111–120 of 215 posts
Stack ranking is a downward spiral.
I work in industry, but the key to getting stuff done in a hierarchical organization is tact . I think he is a poor politician, and is clearly very unhappy about being denied tenure. I think putting out feelers and going about a new job more quietly would be more effective. Hypothetically, let's say you (the person reading this comment) want to make a big change in your organization. You identified a problem, and hon…
I don't know and can't speak to the merits of this guy's research, but it distresses me to see so many people here taking him to task merely for daring to publicly voice criticisms of his employer. Not just advising him "This may be tactically suboptimal...", but apparently actually mad at him for saying such things! Are we not to be allowed, as human beings, to speak for ourselves? Are we to always be in our employe…
For the most part the less sympathetic comments I've seen are extrapolating that there may have been issues with maturity, professionalism, self-awareness, "reading the room", etc. Of course those comments also come from people extrapolating about what really happened based on the account of one person.
The truth is unknowable to almost everyone here, so all people can do is compare what was written to their own experiences. I don't think you're any more right or wrong than anyone else here, but I think your interpretation is based on a different reading of the situation altogether, rather than everyone reading it the same way but having different notions of what was just or unjust about what happened.
I work in industry, but the key to getting stuff done in a hierarchical organization is tact . I think he is a poor politician, and is clearly very unhappy about being denied tenure. I think putting out feelers and going about a new job more quietly would be more effective. Hypothetically, let's say you (the person reading this comment) want to make a big change in your organization. You identified a problem, and hon…
" I think he is a poor politician, and is clearly very unhappy about being denied tenure." Paul Graham, Why Nerds are Unpopular: http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Another part of the argument is that the security of tenure somewhat offsets the low salaries of academia relative to industry.
Sort of. Depends on what you mean "low". I know salaries in that field can be skewed by large salaries from tech companies, but tenured professors at UB tend to make at least $100k, which is a very good salary in areas such as western NY. "Superstars" can make around $250k. As a side note, since UB is a state school, salaries are public information[0]. He was making over $100k, even before tenure. [0] http://seethrou…
A $250k salary in Austin is supposedly equivalent to a $450k salary in San Francisco[5].
[1] https://salaries.texastribune.org/university-of-texas-at-aus...
[2] https://salaries.texastribune.org/texas-am-university/
[3] https://salaries.texastribune.org/university-of-texas-at-aus...
[4] https://salaries.texastribune.org/texas-am-university/depart...
[5] https://www.nerdwallet.com/cost-of-living-calculator/compare...
I don't know and can't speak to the merits of this guy's research, but it distresses me to see so many people here taking him to task merely for daring to publicly voice criticisms of his employer. Not just advising him "This may be tactically suboptimal...", but apparently actually mad at him for saying such things! Are we not to be allowed, as human beings, to speak for ourselves? Are we to always be in our employe…
Since hardly anyone has firsthand knowledge of what happened, everyone is extrapolating (it's all anyone can do really). You are extrapolating that this is a case where individuality is getting crushed by The System and this guy's only crime was speaking the truth and not conforming to this or that soul crushing norm of professional life. For the most part the less sympathetic comments I've seen are extrapolating tha…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree with this. But research isn't everything. And there are at least some hints and signs that this person doesn't know how to get along with colleagues. > I worked really hard to bring an exciting and rigorous operating systems class to UB. Why did this effort require working "really hard"? Was it because of obstructionist, jealous, or stupid colleagues? Or people who wanted a boring and unrigourous course inste…
> people who disagree with me [...] aren't doing so out of spite, stupidity, or carelessness, they often just have different priorities than I do This is an interesting perspective that I'd like to try. Thanks for sharing.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd agree that the way to appeal to management is to build relationships & grassroots support in the organization. But the way to appeal to the market (which seems to be his current situation now, since he seems to be looking for a new job) is to make a big splash, take credit for all the things you've done, define yourself in terms of what you'd most like to do, and then wait for the calls to come in. The difference…
This also explains how Trump increased republican primary turnout while upsetting republicans. It's not that there are more trumpists than traditional republicans (the general election is proving that). It's that just that Trump did have plenty of support from outside the party that he could pull into the primary.
The vast majority of Trump voters are “traditional Republican” voters, at least in general elections. Many were folks who usually only turned out to vote in the general election, but not in the primary. In other words, they were expanding the pool of Republican primary voters, but not significantly expanding the pool of general election Republicans from “outise the party”.
I know this is a rough situation, but perhaps there are real merits to the decision that I wish we could've seen discussed in the post. For example, I went ahead and watched a few of the videos from his internet course and very quickly grokked what kind of professor he might be. On an industry level, yeah he's right. These things are happening throughout academia in departments everywhere. Tenure is a poorly designed…
Why is Tenure still a thing? It's basically a lifetime employment contract. It seems the only argument for tenure is academic freedom.. a tenured professor can pursue an avenue of research without fear of reprisal for it being controversial or not yielding results (though really, even experiments that 'fail' actually serve to prove that it's not the way to go). It seems to be me like this is a problem that can be sol…
(That came out like it's a bad thing, but it's not.)