I convinced my company to let me attend a conference this week that's mainly attended by academics. I think it can help me in my current work, although I'm also trying to socialize with people from specific schools. It's funny, they're talking to me like I can be their bridge to more funding for their labs, while I'm trying to get out of my current lab. It's weird.
At two talks a few question-askers were kind of rude: challenging the speaker, interrupting, mentioning things that aren't helpful. Grad students are giving these talks. And they're very nervous. The dudes asking the questions have been known for doing this in the past. Talking with a couple other students today we realized that there's a direct correlation of age with asshole-ery as we've come to call it. What about age causes these professors to become dicks? The plot shows the average dickishness (or asshole-ery) over time. The dashed lines show the standard deviation. I added these because someone was going to say, "I know some guy, Dr. Idontcare, and he's so nice." Obviously, there are nice ones, and these nice ones know that the impossible, asshole-ey questions can wait until after the talk to ask.
So, what happens that causes profs to come in at some level of asshole-ery that most the public has and drastically increase over the years? Why do they suddenly drop off as they near retirement? This is not a trend I observe in industry, it's a flat line in my company and it's subsidiaries. The plot was made after drawing this on a napkin with a couple people I went drinking with after scientific sessions were done. I miss this kind of conference socialization! All of my industry comrades go back to their rooms and don't leave after sessions.
EDIT: I got an email saying this post was a little difficult to read. Glancing through this, I agree. But, I originally posted this in my hotel after a long day and night full of drinking. I'm not going to edit it, but just wanted to acknowledge: you're correct, it's not that great. No apologies from me for posting this after having a ton of fun.
EDIT: I got an email saying this post was a little difficult to read. Glancing through this, I agree. But, I originally posted this in my hotel after a long day and night full of drinking. I'm not going to edit it, but just wanted to acknowledge: you're correct, it's not that great. No apologies from me for posting this after having a ton of fun.
My PhD advisor was a notorious jerk in his youth. I started working for him when he was 60, so people say that by then he had started to mellow down, and attributed it to age and becoming a grandpa.
ReplyDeletePeople used to ask me how I survived working with him and I said I loved it, as we always got along well.
He still makes people cry at conferences, so I cannot imagine how he was when he was really an asshole. He pissed off enough people though that he never became a member of the National Academy despite being more than deserving and having been nominated many times. Assholishness is taken against you.
I'd imaging that type of attitude would also hurt the funding prospects of the lab. At this point, assholishness also stifles science.
DeleteThe grandpa theory makes great sense. I wonder if we gave all the assholes a puppy or child during conferences to hold, if they would relax.
I think that most PhDs have over-inflated egos. In industry your observations are because these PhDs have supervisors to keep them in line and make sure the PhDs know they're not invincible. In academia, no one is around to supervise the adviser and keep their egos from getting too blown out of control. This is combined with getting validation that they're the best thing ever since they keep getting grants. Hence the ever-inflating ego and meanness that comes with it. When they hit a certain age, they 're not getting grants anymore, nearing retirement, and playing with grandkids, so they loosen up. My two cents.
ReplyDeleteVery good point. Kind of echos GMP's thoughts at the tail end of the career.
DeleteI never really thought about deflating their egos to keep them less asshole-ey. If only there was a way to do that in academia...
What can be done about this? Nothing. These ivory tower entitled bastards would never survive in the real world. I can't believe you want to join this society.
ReplyDeleteI'm nearly the maximum slope of the curve. Can't wait!
ReplyDeleteI think the error zone should be larger. But only on the higher end. There are no nice 50something profs.
ReplyDeleteSeemed easy to read to me...
ReplyDeleteYep, pluck them out of their "askhole" environment and place them in the real world and see how well they'll do. A bunch of all talkers with zero common sense and enormous ego. Nearly all of them suffered from the Dunning-Kruger effect.
ReplyDelete