established/top tier journal (dependent on what stage you are at in your career), and prioritize publishing your friends' work--especially if they are up for promotion or tenure, or some other review. Friends are then expected to do the same for them. * Edit an anthology in which you invite your friends to publish first--not the experts in the field. If friends are busy and can't write a chapter at that time, they recommend friends of friends, which then extends your circle of people who owe you or are going to cite you back. The actual experts in the field are last to be invited, but since it is quick and easy for them to put something together they often contribute, and this gives the anthology credibility. * Cite friends' work by finding a way to make their work relevant to yours so that they will then cite you back. Sometimes this requires the literature review to go on a tangent, but if you cite Joe, Joe will cite you back in three months when he submits his pub. There are two people in my department whom I can clearly see subscribe to the above model (the colleague who told me about it, plus another colleague not affiliated with this friend), and it is annoying when the latter tries to brag about the number of pubs he has knowing he only wrote or contributed to about 1/4 of them--and has very little knowledge on the content (proven by me, because one is my research area and he hasn't got a clue when I try to discuss it with him.) Meanwhile, I'm the sucker plugging away on my sole authored publications. Ordinarily I would not care about any of this because if you can live with yourself knowing you are playing this game then that's on you, but our department keeps raising the bar on the number of required publications for raises or promotions because they **see the number of annual pubs and citations going up each year**. The system is practically forcing academics to follow my colleague's model if we want raises. Maybe others don't think this is unethical, but it doesn't sit well with me. We have a new faculty member who started fall 2017 and my friend has really taken to him, and my colleague and a couple of his friends added this young PhD to their publications. This young PhD just won our university's pre-tenure research award. He is obviously being groomed to join the circle. There is no way he did anything on those pubs because he was finishing his dissertation last year. I'm sure I will see one or more of my colleague's names on the publications coming out of the young PhD's dissertation... I prefer to measure success by asking: Did your work make a positive change?", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "New research suggests that metrics that are used to measure academic success, such as the number of publications, number of citations, and impact factor, have become targets and follow Goodhart’s Law, according to which, “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” The original study can be found here: https://academic.oup.com/gigascience/article/8/6/giz053/5506490 Abstract: **Background** > The academic publishing world is changing significantly, with ever-growing numbers of publications each year and shifting publishing patterns. However, the metrics used to measure academic success, such as the number of publications, citation number, and impact factor, have not changed for decades. Moreover, recent studies indicate that these metrics have become targets and follow Goodhart’s Law, according to which, “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” **Results** > In this study, we analyzed >120 million papers to examine how the academic publishing world has evolved over the last century, with a deeper look into the specific field of biology. Our study shows that the validity of citation-based measures is being compromised and their usefulness is lessening. In particular, the number of publications has ceased to be a good metric as a result of longer author lists, shorter papers, and surging publication numbers. Citation-based metrics, such citation number and h-index, are likewise affected by the flood of papers, self-citations, and lengthy reference lists. Measures such as a journal’s impact factor have also ceased to be good metrics due to the soaring numbers of papers that are published in top journals, particularly from the same pool of authors. Moreover, by analyzing properties of >2,600 research fields, we observed that citation-based metrics are not beneficial for comparing researchers in different fields, or even in the same department. **Conclusions** > Academic publishing has changed considerably; now we need to reconsider how we measure success.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Sort of obvious, but good to hear it regardless", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "New research suggests that metrics that are used to measure academic success, such as the number of publications, number of citations, and impact factor, have become targets and follow Goodhart’s Law, according to which, “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” The original study can be found here: https://academic.oup.com/gigascience/article/8/6/giz053/5506490 Abstract: **Background** > The academic publishing world is changing significantly, with ever-growing numbers of publications each year and shifting publishing patterns. However, the metrics used to measure academic success, such as the number of publications, citation number, and impact factor, have not changed for decades. Moreover, recent studies indicate that these metrics have become targets and follow Goodhart’s Law, according to which, “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” **Results** > In this study, we analyzed >120 million papers to examine how the academic publishing world has evolved over the last century, with a deeper look into the specific field of biology. Our study shows that the validity of citation-based measures is being compromised and their usefulness is lessening. In particular, the number of publications has ceased to be a good metric as a result of longer author lists, shorter papers, and surging publication numbers. Citation-based metrics, such citation number and h-index, are likewise affected by the flood of papers, self-citations, and lengthy reference lists. Measures such as a journal’s impact factor have also ceased to be good metrics due to the soaring numbers of papers that are published in top journals, particularly from the same pool of authors. Moreover, by analyzing properties of >2,600 research fields, we observed that citation-based metrics are not beneficial for comparing researchers in different fields, or even in the same department. **Conclusions** > Academic publishing has changed considerably; now we need to reconsider how we measure success.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "It has been known for a while that the impact factor is useless because you can easily manipulate it as a publisher by publishing more reviews, inviting high profile authors and selecting on perceived impact with a high rejection rate. However, it is still regarded as a good parameter by the researchers themselves. So silly.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "New research suggests that metrics that are used to measure academic success, such as the number of publications, number of citations, and impact factor, have become targets and follow Goodhart’s Law, according to which, “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” The original study can be found here: https://academic.oup.com/gigascience/article/8/6/giz053/5506490 Abstract: **Background** > The academic publishing world is changing significantly, with ever-growing numbers of publications each year and shifting publishing patterns. However, the metrics used to measure academic success, such as the number of publications, citation number, and impact factor, have not changed for decades. Moreover, recent studies indicate that these metrics have become targets and follow Goodhart’s Law, according to which, “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” **Results** > In this study, we analyzed >120 million papers to examine how the academic publishing world has evolved over the last century, with a deeper look into the specific field of biology. Our study shows that the validity of citation-based measures is being compromised and their usefulness is lessening. In particular, the number of publications has ceased to be a good metric as a result of longer author lists, shorter papers, and surging publication numbers. Citation-based metrics, such citation number and h-index, are likewise affected by the flood of papers, self-citations, and lengthy reference lists. Measures such as a journal’s impact factor have also ceased to be good metrics due to the soaring numbers of papers that are published in top journals, particularly from the same pool of authors. Moreover, by analyzing properties of >2,600 research fields, we observed that citation-based metrics are not beneficial for comparing researchers in different fields, or even in the same department. **Conclusions** > Academic publishing has changed considerably; now we need to reconsider how we measure success.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Sort of obvious, but good to hear it regardless", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "New research suggests that metrics that are used to measure academic success, such as the number of publications, number of citations, and impact factor, have become targets and follow Goodhart’s Law, according to which, “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” The original study can be found here: https://academic.oup.com/gigascience/article/8/6/giz053/5506490 Abstract: **Background** > The academic publishing world is changing significantly, with ever-growing numbers of publications each year and shifting publishing patterns. However, the metrics used to measure academic success, such as the number of publications, citation number, and impact factor, have not changed for decades. Moreover, recent studies indicate that these metrics have become targets and follow Goodhart’s Law, according to which, “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” **Results** > In this study, we analyzed >120 million papers to examine how the academic publishing world has evolved over the last century, with a deeper look into the specific field of biology. Our study shows that the validity of citation-based measures is being compromised and their usefulness is lessening. In particular, the number of publications has ceased to be a good metric as a result of longer author lists, shorter papers, and surging publication numbers. Citation-based metrics, such citation number and h-index, are likewise affected by the flood of papers, self-citations, and lengthy reference lists. Measures such as a journal’s impact factor have also ceased to be good metrics due to the soaring numbers of papers that are published in top journals, particularly from the same pool of authors. Moreover, by analyzing properties of >2,600 research fields, we observed that citation-based metrics are not beneficial for comparing researchers in different fields, or even in the same department. **Conclusions** > Academic publishing has changed considerably; now we need to reconsider how we measure success.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I was thinking the other day that my university has screwed it up a bit because on the one hand everyone goes on about 'team science' and 'collaboration!' and then on the other at appraisal only counts 1st and last author publications. So someone emails you with an idea and it's basically: sorry, not to be a dick but I literally can't justify that.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "New research suggests that metrics that are used to measure academic success, such as the number of publications, number of citations, and impact factor, have become targets and follow Goodhart’s Law, according to which, “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” The original study can be found here: https://academic.oup.com/gigascience/article/8/6/giz053/5506490 Abstract: **Background** > The academic publishing world is changing significantly, with ever-growing numbers of publications each year and shifting publishing patterns. However, the metrics used to measure academic success, such as the number of publications, citation number, and impact factor, have not changed for decades. Moreover, recent studies indicate that these metrics have become targets and follow Goodhart’s Law, according to which, “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” **Results** > In this study, we analyzed >120 million papers to examine how the academic publishing world has evolved over the last century, with a deeper look into the specific field of biology. Our study shows that the validity of citation-based measures is being compromised and their usefulness is lessening. In particular, the number of publications has ceased to be a good metric as a result of longer author lists, shorter papers, and surging publication numbers. Citation-based metrics, such citation number and h-index, are likewise affected by the flood of papers, self-citations, and lengthy reference lists. Measures such as a journal’s impact factor have also ceased to be good metrics due to the soaring numbers of papers that are published in top journals, particularly from the same pool of authors. Moreover, by analyzing properties of >2,600 research fields, we observed that citation-based metrics are not beneficial for comparing researchers in different fields, or even in the same department. **Conclusions** > Academic publishing has changed considerably; now we need to reconsider how we measure success.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I have a lot of feelings about indices/rankings/ratings which can be summed up as, they're all bullshit, and I think it's a real shame that the ranking craze has taken over the world (obligatory Romer at World Bank shoutout). Mainly my beef is with the fact that people, even eminently qualified insiders who should know better, keep trying to measure shit that we don't need to measure. Like, what journals are good journals is known to anyone who is active in a field. If you're not sure about subfield journals, you can call up a friend in that subfield and find out. Committees can form a reasonable idea of your work output from looking at your CV. Why do we need these impact factors and h-indices and sundry?", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "New research suggests that metrics that are used to measure academic success, such as the number of publications, number of citations, and impact factor, have become targets and follow Goodhart’s Law, according to which, “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” The original study can be found here: https://academic.oup.com/gigascience/article/8/6/giz053/5506490 Abstract: **Background** > The academic publishing world is changing significantly, with ever-growing numbers of publications each year and shifting publishing patterns. However, the metrics used to measure academic success, such as the number of publications, citation number, and impact factor, have not changed for decades. Moreover, recent studies indicate that these metrics have become targets and follow Goodhart’s Law, according to which, “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” **Results** > In this study, we analyzed >120 million papers to examine how the academic publishing world has evolved over the last century, with a deeper look into the specific field of biology. Our study shows that the validity of citation-based measures is being compromised and their usefulness is lessening. In particular, the number of publications has ceased to be a good metric as a result of longer author lists, shorter papers, and surging publication numbers. Citation-based metrics, such citation number and h-index, are likewise affected by the flood of papers, self-citations, and lengthy reference lists. Measures such as a journal’s impact factor have also ceased to be good metrics due to the soaring numbers of papers that are published in top journals, particularly from the same pool of authors. Moreover, by analyzing properties of >2,600 research fields, we observed that citation-based metrics are not beneficial for comparing researchers in different fields, or even in the same department. **Conclusions** > Academic publishing has changed considerably; now we need to reconsider how we measure success.