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.
