Blogs

I have now completed the last actual class of my degree. I have one Special Studies course to complete this Spring (Jane Austen and Adaptation, woo!) and then I graduate. And while I’m not yet breathing a sigh of relief and soliciting congratulations, I feel that I’m now in a position to reflect back over the course of this program a little, particularly at how I’ve experienced the dual-role I currently straddle.

Salaries, inequity, transparency. And I work too hard.

What electronics do you travel with? Do you bring different digital devices to conferences vs. vacations? How has your device strategy changed as our screens have proliferated, and the era of constant connectivity has emerged?

Check out the newest episode over at podcast.gradhacker.org! Alex and Andrea interview Ethan Watrall and Amanda French to discuss THATCamp; what is it and why should grad students care? The hosts then discuss a number of Gradhacker stories.

Disney princesses got the boot from my seven-year-old last fall. It wasn’t long after she found she could read her giant pink Disney princess book all by herself that she declared it was stupid. “None of them wear pants,” she exclaimed. “Except Jasmine and Mulan. They’re OK.” Note to self: the princess phase only lasted a few years with no major repercussions, at least as far as I can tell. I’m glad I ignored every instinct to fight it and let her be. It was fun and no harm done (at least I hope not).

Last week I wrote about my day, as part of the larger #dayofhighered project of documenting what we academics do. When I left off, I still had about four hours of work to do, and I figured I’d be able to do it in the evening, after dinner.

Peter H. Diamandis, co-author of Abundance and co-founder of Singularity University, thinks that our brains are not wired to understand exponential change. We have evolved to think arithmetically rather than exponentially, and therefore have a hard time wrapping our heads around the implications of Moore's law type performance/cost improvements of digital technologies.

Twitter has been the catalyst for so many of my professional connections. The platform's simplicity belies its complexity. If you've never tried it, you won't easily get it. Having said that, a consistent occurrence takes place almost every time after I post something on this blog. A friend, colleague, or acquaintance will send me a direct message (Twitter's version of private messaging) with advice on what I should have written.