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "There are quite a few interesting figures here but none of it supports the stated thesis. This Goodhart's \"Law\" (which is really just a vague quip some guy made once) supposes that metrics lose utility once people start exploiting them. In this case that would mean that research metric success has become decoupled with \"real\" research success. In essence, to provide evidence to the thesis one would have to show that the two quantities are no longer statistically correlated. *Nothing in this paper remotely demonstrates that. Nothing in it even tries to.* Of course if one WERE to try and do such a thing one would have a bit of a tautological difficulty as how does one assess \"real\" research success without employing a metric? I suppose one would maybe poll people in a field and ask them who they feel are the top researchers and then see if those people also have the top h-indices or the like (I suspect they largely would, invalidating the thesis). Instead this paper basically just shows that more people are publishing shorter papers , with more co-authors and self-cite more. Again, this does nothing to validate their alleged point.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "New research suggests that metrics that are used to measure academic success, such as the number of publications, number of citations, and impact factor, have become targets and follow Goodhart’s Law, according to which, “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” The original study can be found here: https://academic.oup.com/gigascience/article/8/6/giz053/5506490 Abstract: **Background** > The academic publishing world is changing significantly, with ever-growing numbers of publications each year and shifting publishing patterns. However, the metrics used to measure academic success, such as the number of publications, citation number, and impact factor, have not changed for decades. Moreover, recent studies indicate that these metrics have become targets and follow Goodhart’s Law, according to which, “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” **Results** > In this study, we analyzed >120 million papers to examine how the academic publishing world has evolved over the last century, with a deeper look into the specific field of biology. Our study shows that the validity of citation-based measures is being compromised and their usefulness is lessening. In particular, the number of publications has ceased to be a good metric as a result of longer author lists, shorter papers, and surging publication numbers. Citation-based metrics, such citation number and h-index, are likewise affected by the flood of papers, self-citations, and lengthy reference lists. Measures such as a journal’s impact factor have also ceased to be good metrics due to the soaring numbers of papers that are published in top journals, particularly from the same pool of authors. Moreover, by analyzing properties of >2,600 research fields, we observed that citation-based metrics are not beneficial for comparing researchers in different fields, or even in the same department. **Conclusions** > Academic publishing has changed considerably; now we need to reconsider how we measure success.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I have a lot of feelings about indices/rankings/ratings which can be summed up as, they're all bullshit, and I think it's a real shame that the ranking craze has taken over the world (obligatory Romer at World Bank shoutout). Mainly my beef is with the fact that people, even eminently qualified insiders who should know better, keep trying to measure shit that we don't need to measure. Like, what journals are good journals is known to anyone who is active in a field. If you're not sure about subfield journals, you can call up a friend in that subfield and find out. Committees can form a reasonable idea of your work output from looking at your CV. Why do we need these impact factors and h-indices and sundry?", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Redditors who work in academia, how much free time do you get for your hobbies, exercising, etc.? How is the work-life balance for you? How would you rate your happiness? Do you think you earn enough for your efforts? From a curious teenager who is contemplating being in academia when I grow up 🙂", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I try not to let anyone know this, but I have rarely worked even 40 hours a week. I have plenty of time for non-work activities. The only exception was a few semesters in graduate school when I was running multiple experiments and teaching, and sometimes I have a few crazy days leading up to a grant deadline.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Redditors who work in academia, how much free time do you get for your hobbies, exercising, etc.? How is the work-life balance for you? How would you rate your happiness? Do you think you earn enough for your efforts? From a curious teenager who is contemplating being in academia when I grow up 🙂", "role": "user" }, { "content": "“Work in academia” is WAY too broad. It’s like saying “work in a hospital”. The ER nurses will have a different answer than the oncology nurses, who have a different answer from the x-ray technicians, who have a different answer than the surgeons, who have a different answer than the OBGYN, who have a difference answer than the lab technicians, who have a different answer than the cafeteria workers, who have a different answer than the president of the hospital, who has a different answer than....", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Redditors who work in academia, how much free time do you get for your hobbies, exercising, etc.? How is the work-life balance for you? How would you rate your happiness? Do you think you earn enough for your efforts? From a curious teenager who is contemplating being in academia when I grow up 🙂", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Honestly, you're young...don't make the mistake of pigeonholing yourself into a PhD. I know there's many, MANY of us that have watched our friends from college leave with their tidy little bachelor's degree and join the workforce in a field that pays well and offers great work-life balance almost immediately. We've watched them get married, buy a house, have kids etc, all while we struggle on the edge of poverty in obscurity. There are days when this sort of thing can be soul-crushing, if you let it. On the one hand, I love that I get to \"learn\" for a living; on the other, I could easily spend all my extra free time learning whatever I want if I had a job in the real world. With the way the academic market is moving (has been moving, for decades), the amount of tenured position have become increasingly small and the work you have to put in to get one is not worth it in the long run. If I could do it all over again, I'd go back and get a BS in computer science--take a programming job and call it good. Bottomline, what I do for a living is great for impressing people over conversation at dinner...beyond that, it's a rough life.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Redditors who work in academia, how much free time do you get for your hobbies, exercising, etc.? How is the work-life balance for you? How would you rate your happiness? Do you think you earn enough for your efforts? From a curious teenager who is contemplating being in academia when I grow up 🙂", "role": "user" }, { "content": "In a strange way, life in research-intense academia is like a career in pro-sports. There is intense work and competition involved in getting drafted and then working your way through your rookie contract. Then you land a life-time contract. After that, how hard you work at your craft is up to you and your goals. Most people like what they are doing, want to stand out, and work hard. Some people are Tom Brady's, others coast... The most important thing for me is that I am reaching my 60's and there are still things I really want to do at work while my friends, no matter how much money they make, can't wait to retire.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Redditors who work in academia, how much free time do you get for your hobbies, exercising, etc.? How is the work-life balance for you? How would you rate your happiness? Do you think you earn enough for your efforts? From a curious teenager who is contemplating being in academia when I grow up 🙂", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Academia is predatory. Many people are drawn to academia for idealistic reasons; academic freedom, contributing to a greater good, being able to research without fear or favour etc. It is from this idealism that universities prey on you and expect you to be there for solely the mission of a university at the expense of your work-life balance, family, health, hobbies etc. Academia also encourages people to stay in precarious situations of relying on lots of short term contracts due to the mission of teaching and researching. Edit: spelling", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Redditors who work in academia, how much free time do you get for your hobbies, exercising, etc.? How is the work-life balance for you? How would you rate your happiness? Do you think you earn enough for your efforts? From a curious teenager who is contemplating being in academia when I grow up 🙂", "role": "user" }, { "content": "“Work in academia” is WAY too broad. It’s like saying “work in a hospital”. The ER nurses will have a different answer than the oncology nurses, who have a different answer from the x-ray technicians, who have a different answer than the surgeons, who have a different answer than the OBGYN, who have a difference answer than the lab technicians, who have a different answer than the cafeteria workers, who have a different answer than the president of the hospital, who has a different answer than....", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Redditors who work in academia, how much free time do you get for your hobbies, exercising, etc.? How is the work-life balance for you? How would you rate your happiness? Do you think you earn enough for your efforts? From a curious teenager who is contemplating being in academia when I grow up 🙂", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Honestly, you're young...don't make the mistake of pigeonholing yourself into a PhD. I know there's many, MANY of us that have watched our friends from college leave with their tidy little bachelor's degree and join the workforce in a field that pays well and offers great work-life balance almost immediately. We've watched them get married, buy a house, have kids etc, all while we struggle on the edge of poverty in obscurity. There are days when this sort of thing can be soul-crushing, if you let it. On the one hand, I love that I get to \"learn\" for a living; on the other, I could easily spend all my extra free time learning whatever I want if I had a job in the real world. With the way the academic market is moving (has been moving, for decades), the amount of tenured position have become increasingly small and the work you have to put in to get one is not worth it in the long run. If I could do it all over again, I'd go back and get a BS in computer science--take a programming job and call it good. Bottomline, what I do for a living is great for impressing people over conversation at dinner...beyond that, it's a rough life.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Redditors who work in academia, how much free time do you get for your hobbies, exercising, etc.? How is the work-life balance for you? How would you rate your happiness? Do you think you earn enough for your efforts? From a curious teenager who is contemplating being in academia when I grow up 🙂", "role": "user" }, { "content": "There's a ton of inter-individual / inter-lab / inter-field variability here IMO (and maybe a bit inter-school & inter-country, etc... though I think those latter sources of variation are dwarfed by the former). In grad school, I knew lots of people who had a really smooth ride of it, doing fun stuff every weekend and evening, going on a few 1-3 week vacations each year, being social and healthy etc. I also knew of a few \"classic\" grad students working 60h+ weeks doing labwork into the wee morning (though usually those 60h weren't all meaningful work, e.g. there'd be a lot of downtime while equipment / code ran during which they'd dick around on social media). Personally, I've had lots of time for hobbies and exercise during both grad school and postdoc -- lifting 1-2h a day maybe 3-4x per week, usually around 5-10 miles of walking per day (during which I'd talk to friends / family / partner or listen to audiobooks / podcasts), maybe an hour, sometimes two of video games / TV / movies a night, usually a few hours of reading random non-work things a day, lotsa cooking, and every weekend at least one full-day hiking trip. My advisors throughout were also all very into life-work balance, being married with kid(s), clocking in and out on a strict 9-4 schedule with little-to-no work on the weekends barring unusual circumstances (usually a fast approaching deadline every few months). With some caveats though -- e.g. they both had tenure. In the US, fwiw, w/ PhD in Anthropology and now a postdoc in Computational Biology.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Redditors who work in academia, how much free time do you get for your hobbies, exercising, etc.? How is the work-life balance for you? How would you rate your happiness? Do you think you earn enough for your efforts? From a curious teenager who is contemplating being in academia when I grow up 🙂", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Academia is predatory. Many people are drawn to academia for idealistic reasons; academic freedom, contributing to a greater good, being able to research without fear or favour etc. It is from this idealism that universities prey on you and expect you to be there for solely the mission of a university at the expense of your work-life balance, family, health, hobbies etc. Academia also encourages people to stay in precarious situations of relying on lots of short term contracts due to the mission of teaching and researching. Edit: spelling", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Redditors who work in academia, how much free time do you get for your hobbies, exercising, etc.? How is the work-life balance for you? How would you rate your happiness? Do you think you earn enough for your efforts? From a curious teenager who is contemplating being in academia when I grow up 🙂", "role": "user" }, { "content": "All depends on where you put your priorities and boundaries. I’m an American doing my PhD studies in Europe right now. I burnt out hard during my MS and then again while I was in industry because I didn’t maintain my boundaries, now that I’ve learned that lesson I wish to not repeat it. There is a stronger focus on work-life balance here compared to the US. But if I wanted to, I have more than enough lab and manuscript writing to do to keep me busy all day everyday. With that said, I have to take efforts to prioritize my non academic interests. So I am getting out cycling 50km 1-2x during the week and usually a 100km ride on the weekend. I’m prioritizing making time outside of work to socialize with people. Unless I have a hard deadline for something, I try not to work after 6 or on the weekends. I try not to answer emails outside of business hours. With everything in life, you have to find and stick to your boundaries. What you value is what you’ll prioritize.