(1) On doing important work (especially math) in the shower — absolutely. Very few, if any, of my best ideas have come about while ‘working’ behind a desk. It’s impossible to quantify how many hours per week we work because of this.
(2) My students are entirely unaware that the majority of my time is spent on research. I don’t blame them! I don’t think I ever really considered what my professors did outside of lecture until I started doing research myself later in my time as an undergraduate.
This is a good piece, and as someone directly impacted by the same slash and burn at USAID, it's clear that's all this administration wants to do. However, I was surprised by this claim: "But work only becomes tendentious when the political agenda dictates the results, in defiance of accepted standards of evidence and analysis. This happens, yes. It has happened more in recent years." Do you have further reading on this/do you consider this to be a a problem across the political spectrum or appearing more in certain ideologies?
I don't think most taxpayers really care "what academic work consists of." They care if they're getting value for their tax dollars.
Thank you for the article. Two relatable points:
(1) On doing important work (especially math) in the shower — absolutely. Very few, if any, of my best ideas have come about while ‘working’ behind a desk. It’s impossible to quantify how many hours per week we work because of this.
(2) My students are entirely unaware that the majority of my time is spent on research. I don’t blame them! I don’t think I ever really considered what my professors did outside of lecture until I started doing research myself later in my time as an undergraduate.
This is a good piece, and as someone directly impacted by the same slash and burn at USAID, it's clear that's all this administration wants to do. However, I was surprised by this claim: "But work only becomes tendentious when the political agenda dictates the results, in defiance of accepted standards of evidence and analysis. This happens, yes. It has happened more in recent years." Do you have further reading on this/do you consider this to be a a problem across the political spectrum or appearing more in certain ideologies?