After my PhD, I got into industry ASAP. I was tired with the nitwits you have to deal with in academia, the need to salami up 1 good piece of work into 5 -10 papers to up your publication count, and the paperwork. The actual research and teaching I liked a lot, but couldn't put up with the rest of it.

The 'peer review' aspect by people I had no respect for was also unacceptable... Lol, I think I may have been a little Sheldon back then...

You have no peer, diebitter! You're like Al Bundy that way.

Exactly!

My job is mostly working with other scientists, majority academics but some industry, to make effective use of our products, so teaching is still the name of the game, and people come to me with new and exciting research problems every day. And I still get to publish! With any luck, I'll have my name on a paper in a top journal from work we did with a collaborator who wanted to push our products in a new direction and who uncovered some awesome biology by doing so. I don't really envy the folks in R&D, though. They're kinda stuck grinding away in secrecy, unable to talk to anyone about what they're doing until long after it's done and they're on to something new.

I'm now in Austin. It is so hot. wow.

You didn't expect it to be cold did you.

diebitter,
I didn't find that attitude towards papers where I've been. Maybe it's less prevalent in Mathematics.

Wookie, that job sounds pretty cool.

I can't believe the stories my GF tells about all of the departmental politicking and drama and craziness and just general azzholery she has to deal with

I can, Dom. You wouldn't have believed what my department was like before I became chair, and it only took a handful of people to make it crazy. Fortunately, things are much better now.

That may all change in a few days, though. Will keep you posted.

Much to this. The publishing is big in most departments along with bringing in research money. But will add that in private industry you also run into nitwits and *******s and some fairly great people and everything between. I was personally fed up with academia after my Masters and although was twice urged to continue for a PhD I opted out. Other private matters also interfered with continuing.

Anyway, I spent well over 25 years in private industry as a consultant and did very well and had many interesting clients and worked, in the main, with scientists and technicians and other interesting people. Got to travel a great deal and did a stint in Taiwan for a bit. And I even worked with a few people like English majors and editors that always seemed too critical of my adventuresome use of comas, dashes, and would bang me over the head with some arcane rule out of the middle ages. "On this page the margin needs to be one inch, except the bottom which is .75 inch. On page iv the margins are 1 inch all round. " Tables have to have titles in this manner and illustrations and maps in this form and photos have to be labeled this way and so on. They made producing reports and documents a true headache. And then there are the lawyers..............Shakespeare, as we all know, was right on that one.

Nits.

Piss off.


Wookie's job sounds great and a good combination.

This can also be true in general private industry or other businesses. It does however seem exacerbated in academia. Egos and politics and backbiting compounded by tremendous pressures in most departments lend to people being their worst.

Oh, even I have my twits to deal with. Twittiest is a dysfunctional company where no one talks with one another and only one guy at the bottom of the chain of command can follow our instructions at all.

I will let you know in a couple days how bad or good things can get. Dropping a little bit of a bomb on the department tomorrow.

Literally or figuratively?

Go with the crop duster instead of the straight bomb drop.

Took a trip to Cincinnati for Mom's 80th BDay party. Cake and ice cream were eaten. Met multiple relatives I hardly know. Most were pretty cool. Only about a third are nuts. Sadly, I failed to consume chili dogs. Haven't seen that much rain in a decade.

No Seagulls were spotted. Much too wily and elusive for this guy.
GL in Austin dL. My favorite guitar player is from around there.
Dom sporting a touch of grey?

Not sure if you ever seen the movie "The Hottest State." The title is a double entendre, meaning young and new love and... the weather in Texas.

I don't understand how anyone can get to the weight people are down here. For one, I can't see why anyone would want to make themselves hotter, and two, I can't even eat. I just left a restaurant and I barely at 1/4 of the food I was given.

I also found the ice skating rink. It is better than no place at all, but I can't imagine a worse place to go ice skating. The ice is hard as a rock and they closed off 1/3 of the rink for classes.

The best rink I've been to so far was the one in SF. I will say that the quality of ice skater is like this: LA >>>> SF >> Austin. Not saying Austin can't skate; they aren't terrible, but the "best" skaters are about equal to just past beginner in LA.

The people here are very different. People walk around with measuring sticks, appearing to size you and up and measure who you are. They are much more polite than L.A. people in one way, but more... closed off?

No one is staring at their phones all day here. People just stand there, sit there, and try to live life. I didn't quite understand this at first, but I'm noticing many people still have dumb phones. Kind of unusual, but quite refreshing to see humans and not robots.

Service is all done with an apology. I've heard "sorry about X" more times than I can count out here. One person said "Sorry," and I asked "Sorry for what?" No answer. Is this just a thing?

I should point out the obvious. Everyone has a funny accent. I suppose I'm the one with the funny accent now. I want to ask if I sound funny, but that may come across offensive.

I'm staying in South Austin, which is nice except for the fact that I've spent half my time in North Austin. I like South better since it is more heterogeneous.

And of course, it is so green here. Just a beautiful area and place to be in. No matter where I am or where I look, I see a huge swath of green leafy trees. I'd say it is more beautiful than SF only because SF's beauty is clobbered with overbuilding.

Maybe a bit of both. I accepted a position as interim dean of the division. So far, I am not getting much grumbling about my choice to take my place as chair, but I expect most displeasure won't be expressed directly.

Dean Cole! It's got a ring to it.

Congratulations, John Cole! You might wanna think about putting some of the troublesome profs on double secret probation, ala Dean Wormer.

This explains everything. For a while, I have had the feeling I've been on double secret probation.

For any interested and who do not follow in the outdoor thread.
Got my whitetail buck back from the taxidermist last weekend. He is beautiful.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...&postcount=614

I'm sure Bambi's dad was an absentee a-hole, even if he is pretty.

I think you should have a small shelf underneath where you could put deer jerky. So any visitor who admires him can also have a taste?
Is that wrong?

LOL, I never thought about a shelf with jerky but not a terrible idea. The only issue would be the jerky for a given deer is so good it is gone very quickly. So, shelf would become un-needed