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "I feel like an asshole asking, but is it wrong to feel like I shouldn't get MORE work than my colleagues with children just because I haven't got children yet? I feel like a complete asshole asking this, as I know it's an emergency situation and the normal rules go out the window. I'm a lecturer, and it feels like management are giving extra work to those of us who don't have children, or whose children are grown up. I'm not in a stage of my life where children are possible at the moment (hopefully soon), but I feel angry and upset that myself and other colleagues without children are getting all the extra work that is normally shared across all colleagues equally. Obviously I'm aware that colleagues who do have children are having to juggle work and their family situation, so I feel like I'm being unreasonable, but at the same time, this is work that I wouldn't have normally had in the usual non-COVID circumstances. What do you think? I am right to feel annoyed, or am I being a selfish asshole and need to suck it up?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I don't think you're an asshole for feeling stressed by the fact that your work load has increased professionally while you're coworkers' has not. I think it's a little selfish of you if you can't see why reasonably the childless lecturers are the ones taking up the extra slack (but you seem to be sensitive to your colleagues' situations). ​ I do think it's bad management if you're not recognized and thanked for pulling extra weight during this time. Yes, your colleagues are struggling with balancing their workload with a sudden increase in the amount of time they have to supervise, stimulate, and teach their children. But you're struggling with balancing your workload that is growing to accomodate the hardships they're going through. You deserve props. You deserve thanks. You deserve respect. You deserve this to come up at your review. I also really, really hope this department would be kind enough to you if you encounter a similarly difficult situation - ie you get sick during this time, you begin helping out a relative during this time, etc.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "I feel like an asshole asking, but is it wrong to feel like I shouldn't get MORE work than my colleagues with children just because I haven't got children yet? I feel like a complete asshole asking this, as I know it's an emergency situation and the normal rules go out the window. I'm a lecturer, and it feels like management are giving extra work to those of us who don't have children, or whose children are grown up. I'm not in a stage of my life where children are possible at the moment (hopefully soon), but I feel angry and upset that myself and other colleagues without children are getting all the extra work that is normally shared across all colleagues equally. Obviously I'm aware that colleagues who do have children are having to juggle work and their family situation, so I feel like I'm being unreasonable, but at the same time, this is work that I wouldn't have normally had in the usual non-COVID circumstances. What do you think? I am right to feel annoyed, or am I being a selfish asshole and need to suck it up?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Just remember, most of the folks who are looking after young kids would love nothing more than to be sitting at their computer working. Most would trade places in a heartbeat.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "I feel like an asshole asking, but is it wrong to feel like I shouldn't get MORE work than my colleagues with children just because I haven't got children yet? I feel like a complete asshole asking this, as I know it's an emergency situation and the normal rules go out the window. I'm a lecturer, and it feels like management are giving extra work to those of us who don't have children, or whose children are grown up. I'm not in a stage of my life where children are possible at the moment (hopefully soon), but I feel angry and upset that myself and other colleagues without children are getting all the extra work that is normally shared across all colleagues equally. Obviously I'm aware that colleagues who do have children are having to juggle work and their family situation, so I feel like I'm being unreasonable, but at the same time, this is work that I wouldn't have normally had in the usual non-COVID circumstances. What do you think? I am right to feel annoyed, or am I being a selfish asshole and need to suck it up?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I say in normal times it would be unfair and wrong. In this emergency I think you should try to see the bigger picture and step up as much as you can.... AND you should feel GOOD about doing that. This is a scary time for these kids too (I have kids) they need a little more attention. These are little humans that you will be sharing the planet with... helping out here is doing the right thing and doing the right thing feels good. And I dare say it will come back around without you needing to track the extra minutes and reminding people later. Better to be known as someone who steps up. Especially as you plan to have kids and these same people who knows their kids may be older then and shoe will be on other foot. Step up, for the right reasons.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "I feel like an asshole asking, but is it wrong to feel like I shouldn't get MORE work than my colleagues with children just because I haven't got children yet? I feel like a complete asshole asking this, as I know it's an emergency situation and the normal rules go out the window. I'm a lecturer, and it feels like management are giving extra work to those of us who don't have children, or whose children are grown up. I'm not in a stage of my life where children are possible at the moment (hopefully soon), but I feel angry and upset that myself and other colleagues without children are getting all the extra work that is normally shared across all colleagues equally. Obviously I'm aware that colleagues who do have children are having to juggle work and their family situation, so I feel like I'm being unreasonable, but at the same time, this is work that I wouldn't have normally had in the usual non-COVID circumstances. What do you think? I am right to feel annoyed, or am I being a selfish asshole and need to suck it up?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "> I'm a lecturer Are you paid as much as your TT colleagues? Do you have benefits? Do you have job security once this semester ends? I think my answer would be different if you were asked to pick up slack after another non-TT colleague who has to juggle childcare as well as not knowing where their next meal is coming from, and if you were asked to pick up the slack of people with job security who also happen to have children. I think people need to ask themselves what they can afford and only ask for help if they really can't afford not to. I don't think people with children blanket need more help than people without children. I don't think this is the time to play identity politics.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "I feel like an asshole asking, but is it wrong to feel like I shouldn't get MORE work than my colleagues with children just because I haven't got children yet? I feel like a complete asshole asking this, as I know it's an emergency situation and the normal rules go out the window. I'm a lecturer, and it feels like management are giving extra work to those of us who don't have children, or whose children are grown up. I'm not in a stage of my life where children are possible at the moment (hopefully soon), but I feel angry and upset that myself and other colleagues without children are getting all the extra work that is normally shared across all colleagues equally. Obviously I'm aware that colleagues who do have children are having to juggle work and their family situation, so I feel like I'm being unreasonable, but at the same time, this is work that I wouldn't have normally had in the usual non-COVID circumstances. What do you think? I am right to feel annoyed, or am I being a selfish asshole and need to suck it up?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I've been in this situation during my PhD. My advisor had to choose between me and a classmate for a semester of TA duty, and he made me do it because \"oh, he has children\". I'm still bitter about that, over a decade later.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "I feel like an asshole asking, but is it wrong to feel like I shouldn't get MORE work than my colleagues with children just because I haven't got children yet? I feel like a complete asshole asking this, as I know it's an emergency situation and the normal rules go out the window. I'm a lecturer, and it feels like management are giving extra work to those of us who don't have children, or whose children are grown up. I'm not in a stage of my life where children are possible at the moment (hopefully soon), but I feel angry and upset that myself and other colleagues without children are getting all the extra work that is normally shared across all colleagues equally. Obviously I'm aware that colleagues who do have children are having to juggle work and their family situation, so I feel like I'm being unreasonable, but at the same time, this is work that I wouldn't have normally had in the usual non-COVID circumstances. What do you think? I am right to feel annoyed, or am I being a selfish asshole and need to suck it up?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "> I'm a lecturer Are you paid as much as your TT colleagues? Do you have benefits? Do you have job security once this semester ends? I think my answer would be different if you were asked to pick up slack after another non-TT colleague who has to juggle childcare as well as not knowing where their next meal is coming from, and if you were asked to pick up the slack of people with job security who also happen to have children. I think people need to ask themselves what they can afford and only ask for help if they really can't afford not to. I don't think people with children blanket need more help than people without children. I don't think this is the time to play identity politics.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "I feel like an asshole asking, but is it wrong to feel like I shouldn't get MORE work than my colleagues with children just because I haven't got children yet? I feel like a complete asshole asking this, as I know it's an emergency situation and the normal rules go out the window. I'm a lecturer, and it feels like management are giving extra work to those of us who don't have children, or whose children are grown up. I'm not in a stage of my life where children are possible at the moment (hopefully soon), but I feel angry and upset that myself and other colleagues without children are getting all the extra work that is normally shared across all colleagues equally. Obviously I'm aware that colleagues who do have children are having to juggle work and their family situation, so I feel like I'm being unreasonable, but at the same time, this is work that I wouldn't have normally had in the usual non-COVID circumstances. What do you think? I am right to feel annoyed, or am I being a selfish asshole and need to suck it up?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Asshole? No. Feeling annoyed by the inconvenience of this whole situation is normal and understandable. Need to suck it up? In this current situation? Yes. These parents aren't just choosing to ignore their work. For the safety of themselves and others (including you), they're being asked to adjust their home lives. That adjustment means they will have less time to spend on their own work. By not sending their kids out into someone else's care, they're providing you (and everyone else who could possibly be infected) the service of reducing spread.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "I feel like an asshole asking, but is it wrong to feel like I shouldn't get MORE work than my colleagues with children just because I haven't got children yet? I feel like a complete asshole asking this, as I know it's an emergency situation and the normal rules go out the window. I'm a lecturer, and it feels like management are giving extra work to those of us who don't have children, or whose children are grown up. I'm not in a stage of my life where children are possible at the moment (hopefully soon), but I feel angry and upset that myself and other colleagues without children are getting all the extra work that is normally shared across all colleagues equally. Obviously I'm aware that colleagues who do have children are having to juggle work and their family situation, so I feel like I'm being unreasonable, but at the same time, this is work that I wouldn't have normally had in the usual non-COVID circumstances. What do you think? I am right to feel annoyed, or am I being a selfish asshole and need to suck it up?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I don't think you're an asshole for feeling stressed by the fact that your work load has increased professionally while you're coworkers' has not. I think it's a little selfish of you if you can't see why reasonably the childless lecturers are the ones taking up the extra slack (but you seem to be sensitive to your colleagues' situations). ​ I do think it's bad management if you're not recognized and thanked for pulling extra weight during this time. Yes, your colleagues are struggling with balancing their workload with a sudden increase in the amount of time they have to supervise, stimulate, and teach their children. But you're struggling with balancing your workload that is growing to accomodate the hardships they're going through. You deserve props. You deserve thanks. You deserve respect. You deserve this to come up at your review. I also really, really hope this department would be kind enough to you if you encounter a similarly difficult situation - ie you get sick during this time, you begin helping out a relative during this time, etc.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "I feel like an asshole asking, but is it wrong to feel like I shouldn't get MORE work than my colleagues with children just because I haven't got children yet? I feel like a complete asshole asking this, as I know it's an emergency situation and the normal rules go out the window. I'm a lecturer, and it feels like management are giving extra work to those of us who don't have children, or whose children are grown up. I'm not in a stage of my life where children are possible at the moment (hopefully soon), but I feel angry and upset that myself and other colleagues without children are getting all the extra work that is normally shared across all colleagues equally. Obviously I'm aware that colleagues who do have children are having to juggle work and their family situation, so I feel like I'm being unreasonable, but at the same time, this is work that I wouldn't have normally had in the usual non-COVID circumstances. What do you think? I am right to feel annoyed, or am I being a selfish asshole and need to suck it up?