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0 pointsjessriedel13y ago0 comments

Academics have been driven largely by hubris since time immemorial. It's a mistake to think that this conflicts in principle with a passion for the subject (all though in can in practice, of course). If you get rid of all the academics who made you nauseous with self-promotion, you'd pretty much just be left with Erdős and some teachers.

Incidentally, for those who haven't read it, pg's analysis of the incredible technology of the Segway being completely trumped by human fashion is great: http://www.paulgraham.com/segway.html

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7 comments · 2 top-level

javert13y ago· 5 in thread

As a graduate student, I can tell you, what you are saying is just plain untrue.

Surprisingly many professors I know seem to be genuinely motivated by what they see as a service to society. Typically, more through teaching than research.

Yes, there are a few big jerks who are clearly driven by wanting to show off.

shardling13y ago

Hmm, I wonder if maybe there's some correlation between academics the poster has heard of, and those that self-promote? :)

jessriedelOP13y ago

As a post-doc, I think you're deluding yourself or they're fooling you :)

javert13y ago

Becoming an academic in CS for the sake of showing off would be an extremely dumb move. You get paid less than your students after just a few years, and nobody knows about you except some small clique of international researchers.

I do know of one or two in my area who seem this way, and I think they're very shallow people. And I know of some profs who are just kind of slackers. Maybe they though academia was something different than what it turned out to be.

But most profs are smart enough to know what kind of life it is going in. (A modicum of intelligence and societal savvy are required to get the job.)

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lutusp13y ago

> As a graduate student ...

Implying an educated person.

> ... I can tell you, what your [sic] saying is just plain untrue.

Did that education include English literacy? s/your/you're/

javert13y ago

> Implying an educated person.

I'm actually far more literate than most of my colleagues. Making this mistake honestly makes me want to harm myself.

archangel_one13y ago

I'm not saying that self-promotion is entirely and absolutely bad. Just that the post I replied to seemed to think that Mann was the be-all and end-all of the field, and I'm not sure how much that was based off his own propaganda.

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