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I think everyone is being expected to do more than they were previously. To take an in person course and convert it to an online one in a matter of a week or two weeks (in the case of my school) is an impossible task. Most online teachers have months to prepare the syllabus, recorded lectures and learn how to teach from a distance. For colleges there are a lot of resources, canvas, blackboard, licensed Zoom etc. My mother is a highschool ESL teacher and she's expected to flip her class online in a matter of a week with maybe a quarter of the resources and technological understanding. Luckily, her kids are grown and are good with technology lol. I think and know your feelings are valid, it sucks seeing others do less than you and sacrificing for them. As a parent I know they appreciate it. Educators, that are also parents are dealing with having to flip their classroom and trying to be there for their children, who are also experiencing great change and uncertainty. I know they feel as if they are failing in both areas. I think we need to cut everyone slack, this is unprecedented and there is so much uncertainty and not everything will go smoothly, and to expect it to it is unfair to both students and educators. I'm just an non-traditional undergrad student with three kids suddenly home with the same schedule of coursework. Two of my classes were labs (biochemistry and ecology) and I'm pissed that I won't get to have the same education that I paid for because of this pandemic. I'm also angry at myself and the situation because my oldest is scared and lonely without school and that I can't be there for her because I have so much to do, all the time. Everything just sucks right now and it's okay to be upset or angry. But don't take it out on other people, communicate your feelings and let people know what you can do and cannot do. You may have to suck up some but don't take on too much that it makes you bitter toward your colleagues.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "I feel like an asshole asking, but is it wrong to feel like I shouldn't get MORE work than my colleagues with children just because I haven't got children yet? I feel like a complete asshole asking this, as I know it's an emergency situation and the normal rules go out the window. I'm a lecturer, and it feels like management are giving extra work to those of us who don't have children, or whose children are grown up. I'm not in a stage of my life where children are possible at the moment (hopefully soon), but I feel angry and upset that myself and other colleagues without children are getting all the extra work that is normally shared across all colleagues equally. Obviously I'm aware that colleagues who do have children are having to juggle work and their family situation, so I feel like I'm being unreasonable, but at the same time, this is work that I wouldn't have normally had in the usual non-COVID circumstances. What do you think? I am right to feel annoyed, or am I being a selfish asshole and need to suck it up?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "No, it isn't wrong. Children or no, each faculty member ought to shoulder a fair load of service, teaching, and research. The problem is that stuff is rarely tracked well (especially service) and people with children often get special exceptions for certain forms of service. > I am right to feel annoyed, or am I being a selfish asshole and need to suck it up? How much do you think you'll get recognition or compensation for doing this extra work?", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "What are the wildest hijinks you never though you’d have to write a syllabus disclaimer about (and yet here we are)? This morning I woke up to an email from a top journal in my field confirming my submission. I definitely did not submit anything there. Eventually I realized that instead of submitting their term paper to Canvas, one of my students had somehow managed to submit it as a manuscript to a journal, under my name and identity. I can’t believe I have to put “do not submit your class papers as journal manuscripts under my name” in my syllabi. I just keep thinking about it and bursting into laughter. So, what are some of your “I can’t believe that just happened” teaching stories? This is not a thread for student bashing - just some good natured, end of the semester stress relief!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "My syllabus has the line, \"if you need to miss lab for medical reasons, please notify me ahead of time via email. Do not include descriptions or pictures of your symptoms in this email.\" You can probably imagine why.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "What are the wildest hijinks you never though you’d have to write a syllabus disclaimer about (and yet here we are)? This morning I woke up to an email from a top journal in my field confirming my submission. I definitely did not submit anything there. Eventually I realized that instead of submitting their term paper to Canvas, one of my students had somehow managed to submit it as a manuscript to a journal, under my name and identity. I can’t believe I have to put “do not submit your class papers as journal manuscripts under my name” in my syllabi. I just keep thinking about it and bursting into laughter. So, what are some of your “I can’t believe that just happened” teaching stories? This is not a thread for student bashing - just some good natured, end of the semester stress relief!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I’d love to know the rationale the student had for doing that.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "What are the wildest hijinks you never though you’d have to write a syllabus disclaimer about (and yet here we are)? This morning I woke up to an email from a top journal in my field confirming my submission. I definitely did not submit anything there. Eventually I realized that instead of submitting their term paper to Canvas, one of my students had somehow managed to submit it as a manuscript to a journal, under my name and identity. I can’t believe I have to put “do not submit your class papers as journal manuscripts under my name” in my syllabi. I just keep thinking about it and bursting into laughter. So, what are some of your “I can’t believe that just happened” teaching stories? This is not a thread for student bashing - just some good natured, end of the semester stress relief!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "> Eventually I realized that instead of submitting their term paper to Canvas, one of my students had somehow managed to submit it as a manuscript to a journal, under my name and identity. Not going to lie, I'm genuinely impressed - submitting a paper correctly in some journals' portals is hard enough when you're actually _intending_ to submit a paper. Ask them who they suggested as reviewers!", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "What are the wildest hijinks you never though you’d have to write a syllabus disclaimer about (and yet here we are)? This morning I woke up to an email from a top journal in my field confirming my submission. I definitely did not submit anything there. Eventually I realized that instead of submitting their term paper to Canvas, one of my students had somehow managed to submit it as a manuscript to a journal, under my name and identity. I can’t believe I have to put “do not submit your class papers as journal manuscripts under my name” in my syllabi. I just keep thinking about it and bursting into laughter. So, what are some of your “I can’t believe that just happened” teaching stories? This is not a thread for student bashing - just some good natured, end of the semester stress relief!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I mean, my friend is the Dean of English at a community college and had a kid sh*t his pants in the middle of class twice in one semester. And we're not talking discreetly. Like, loud sounds and running out while screaming \"oh no\"! But I don't think he had to put it in his syllabus to: either use the bathroom before class starts, or don't come to class if you're not feeling well.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "What are the wildest hijinks you never though you’d have to write a syllabus disclaimer about (and yet here we are)? This morning I woke up to an email from a top journal in my field confirming my submission. I definitely did not submit anything there. Eventually I realized that instead of submitting their term paper to Canvas, one of my students had somehow managed to submit it as a manuscript to a journal, under my name and identity. I can’t believe I have to put “do not submit your class papers as journal manuscripts under my name” in my syllabi. I just keep thinking about it and bursting into laughter. So, what are some of your “I can’t believe that just happened” teaching stories? This is not a thread for student bashing - just some good natured, end of the semester stress relief!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Syllabus: You cannot submit drafts after the final essay is due and receive credit for those drafts under any circumstances. Had to write this in the syllabus because students skipped the drafting assignments, submitted the \"Final Essay,\" and then went back to old assignment links and submitted chunks of their essay as if they had drafted it. The timestamps always made me laugh, but students pushing for credit did not.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "What are the wildest hijinks you never though you’d have to write a syllabus disclaimer about (and yet here we are)? This morning I woke up to an email from a top journal in my field confirming my submission. I definitely did not submit anything there. Eventually I realized that instead of submitting their term paper to Canvas, one of my students had somehow managed to submit it as a manuscript to a journal, under my name and identity. I can’t believe I have to put “do not submit your class papers as journal manuscripts under my name” in my syllabi. I just keep thinking about it and bursting into laughter. So, what are some of your “I can’t believe that just happened” teaching stories? This is not a thread for student bashing - just some good natured, end of the semester stress relief!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I’d love to know the rationale the student had for doing that.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "What are the wildest hijinks you never though you’d have to write a syllabus disclaimer about (and yet here we are)? This morning I woke up to an email from a top journal in my field confirming my submission. I definitely did not submit anything there. Eventually I realized that instead of submitting their term paper to Canvas, one of my students had somehow managed to submit it as a manuscript to a journal, under my name and identity. I can’t believe I have to put “do not submit your class papers as journal manuscripts under my name” in my syllabi. I just keep thinking about it and bursting into laughter. So, what are some of your “I can’t believe that just happened” teaching stories? This is not a thread for student bashing - just some good natured, end of the semester stress relief!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Last year more than one of my colleagues literally had to add a line to their syllabi explicitly requiring students be \"fully clothed\" when appearing on camera for class. Apparently several men thought it fine to Zoom in from bed, shirtless, and at least one student was zooming from her dorm room when her semi-naked roommate walked behind her on camera. Neither of these would have occurred to any of us before spring 2020.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "What are the wildest hijinks you never though you’d have to write a syllabus disclaimer about (and yet here we are)? This morning I woke up to an email from a top journal in my field confirming my submission. I definitely did not submit anything there. Eventually I realized that instead of submitting their term paper to Canvas, one of my students had somehow managed to submit it as a manuscript to a journal, under my name and identity. I can’t believe I have to put “do not submit your class papers as journal manuscripts under my name” in my syllabi. I just keep thinking about it and bursting into laughter. So, what are some of your “I can’t believe that just happened” teaching stories? This is not a thread for student bashing - just some good natured, end of the semester stress relief!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I’d love to know the rationale the student had for doing that.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "What are the wildest hijinks you never though you’d have to write a syllabus disclaimer about (and yet here we are)? This morning I woke up to an email from a top journal in my field confirming my submission. I definitely did not submit anything there. Eventually I realized that instead of submitting their term paper to Canvas, one of my students had somehow managed to submit it as a manuscript to a journal, under my name and identity. I can’t believe I have to put “do not submit your class papers as journal manuscripts under my name” in my syllabi. I just keep thinking about it and bursting into laughter. So, what are some of your “I can’t believe that just happened” teaching stories? This is not a thread for student bashing - just some good natured, end of the semester stress relief!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "> Eventually I realized that instead of submitting their term paper to Canvas, one of my students had somehow managed to submit it as a manuscript to a journal, under my name and identity. Not going to lie, I'm genuinely impressed - submitting a paper correctly in some journals' portals is hard enough when you're actually _intending_ to submit a paper. Ask them who they suggested as reviewers!", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "What are the wildest hijinks you never though you’d have to write a syllabus disclaimer about (and yet here we are)? This morning I woke up to an email from a top journal in my field confirming my submission. I definitely did not submit anything there. Eventually I realized that instead of submitting their term paper to Canvas, one of my students had somehow managed to submit it as a manuscript to a journal, under my name and identity. I can’t believe I have to put “do not submit your class papers as journal manuscripts under my name” in my syllabi. I just keep thinking about it and bursting into laughter. So, what are some of your “I can’t believe that just happened” teaching stories? This is not a thread for student bashing - just some good natured, end of the semester stress relief!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Not the craziest by any means, but I remember the exact student that led me to write: “You will receive a zero if I or a member of the instructional even thinks you are playing video games in class.” Before that semester, I thought video game addiction was a joke. I now think otherwise after seeing too many students fail out of college bc literally all they do is play video games and sleep.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Are you expected to work 60-70 hours a week in the academia? This is part rant and part question. I had an introductory meeting with about 15-16 other PhD students who had just started and the session included a question answer session with professors where anonymous questions could be asked. One individual, whose supervisor expected him to work weekends as well, asked the professors how he can politely tell his supervisor that this isnt right. The response of one of the professors was: \"We are in this because we love science. If you don't want to work weekends, perhaps you do not love science and you do not belong here. If that is the case, you should leave.\" I was rather shocked. I admit that I do put in extra hours because I want to and have to because of my horrible productivity throughout the day. However, what was suggested by the \"expert\" was that it is basically compulsory to do this. Is that really what is expected in the Academia? Why is it like that? Why isn't mental and physical health given their due importance? Burn out is a thing.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I worked 40 hours per week, all through grad school (unless I had a HUGE deadline). I got some judgement for it, but honestly, my productivity was higher than many of the people who “worked” more hours. I simply was efficient with my time because I was balanced and well rested. All this to say, it’s a job to me. I personally don’t feel like I owe the academy all my hours and happiness.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Are you expected to work 60-70 hours a week in the academia? This is part rant and part question. I had an introductory meeting with about 15-16 other PhD students who had just started and the session included a question answer session with professors where anonymous questions could be asked. One individual, whose supervisor expected him to work weekends as well, asked the professors how he can politely tell his supervisor that this isnt right. The response of one of the professors was: \"We are in this because we love science. If you don't want to work weekends, perhaps you do not love science and you do not belong here. If that is the case, you should leave.\" I was rather shocked. I admit that I do put in extra hours because I want to and have to because of my horrible productivity throughout the day. However, what was suggested by the \"expert\" was that it is basically compulsory to do this. Is that really what is expected in the Academia? Why is it like that? Why isn't mental and physical health given their due importance? Burn out is a thing.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I think it’s not fair. But, yea, I think it is expected. And, if you don’t, you probably won’t be competitive in the job market (unless your productivity is so high that you can compete with people that work all the time). Even if you work weekend and holidays, I still don’t think you are guarantee a job. I am not a PhD yet, so take it with a grain of salt.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Are you expected to work 60-70 hours a week in the academia? This is part rant and part question. I had an introductory meeting with about 15-16 other PhD students who had just started and the session included a question answer session with professors where anonymous questions could be asked. One individual, whose supervisor expected him to work weekends as well, asked the professors how he can politely tell his supervisor that this isnt right. The response of one of the professors was: \"We are in this because we love science. If you don't want to work weekends, perhaps you do not love science and you do not belong here. If that is the case, you should leave.\" I was rather shocked. I admit that I do put in extra hours because I want to and have to because of my horrible productivity throughout the day. However, what was suggested by the \"expert\" was that it is basically compulsory to do this. Is that really what is expected in the Academia? Why is it like that? Why isn't mental and physical health given their due importance? Burn out is a thing.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I worked for 60 hours per week for my first 2 years. I was burning out and decided to not do that anymore. I didn't tell my professor, I just stopped. I guess my advisor could have fired me, but that would've cost him years of work and training. Now as faculty, I still work just 40 hours. Partly because I learned to get a lot done in 40 hours, partly because I turned down the offers from departments where I could tell they expected more regardless of productivity, and partly because I'm in engineering and good faculty are hard to find, so they'll pretty much put up with whatever I feel like doing. Moreover, I worked 6 hours total in my 4 week winter break. I worked zero hours fall break. I expect to work for 12 hours this week long spring break, simply because I'm behind on grading. My work-life balance is superb. Beyond just bragging, my point is it's possible. Admittedly, If you want to land a TT gig at a top 20 school, then it's probably not possible.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Are you expected to work 60-70 hours a week in the academia? This is part rant and part question. I had an introductory meeting with about 15-16 other PhD students who had just started and the session included a question answer session with professors where anonymous questions could be asked. One individual, whose supervisor expected him to work weekends as well, asked the professors how he can politely tell his supervisor that this isnt right. The response of one of the professors was: \"We are in this because we love science. If you don't want to work weekends, perhaps you do not love science and you do not belong here. If that is the case, you should leave.\" I was rather shocked. I admit that I do put in extra hours because I want to and have to because of my horrible productivity throughout the day. However, what was suggested by the \"expert\" was that it is basically compulsory to do this. Is that really what is expected in the Academia? Why is it like that? Why isn't mental and physical health given their due importance? Burn out is a thing.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I think it’s not fair. But, yea, I think it is expected. And, if you don’t, you probably won’t be competitive in the job market (unless your productivity is so high that you can compete with people that work all the time). Even if you work weekend and holidays, I still don’t think you are guarantee a job. I am not a PhD yet, so take it with a grain of salt.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Are you expected to work 60-70 hours a week in the academia? This is part rant and part question. I had an introductory meeting with about 15-16 other PhD students who had just started and the session included a question answer session with professors where anonymous questions could be asked. One individual, whose supervisor expected him to work weekends as well, asked the professors how he can politely tell his supervisor that this isnt right. The response of one of the professors was: \"We are in this because we love science. If you don't want to work weekends, perhaps you do not love science and you do not belong here. If that is the case, you should leave.\" I was rather shocked. I admit that I do put in extra hours because I want to and have to because of my horrible productivity throughout the day. However, what was suggested by the \"expert\" was that it is basically compulsory to do this. Is that really what is expected in the Academia? Why is it like that? Why isn't mental and physical health given their due importance? Burn out is a thing.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I try to tell all of my PhD candidates: hours of work is an input. At the end of the day, no one cares about your input, the world cares about your output. Focus on creating quality outputs efficiently, and then you won't have to give up years of your life the way I did when I was a PhD student and post doc.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Are you expected to work 60-70 hours a week in the academia? This is part rant and part question. I had an introductory meeting with about 15-16 other PhD students who had just started and the session included a question answer session with professors where anonymous questions could be asked. One individual, whose supervisor expected him to work weekends as well, asked the professors how he can politely tell his supervisor that this isnt right. The response of one of the professors was: \"We are in this because we love science. If you don't want to work weekends, perhaps you do not love science and you do not belong here. If that is the case, you should leave.\" I was rather shocked. I admit that I do put in extra hours because I want to and have to because of my horrible productivity throughout the day. However, what was suggested by the \"expert\" was that it is basically compulsory to do this. Is that really what is expected in the Academia? Why is it like that? Why isn't mental and physical health given their due importance? Burn out is a thing.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "The problem is that you're expected to finish too much work all the time. Even though you have a contract and it tells 45 hours work, there is no way to finish what you're asked to in that period. PIs don't officially tell that since they might face some problems with the administration. They just overcome it by pushing you more and more in each time. In my opinion it is best to have boundaries from the beginning. I don't and can't work that much for a long period, it would burn me out.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Are you expected to work 60-70 hours a week in the academia? This is part rant and part question. I had an introductory meeting with about 15-16 other PhD students who had just started and the session included a question answer session with professors where anonymous questions could be asked. One individual, whose supervisor expected him to work weekends as well, asked the professors how he can politely tell his supervisor that this isnt right. The response of one of the professors was: \"We are in this because we love science. If you don't want to work weekends, perhaps you do not love science and you do not belong here. If that is the case, you should leave.\" I was rather shocked. I admit that I do put in extra hours because I want to and have to because of my horrible productivity throughout the day. However, what was suggested by the \"expert\" was that it is basically compulsory to do this. Is that really what is expected in the Academia? Why is it like that? Why isn't mental and physical health given their due importance? Burn out is a thing.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I try to tell all of my PhD candidates: hours of work is an input. At the end of the day, no one cares about your input, the world cares about your output. Focus on creating quality outputs efficiently, and then you won't have to give up years of your life the way I did when I was a PhD student and post doc.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Are you expected to work 60-70 hours a week in the academia? This is part rant and part question. I had an introductory meeting with about 15-16 other PhD students who had just started and the session included a question answer session with professors where anonymous questions could be asked. One individual, whose supervisor expected him to work weekends as well, asked the professors how he can politely tell his supervisor that this isnt right. The response of one of the professors was: \"We are in this because we love science. If you don't want to work weekends, perhaps you do not love science and you do not belong here. If that is the case, you should leave.\" I was rather shocked. I admit that I do put in extra hours because I want to and have to because of my horrible productivity throughout the day. However, what was suggested by the \"expert\" was that it is basically compulsory to do this. Is that really what is expected in the Academia? Why is it like that? Why isn't mental and physical health given their due importance? Burn out is a thing.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I think it’s not fair. But, yea, I think it is expected. And, if you don’t, you probably won’t be competitive in the job market (unless your productivity is so high that you can compete with people that work all the time). Even if you work weekend and holidays, I still don’t think you are guarantee a job. I am not a PhD yet, so take it with a grain of salt.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Are you expected to work 60-70 hours a week in the academia? This is part rant and part question. I had an introductory meeting with about 15-16 other PhD students who had just started and the session included a question answer session with professors where anonymous questions could be asked. One individual, whose supervisor expected him to work weekends as well, asked the professors how he can politely tell his supervisor that this isnt right. The response of one of the professors was: \"We are in this because we love science. If you don't want to work weekends, perhaps you do not love science and you do not belong here. If that is the case, you should leave.\" I was rather shocked. I admit that I do put in extra hours because I want to and have to because of my horrible productivity throughout the day. However, what was suggested by the \"expert\" was that it is basically compulsory to do this. Is that really what is expected in the Academia? Why is it like that? Why isn't mental and physical health given their due importance? Burn out is a thing.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I try to tell all of my PhD candidates: hours of work is an input. At the end of the day, no one cares about your input, the world cares about your output. Focus on creating quality outputs efficiently, and then you won't have to give up years of your life the way I did when I was a PhD student and post doc.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Are you expected to work 60-70 hours a week in the academia? This is part rant and part question. I had an introductory meeting with about 15-16 other PhD students who had just started and the session included a question answer session with professors where anonymous questions could be asked. One individual, whose supervisor expected him to work weekends as well, asked the professors how he can politely tell his supervisor that this isnt right. The response of one of the professors was: \"We are in this because we love science. If you don't want to work weekends, perhaps you do not love science and you do not belong here. If that is the case, you should leave.\" I was rather shocked. I admit that I do put in extra hours because I want to and have to because of my horrible productivity throughout the day. However, what was suggested by the \"expert\" was that it is basically compulsory to do this. Is that really what is expected in the Academia? Why is it like that? Why isn't mental and physical health given their due importance? Burn out is a thing.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I think you should swing by that professor's lab on Sunday at 3pm is see if the jerk is there. I'd bet not. If you're feeling very brave, leave a note on the lab door asking if he doesn't love science enough to be there at Sunday at 3pm!", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Female Grad Student in Engineering having Challenges working with Men I’m noticing this pattern where I get sidelined by men who take over something I was working on, or male colleagues opening talking down to me in front of our superiors, or even the male students that I TA blaming their mistakes on me and I am getting extremely frustrated. Even with the men in my cohort that I consider my friends, I have moments where I am talked down to, talked over, or my input is not taken as seriously. These moments like often derail me for the rest of the day, and reinforce all the icky imposter syndrome feelings I have going on. I tried to google but all I got was icky misoginistic “lean in” type rhetoric that just tells me to have less feelings and be one of the boys. Do you have any advice? Or any good reading material that you have found on this topic?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Not in the exact same situation, but I feel you. Men consciously or subconsciously do still treat women as inferior in STEM. It sucks.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Female Grad Student in Engineering having Challenges working with Men I’m noticing this pattern where I get sidelined by men who take over something I was working on, or male colleagues opening talking down to me in front of our superiors, or even the male students that I TA blaming their mistakes on me and I am getting extremely frustrated. Even with the men in my cohort that I consider my friends, I have moments where I am talked down to, talked over, or my input is not taken as seriously. These moments like often derail me for the rest of the day, and reinforce all the icky imposter syndrome feelings I have going on. I tried to google but all I got was icky misoginistic “lean in” type rhetoric that just tells me to have less feelings and be one of the boys. Do you have any advice? Or any good reading material that you have found on this topic?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "As long as you keep evidence of the way you practice and work there should always be evidence to back you up and let them know that they can't blame their mistakes on you. On the other hand regarding the comments and treatment you can try to escalate things: correct them either in the spot or privately as it fits the situation, make a stand of your view and why x behaviour is offensive, take things up with a superior if things go out of control, and take note of the policies of where you are at so you can be protected. You can check r/twoxchromosomes and post in there to, is quite a supportive community and I have seen posts alike where other women offer their insights and experience.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Female Grad Student in Engineering having Challenges working with Men I’m noticing this pattern where I get sidelined by men who take over something I was working on, or male colleagues opening talking down to me in front of our superiors, or even the male students that I TA blaming their mistakes on me and I am getting extremely frustrated. Even with the men in my cohort that I consider my friends, I have moments where I am talked down to, talked over, or my input is not taken as seriously. These moments like often derail me for the rest of the day, and reinforce all the icky imposter syndrome feelings I have going on. I tried to google but all I got was icky misoginistic “lean in” type rhetoric that just tells me to have less feelings and be one of the boys. Do you have any advice? Or any good reading material that you have found on this topic?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Welcome to the boys club called Engineering. Firstly congratulations on being here, we need women in engineering and there is an epic lack of female perspective in the area. I can understand that you are finding the environment challenging and hostile, and a lot of your male colleagues find your presence unusual from the status quo, however, this is not something that should stop you. You must take control and stand by your work. You have to stand up for yourself. If your little shits of students are blaming their mistakes on you, plainly point out their mistakes to them, don't be shy about it. Try to explain their mistakes to them FIRST and If they behave in a way that it is your fault, let them know you won't be afraid to penalize their sloppy work or escalate the matter accordingly. You are not their MOM. In the lab where you work, you need to make sure that you establish boundaries on what your projects belong to you with your advisor and other folks at the lab. As a male student who is doing a Ph.D. in engineering, I often found my senior colleagues at the lab try to take over my work in the final days in the name of \"collaboration\" etc. Whenever this happened to me, I made sure to have a joint meeting with the entire team to establish the work and contributions they would be making, and when you do this these people fuck right off. They are freeloaders trying to get authorship. it is important to establish the authorship and contributions in your projects early on. Assert yourself, don't be intimidated. You belong in the field don't let the biased field make you feel otherwise. Definitely make friends in and outside your department, be part of IEEE Women or women in Engineering groups, they can advise you much better.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Female Grad Student in Engineering having Challenges working with Men I’m noticing this pattern where I get sidelined by men who take over something I was working on, or male colleagues opening talking down to me in front of our superiors, or even the male students that I TA blaming their mistakes on me and I am getting extremely frustrated. Even with the men in my cohort that I consider my friends, I have moments where I am talked down to, talked over, or my input is not taken as seriously. These moments like often derail me for the rest of the day, and reinforce all the icky imposter syndrome feelings I have going on. I tried to google but all I got was icky misoginistic “lean in” type rhetoric that just tells me to have less feelings and be one of the boys. Do you have any advice? Or any good reading material that you have found on this topic?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "As a male researcher, I know I probably do this inadvertently and I would appreciate knowing when I’m doing it so I can train that behavior out of myself. I know it’s not fair to ask this of you, but I think we would all benefit from being told when we’re stepping on our female colleagues.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Female Grad Student in Engineering having Challenges working with Men I’m noticing this pattern where I get sidelined by men who take over something I was working on, or male colleagues opening talking down to me in front of our superiors, or even the male students that I TA blaming their mistakes on me and I am getting extremely frustrated. Even with the men in my cohort that I consider my friends, I have moments where I am talked down to, talked over, or my input is not taken as seriously. These moments like often derail me for the rest of the day, and reinforce all the icky imposter syndrome feelings I have going on. I tried to google but all I got was icky misoginistic “lean in” type rhetoric that just tells me to have less feelings and be one of the boys. Do you have any advice? Or any good reading material that you have found on this topic?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "You need to stand up for yourself. \"I wasn't finished yet\" \"I'd like to hear your feedback after I've finished my point.\" \"You can't blame me for mistakes you made. Perhaps paying more attention next time I'm giving instructions will help. You are always free to ask questions, too.\" \"As you are aware, this is a project I'm leading. If you have any ideas, please schedule a meeting or send them via email and we can discuss later.\" \"Thank you for your input on my project but since this is my project, you won't be able to take it over.\"", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Female Grad Student in Engineering having Challenges working with Men I’m noticing this pattern where I get sidelined by men who take over something I was working on, or male colleagues opening talking down to me in front of our superiors, or even the male students that I TA blaming their mistakes on me and I am getting extremely frustrated. Even with the men in my cohort that I consider my friends, I have moments where I am talked down to, talked over, or my input is not taken as seriously. These moments like often derail me for the rest of the day, and reinforce all the icky imposter syndrome feelings I have going on. I tried to google but all I got was icky misoginistic “lean in” type rhetoric that just tells me to have less feelings and be one of the boys. Do you have any advice? Or any good reading material that you have found on this topic?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Check our /r/LadiesofScience", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Female Grad Student in Engineering having Challenges working with Men I’m noticing this pattern where I get sidelined by men who take over something I was working on, or male colleagues opening talking down to me in front of our superiors, or even the male students that I TA blaming their mistakes on me and I am getting extremely frustrated. Even with the men in my cohort that I consider my friends, I have moments where I am talked down to, talked over, or my input is not taken as seriously. These moments like often derail me for the rest of the day, and reinforce all the icky imposter syndrome feelings I have going on. I tried to google but all I got was icky misoginistic “lean in” type rhetoric that just tells me to have less feelings and be one of the boys. Do you have any advice? Or any good reading material that you have found on this topic?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I definitely feel you on this. I've had to pick and choose my battles before with this stuff, and it's a tough balance between losing my temper and not saying anything and stewing. In the right situation when I can manage the courage to say something calmly, I've been direct and said things like \"you're interrupting me\". My personal favorite is when I say something at a normal volume and everyone ignores me, and the tallest, whitest idiot man in the room heard it and says it like it was his own, and everyone claps like orangutans. I could have an aneurysm when this happens because then I have to call it out and then I'm a \"bitch\". or \"not congenial\". Ahem anyways...are they your friends, or people that you spend time with? I'm guessing you're mistaking them as actual friends when they're just classmates, and that's probably why it hurts so much. I saw this game recently and played through it, it's a short narrative game about male computer engineering students basically just being creepy assholes to the only woman in the class. You might find it cathartic, I know I did http://www.gamergirl.games/game/playtest", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Female Grad Student in Engineering having Challenges working with Men I’m noticing this pattern where I get sidelined by men who take over something I was working on, or male colleagues opening talking down to me in front of our superiors, or even the male students that I TA blaming their mistakes on me and I am getting extremely frustrated. Even with the men in my cohort that I consider my friends, I have moments where I am talked down to, talked over, or my input is not taken as seriously. These moments like often derail me for the rest of the day, and reinforce all the icky imposter syndrome feelings I have going on. I tried to google but all I got was icky misoginistic “lean in” type rhetoric that just tells me to have less feelings and be one of the boys. Do you have any advice? Or any good reading material that you have found on this topic?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Can you tell us more about how you got sidelined on this project? Usually it's the advisor's job to make it clear who is in charge of which project. Don't let people just take things from you... I think the best thing you could do is to try to find a female professor to discuss your problems with. Doesn't even need to be in the same department. Either send them a cold email or show up to their office hours sometime and ask if they wouldn't mind talking to you about a couple of these kinds of things. I'm a guy so take it with a grain of salt.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Female Grad Student in Engineering having Challenges working with Men I’m noticing this pattern where I get sidelined by men who take over something I was working on, or male colleagues opening talking down to me in front of our superiors, or even the male students that I TA blaming their mistakes on me and I am getting extremely frustrated. Even with the men in my cohort that I consider my friends, I have moments where I am talked down to, talked over, or my input is not taken as seriously. These moments like often derail me for the rest of the day, and reinforce all the icky imposter syndrome feelings I have going on. I tried to google but all I got was icky misoginistic “lean in” type rhetoric that just tells me to have less feelings and be one of the boys. Do you have any advice? Or any good reading material that you have found on this topic?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I can only speak from my experience, but I frequently get talked down/over in my lab group as well. It is hard to ignore, but after 4 years I realized it is a lot easier just to learn to not worry about it, plus realistically what can you do? I think my advice for not taking it personally is trying not to stew, when I sit and think about what happened for hours at a time it just makes me feel awful, but if I actively just move on right after it happens and try not to stew it seems to help me not feel so belittled. It may be worth noting anecdotally that lots of people in academia are condescending as fuck; I think a common theme is people thinking they are always the smartest person in the room and implicit biases don't help this. I am a male in an all male group with a female advisor, so there aren't really the same misogyny vibes of your lab, but I find it easier just to not worry about it myself versus trying to talk to/change people who are just going to be assholes by default. Just my two cents.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Female Grad Student in Engineering having Challenges working with Men I’m noticing this pattern where I get sidelined by men who take over something I was working on, or male colleagues opening talking down to me in front of our superiors, or even the male students that I TA blaming their mistakes on me and I am getting extremely frustrated. Even with the men in my cohort that I consider my friends, I have moments where I am talked down to, talked over, or my input is not taken as seriously. These moments like often derail me for the rest of the day, and reinforce all the icky imposter syndrome feelings I have going on. I tried to google but all I got was icky misoginistic “lean in” type rhetoric that just tells me to have less feelings and be one of the boys. Do you have any advice? Or any good reading material that you have found on this topic?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "As long as you keep evidence of the way you practice and work there should always be evidence to back you up and let them know that they can't blame their mistakes on you. On the other hand regarding the comments and treatment you can try to escalate things: correct them either in the spot or privately as it fits the situation, make a stand of your view and why x behaviour is offensive, take things up with a superior if things go out of control, and take note of the policies of where you are at so you can be protected. You can check r/twoxchromosomes and post in there to, is quite a supportive community and I have seen posts alike where other women offer their insights and experience.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "The university that I teach at (NYU) has gone remote because of the coronivirus. I teach two classes of over 100 students and give multiple choice exams. Is there any possible way to stop them from cheating on the exams?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "So I don't know if this is used in the USA, but it's widely used in Canada. We use this thing called Lockdown Browser, it's mainly used with students who are online. When a student opens it, it blocks them from using external applications on their laptops/computers. Professors can also enable the browser to video/audio record when students enter their tests, to ensure students don't cheat.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "The university that I teach at (NYU) has gone remote because of the coronivirus. I teach two classes of over 100 students and give multiple choice exams. Is there any possible way to stop them from cheating on the exams?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "You could create several versions of the exam where the questions/answers are ordered differently. It would stop wholesale copying. But it wouldn't stop people from working together.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "The university that I teach at (NYU) has gone remote because of the coronivirus. I teach two classes of over 100 students and give multiple choice exams. Is there any possible way to stop them from cheating on the exams?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "You can't stop it but you can minimize it. Assuming you will offer exams on your LMS (e.g. Blackboard): 1. Set the time for the exam in such way that it is 35-45 seconds per question. This makes it harder to Google or look up the answers. Advanced: Google your questions to make sure the answers are not readily available. If they are, restructure the question. 2. Make questions appear one at a time (not the entire exam). This makes it harder for one student to print out the exam and have others work on it. 3. Randomize the order of how questions appear so there is no way to create a solutions key with question numbers. 4. Make the exam available only at the same time as the on-campus exam time so everyone takes it at the same time. 5. Do not provide the correct answers or the student score immediately, you can release those after everyone has taken the exam. Hope this helps, good luck!", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "The university that I teach at (NYU) has gone remote because of the coronivirus. I teach two classes of over 100 students and give multiple choice exams. Is there any possible way to stop them from cheating on the exams?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "You could use online proctoring services like Proctor U. They have remote access to the student's screen, and will watch the student via webcam the entire time until they submit their exam. They need the student to verify ID and also ask you to move your webcam around the room before beginning the exam.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "The university that I teach at (NYU) has gone remote because of the coronivirus. I teach two classes of over 100 students and give multiple choice exams. Is there any possible way to stop them from cheating on the exams?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Get lockdown browser with web cam monitor (respondus, proctorio etc). Specify that they can use a couple pages of notes and write the questions to accommodate that. That tricks them into studying anyway, because making good cheat sheets requires active engagement. Shuffle the questions and answers. If you want a total of say 80 questions, program in 100, so that everyone has a slightly different version of the test. I also agree with making the questions appear one at a time, but i still like to leave the ability to flag a question and let them go back to it. I also agree with making everyone take the exam at the same time.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "The university that I teach at (NYU) has gone remote because of the coronivirus. I teach two classes of over 100 students and give multiple choice exams. Is there any possible way to stop them from cheating on the exams?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Create different versions of the exam, randomize the questions, place a time limit.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "The university that I teach at (NYU) has gone remote because of the coronivirus. I teach two classes of over 100 students and give multiple choice exams. Is there any possible way to stop them from cheating on the exams?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I am a student and I just want to say please please don’t go the route of setting very strict time limits. I have a documented disability due to a processing disorder that slows me down so I can get extended time, but for students who aren’t diagnosed it harms them. In my opinion a good way to go about it is using essay style questions. You have a lot of students so I don’t know how practical it is, but this is a good way to gauge understanding and make it hard to cheat. If I don’t know the content well, I have a very hard time with an essay question no matter how much internet I have access to.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "The university that I teach at (NYU) has gone remote because of the coronivirus. I teach two classes of over 100 students and give multiple choice exams. Is there any possible way to stop them from cheating on the exams?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "These are all good suggestions, however I want to add something very simple that seems to have some effect. For the first question of my online exams, I have a true/false question worth zero points that states: > I am taking this test under my own identity and will not use any outside materials to assist me in this exam including notes, textbook, websites, or another person. I will also not discuss the content of this exam with anyone that has not completed the exam. Here is a post from another professor that was doing something similar. Depending on the honor code culture of your university, you may want to reference it. This is probably not a substitute for the other practices given here, but it is so easy to implement, even if it only has a very small effect size, it easily falls into the why not category.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "The university that I teach at (NYU) has gone remote because of the coronivirus. I teach two classes of over 100 students and give multiple choice exams. Is there any possible way to stop them from cheating on the exams?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "A couple years ago, I made all my exams online and open-book for large lecture courses. I emphasize that they need to take careful notes during lectures and I have them submit lecture notes for 1/4 course credit. Exams are timed as if taken during class tome. I still see a normal distribution of scores. Remember, if they cheat they are cheating themselves.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "The university that I teach at (NYU) has gone remote because of the coronivirus. I teach two classes of over 100 students and give multiple choice exams. Is there any possible way to stop them from cheating on the exams?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "You could create several versions of the exam where the questions/answers are ordered differently. It would stop wholesale copying. But it wouldn't stop people from working together.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "What are some of the more absurd journal article titles you're come across? Having recently come across \"The hitchhikers guide to flow chemistry\" and \"Will Any Crap We Put into Graphene Increase Its Electrocatalytic Effect?\" journal articles, I was quite amused by them. What are some other articles that you've come across that have weird/absurd/funny titles? Also, what did it make you think of the authors who wrote them?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Here's a few in philosophy, collected by Mike Otsuka. Harry Frankfurt, “On Bullshit,” *Raritan Quarterly Review* (1986) David Enoch, “Once You Start Using Slippery Slope Arguments, You’re on a Very Slippery Slope”, *Oxford Journal of Legal Studies* (2001) David Enoch, “Wouldn’t It Be Nice If p, therefore p”, *Utilitas* (2009)", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "What are some of the more absurd journal article titles you're come across? Having recently come across \"The hitchhikers guide to flow chemistry\" and \"Will Any Crap We Put into Graphene Increase Its Electrocatalytic Effect?\" journal articles, I was quite amused by them. What are some other articles that you've come across that have weird/absurd/funny titles? Also, what did it make you think of the authors who wrote them?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Effects of packaging, equipment, and storage time on energy used for reheating beef stew. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?start=10&q=beef+stew&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5#d=gs_qabs&u=%23p%3DSj-zvXQpWGkJ", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "What are some of the more absurd journal article titles you're come across? Having recently come across \"The hitchhikers guide to flow chemistry\" and \"Will Any Crap We Put into Graphene Increase Its Electrocatalytic Effect?\" journal articles, I was quite amused by them. What are some other articles that you've come across that have weird/absurd/funny titles? Also, what did it make you think of the authors who wrote them?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1465-5922.1996.00165.x You are welcome...", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "What are some of the more absurd journal article titles you're come across? Having recently come across \"The hitchhikers guide to flow chemistry\" and \"Will Any Crap We Put into Graphene Increase Its Electrocatalytic Effect?\" journal articles, I was quite amused by them. What are some other articles that you've come across that have weird/absurd/funny titles? Also, what did it make you think of the authors who wrote them?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I Just Ran Two Million Regressions", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "What are some of the more absurd journal article titles you're come across? Having recently come across \"The hitchhikers guide to flow chemistry\" and \"Will Any Crap We Put into Graphene Increase Its Electrocatalytic Effect?\" journal articles, I was quite amused by them. What are some other articles that you've come across that have weird/absurd/funny titles? Also, what did it make you think of the authors who wrote them?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I was going to link What's The Deal With Birds but it appears that they've taken it down :'(", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "What are some of the more absurd journal article titles you're come across? Having recently come across \"The hitchhikers guide to flow chemistry\" and \"Will Any Crap We Put into Graphene Increase Its Electrocatalytic Effect?\" journal articles, I was quite amused by them. What are some other articles that you've come across that have weird/absurd/funny titles? Also, what did it make you think of the authors who wrote them?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/556640/ You might regret this thread, I have a few, we had a bit of a competition going a while back at work to see who could find the best/worst/weirdest papers", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "What are some of the more absurd journal article titles you're come across? Having recently come across \"The hitchhikers guide to flow chemistry\" and \"Will Any Crap We Put into Graphene Increase Its Electrocatalytic Effect?\" journal articles, I was quite amused by them. What are some other articles that you've come across that have weird/absurd/funny titles? Also, what did it make you think of the authors who wrote them?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1465-5922.1996.00165.x You are welcome...", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "What are some of the more absurd journal article titles you're come across? Having recently come across \"The hitchhikers guide to flow chemistry\" and \"Will Any Crap We Put into Graphene Increase Its Electrocatalytic Effect?\" journal articles, I was quite amused by them. What are some other articles that you've come across that have weird/absurd/funny titles? Also, what did it make you think of the authors who wrote them?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I came across a genetic screening approach called Big Papi yesterday 🤦‍♀️", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "What are some of the more absurd journal article titles you're come across? Having recently come across \"The hitchhikers guide to flow chemistry\" and \"Will Any Crap We Put into Graphene Increase Its Electrocatalytic Effect?\" journal articles, I was quite amused by them. What are some other articles that you've come across that have weird/absurd/funny titles? Also, what did it make you think of the authors who wrote them?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Eve Sedgwick’s essay “Paranoid Reading and Reparative Reading, or, You’re So Vain You Probably Think This Essay Is About You” is still incredibly influential in my field", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "What are some of the more absurd journal article titles you're come across? Having recently come across \"The hitchhikers guide to flow chemistry\" and \"Will Any Crap We Put into Graphene Increase Its Electrocatalytic Effect?\" journal articles, I was quite amused by them. What are some other articles that you've come across that have weird/absurd/funny titles? Also, what did it make you think of the authors who wrote them?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Effects of packaging, equipment, and storage time on energy used for reheating beef stew. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?start=10&q=beef+stew&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5#d=gs_qabs&u=%23p%3DSj-zvXQpWGkJ", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I worked in a building that was locked 24/7. I started noticing things going missing from the fridge, and the freezer had things that belonged to none of the researchers. I started trying to convince everyone that I thought someone was living in the building. There were private showers in the building, empty offices, it was perfect. No one believes me until we walked around and opened all the empty offices. There it was, a room filled with axe body spray, clothes, a computer, etc. An undergrad had been living in our locked building.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "It was more a situational strangeness. I was at a large conference in a Vienna. Given the size of that conference, the city was full to the brim with my fellow attendees. Everywhere you went you could spot people with blue lanyards around their necks. I shared the hostel room with three others, two of which also attended that conference. (We didn't really speak at first as our schedules were a bit different but I saw their lanyards lying around.) The third one was a regular tourist. One of the two fellow scientists was an man in his forties, a quiet fellow and seemingly pleasant. One evening we started talking before going to sleep. We were sitting on our beds, discussing the struggles of working in academia, me in my PJs, him in his underwear (he had been quite comfortable shuffling around the room like that all week, though not in a creepy way). The next day, I wandered around the conference halls thinking about how I'd feel if I met him again, back in a professional context, and the whole thing felt absolutely comical. I didn't see him again, though, but I still think of him as the Prof-I-Saw-In-Underpants and it brightens my day.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Had to share a room with my PI at a conference. Third night someone took the room next to us and had very enthusiastic, loud, talkative sex. Walls were really thin, and it was like someone was banging on my headboard. Both of us had already gone to bed, and I could tell my PI was pretending to be asleep. Finally it ends and 5 minutes later we hear a knock on our front door. My PI answers and it’s a lady in her 60’s or 70’s in nothing but an open leopard print robe asking if we have any cigarettes. 5 years later and we still haven’t talked about it.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Got bullied for 3 years straight, supervisor knew, confidential advisor knew, everyone knew. After officially transfering to another uni got an email from HR asking me to fill in a satisfaction survey and to include me in their “success stories”", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Had to share a room with my PI at a conference. Third night someone took the room next to us and had very enthusiastic, loud, talkative sex. Walls were really thin, and it was like someone was banging on my headboard. Both of us had already gone to bed, and I could tell my PI was pretending to be asleep. Finally it ends and 5 minutes later we hear a knock on our front door. My PI answers and it’s a lady in her 60’s or 70’s in nothing but an open leopard print robe asking if we have any cigarettes. 5 years later and we still haven’t talked about it.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I did field work on atmospheric samples during my PhD, at and school in Western Canada. I forgot about a sample collection one day and wasn't really dressed for the weather, which was brutally cold and windy. And it wasn't just a quick sample swap, we were calibrating everything that day. I vaguely remember my PI dragging me to the vehicle after I fell and didn't get up. It was about a 45 minute drive and I was only barely coherent by the time we got back to the lab. I've lived with cold winters and outdoor work my entire life to that point, and had never even been close to that happening.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Throw away because people that know me would recognize this list immediately! 1) During my first month as a lab tech a very prominent researcher in a neighboring lab became infected with the BSL2 pathogen they were working with and died within 24 hours. The floor was closed and we were under investigation by multiple agencies and eventually they found there were no systemic issues with safety. Unofficially it's assumed the pathogen entered their body while they took a medication in the lab. Their family visited and we had on campus services eulogies etc. Horrible for everyone in every way. 2) My second lab tech job, the professor \"forgot\" my agreement for employment was 20 months (not 24 months, because I would want to start graduate school after my second summer in the lab) so when I asked for a recommendation letter to apply to grad school he basically said no because he \"only hires people who guarantee two full years in the lab, and if you go to grad school it will only be 20 months\". Multiple post-docs in the lab (who I worked under) had to basically convince him that he was wrong and just didn't remember that he said that \"I seemed so capable that I wouldn't need a lot of training time, so 20 months instead of 24 months isn't a big deal\" when he hired me. Almost didn't get into grad school. 3) My first day as a rotation student in my PhD program there was a bomb threat on campus, while we were in lab meeting. The professor told us not to worry about it, it was probably just someone who didn't want to take their first exam of the semester, and we kept meeting! The entire campus was closed and evacuated, we could see the streets flooding with people from our office window, and no one said anything. As a the new guy I couldn't speak up. Someone's spouse saw it on the news and called/texted them basically demanding they leave. The prof. said \"OK fine\" and that one person left, no one else got up. Lab meeting ended and the professor said we could leave campus if we wanted to. Everyone left. Basically could have gotten blown up because the professor didn't want to obey a bomb threat evacuation order and no one else in the lab would stand up to say we should leave. I didn't join that lab. 4) Two members of this lab divorced their spouse/broke up with significant other to be together and are now married. 4) During one of my rotations one of the graduate students in the lab committed suicide in their home, unrelated to their PhD work. We found out when lab members went to check on them when they didn't show up to the lab. Family visited the lab, on and off campus services. Horrible for everyone. 5) In the lab I ended up joining, the professor got a new prof. job in a different state and moved mid-way during my PhD. 6) The first post-doc lab I joined, which I moved across the country for...the full tenured professor was \"let go\" with absolutely zero reason given to us as to why, which no amount of demanding to the prof, department, and president would reveal (private institution). The whole lab of almost 20 people shut down within 9 months of me joining. 7) Moved across the country again for my current and technically \"second\" post-doc and now there's a global pandemic. TLDR: I. AM. CURSED. People literally are dying or losing their jobs everywhere I go.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "My weirdest experience was being in a locked lab where everyone else was older and more mature than me. Everyone else in lab was doing their own experiments and publishing papers. I had been the target of weird pranks in the lab, and I never suspected anyone in lab. Seriously everyone was mature and had like 10 years on me. Someone stole my phone when it was charging and put it in the chemical hood to charge. That was super creepy. Another time, I came late to my desk at 5 PM. There was only 3 people in lab. I went to the bathroom, and came back 10 minutes later to find someone put old quizzes and exams in my bag. These quizzes were dated 7 months old and belonged to another lab member who was out of the country.... Yet in that 10 minute span that I was gone, someone put prior old quizzes into my bag... I asked the 3 people in lab and they all had no idea. Plus they were all post docs who didn’t need the quizzes. So I was dumbfounded as to why or how the quizzes ended up in my bag in 10 minutes. It was super weird.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Had to share a room with my PI at a conference. Third night someone took the room next to us and had very enthusiastic, loud, talkative sex. Walls were really thin, and it was like someone was banging on my headboard. Both of us had already gone to bed, and I could tell my PI was pretending to be asleep. Finally it ends and 5 minutes later we hear a knock on our front door. My PI answers and it’s a lady in her 60’s or 70’s in nothing but an open leopard print robe asking if we have any cigarettes. 5 years later and we still haven’t talked about it.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "It was the summer while I was writing up and so I had some weird hours. We had shared office spaces where it was a room for 8 people at bench desks with locking desk drawers. The office had a closing/lockable door from our lab and also had several bookshelves that lined the room. 12’ ceilings. Our lab had three total of these offices. Carpeted floors. One day I came in around 10am and people were in a panic in specifically our office. The flat surfaces of the entire room had been covered in... oil? There are 6+ grad students and post docs who couldn’t figure out what happened. We also didn’t know what kind of oil or where it came from, but it was definitely oil and it was definitely on all the flat surfaces. Talking a few hundred mL in total, so not a small amount either. The options for where it came from were the door itself, the air ducts, the sprinkler system and the lights, none of which made sense for the location of the most oil spots, spray pattern or amounts. That office had a locked door in a locked vestibule accessed by a separate key, so there were two locked doors to get into in our office and you could only get in our building/hallway via keycard access at two separate points. Our literal best guess was someone took some sort of oil, put it in a turkey basted or syringe and spun around in a Rollie-chair in the middle of the room while spraying a significant amount of oil everywhere. They were at least nice enough to roll the rest of the chairs out first since they were all clean? Still not likely, but yeah we had everything else ruled out for various reasons. Also, had I left my laptop there that night, it would have been oiled like everything else... and I defended later that summer. So glad I carted that sucker home. Tl;dr: our office got sprayed with oil and there’s no viable explanation for it", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Is academia so competitive now that it's pointless to try if you aren't exceptional/remarkable? People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, you should probably not bother with a mathematics degree & academia, and instead default to engineering & industry instead? I'm wondering how the landscape looks for any and all fields right now, but especially STEM. Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? Do you actually need 1-3 post-doctoral positions to have a chance? Is all of that just hyperbole from bitter people? It reminds me of how some children in europe begin training at 5 years old in these expensive soccer camps, so that they can have a chance of being on a team when they grow up. Is that what it's like now? Are you competing with people like that?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I don't think being exceptional/remarkable is as noteworthy as people make it out to be. Plenty of geniuses can't get a job. Plenty of them quit before they evem graduate Being average and knowing how to play the game (publishing, schmoozing with faculty, getting into tje right subfield, etc) is more important. Work ethic is more important etc", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Is academia so competitive now that it's pointless to try if you aren't exceptional/remarkable? People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, you should probably not bother with a mathematics degree & academia, and instead default to engineering & industry instead? I'm wondering how the landscape looks for any and all fields right now, but especially STEM. Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? Do you actually need 1-3 post-doctoral positions to have a chance? Is all of that just hyperbole from bitter people? It reminds me of how some children in europe begin training at 5 years old in these expensive soccer camps, so that they can have a chance of being on a team when they grow up. Is that what it's like now? Are you competing with people like that?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "My perspective as a fairly new (pre-tenure) EE faculty at a non-R1. 1) Yes, you need post docs unless you're an exceptional applicant in a few select fields (EE, CS). For something like physics or biology, the typical successful applicant will have 2 post docs from very reputable labs. I don't know the details for straight math faculty. 2) Yes, you need to be the best out of a large pool of applicants. In EE, the pool size seems to be about 200. My schools psych and philosophy departments also had about 200 applicants for their searches this year (physics wasn't hiring). However, being the most qualified doesn't just mean highest research output or smartest, it also entails being a good fit both in personality and specific subfield. 3) Math olympiads have nothing to do with research success. Most of our faculty were near the top of their class, but very few were engaged in anything competitive. Really, hiring committees will care very little about undergraduate activity and not at all about anything pre-University. Personally, I'm in EE/BME and I'm not especially good at math. I'm technically competent, but squeaked by in my advanced math courses. I am, however, very good at communicating my ideas, managing projects, and making people feel comfortable and confident. Being smart is less important than working hard and understanding \"the game\" of academia. 4) Many faculty candidates have been aiming for a faculty position since undergrad. Very few really started that path before then. I started targeting a faculty position my 2nd year of undergrad, got my name on a publication that same year and published at least once per year after that. I taught, took a pedagogy course, wrote and won grants, took R&D heavy internships, and built a substantial network of academic collaborations. My faculty job hunt was fairly easy: 3 offers from ~20 applications (I think, it could have been as few as 14 applications). Physics and math will likely be a more difficult hunt no matter what, especially if you want to be at a research intensive university.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Is academia so competitive now that it's pointless to try if you aren't exceptional/remarkable? People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, you should probably not bother with a mathematics degree & academia, and instead default to engineering & industry instead? I'm wondering how the landscape looks for any and all fields right now, but especially STEM. Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? Do you actually need 1-3 post-doctoral positions to have a chance? Is all of that just hyperbole from bitter people? It reminds me of how some children in europe begin training at 5 years old in these expensive soccer camps, so that they can have a chance of being on a team when they grow up. Is that what it's like now? Are you competing with people like that?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I'm not sure I can speak about math here. But as a professor in a social science, I can say with 100% certainty: if you are interested in going into academia in the humanities or social sciences, you absolutely ***must*** be exceptional and even being exceptional is no guarantee of success.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Is academia so competitive now that it's pointless to try if you aren't exceptional/remarkable? People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, you should probably not bother with a mathematics degree & academia, and instead default to engineering & industry instead? I'm wondering how the landscape looks for any and all fields right now, but especially STEM. Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? Do you actually need 1-3 post-doctoral positions to have a chance? Is all of that just hyperbole from bitter people? It reminds me of how some children in europe begin training at 5 years old in these expensive soccer camps, so that they can have a chance of being on a team when they grow up. Is that what it's like now? Are you competing with people like that?", "role": "user" }, { "content": ">People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, Yes, it's very hard to get faculty positions in physics or mathematics, but winning math Olympiads secondary school is not the best predictor of success.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Is academia so competitive now that it's pointless to try if you aren't exceptional/remarkable? People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, you should probably not bother with a mathematics degree & academia, and instead default to engineering & industry instead? I'm wondering how the landscape looks for any and all fields right now, but especially STEM. Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? Do you actually need 1-3 post-doctoral positions to have a chance? Is all of that just hyperbole from bitter people? It reminds me of how some children in europe begin training at 5 years old in these expensive soccer camps, so that they can have a chance of being on a team when they grow up. Is that what it's like now? Are you competing with people like that?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "It depends so much on your discipline. I’m an English professor and, despite what most people think, the job prospects for the field in academia are pretty good - assuming you get your degree in rhetoric and composition. The prospects for literature and creative writing are soul crushingly bad. Anecdotally I don’t know a single creative writing grad who got a full time gig except those who went on to get PhDs in rhet/comp (and that includes me) while, with one exception, the only lit PhDs I know who got full time jobs all got hired at community colleges (and the exception is working at a small liberal arts college). Meanwhile, I’m considered a failure by many of my old colleagues in rhet/comp because I DIDN’T get a tenure track job at a research university (they’re all assholes though. I’m perfectly happy in my job).", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Is academia so competitive now that it's pointless to try if you aren't exceptional/remarkable? People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, you should probably not bother with a mathematics degree & academia, and instead default to engineering & industry instead? I'm wondering how the landscape looks for any and all fields right now, but especially STEM. Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? Do you actually need 1-3 post-doctoral positions to have a chance? Is all of that just hyperbole from bitter people? It reminds me of how some children in europe begin training at 5 years old in these expensive soccer camps, so that they can have a chance of being on a team when they grow up. Is that what it's like now? Are you competing with people like that?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Do you know what works in academia? The ability to publish , which is much more about your ability to write steadily every day than anything.", "role": "assistant" } ]