10.3.04

I'm undecided about this article. I'm not sure that I'm into the looking-out-for-number-one attitude of the author (he's much politer about it than that, but his ducking of all extra-curricular activities amounts to the same thing), he's in a field where travel isn't necessary for research, so his pride at never holding a research grant is moot, and I've always hated the apples-to-oranges comparison of professions (he sounds so Soviet, "Silly comrade smartypants, stop whining and do something useful! Here, go break up some rocks with your bare hands."), but he is right about one thing: less time spent with colleagues = happier me. This idea could also be paraphrased as: the less your identity is defined by your job, the happier you'll be. I thought that this was just a phase or nostalgia for Montréal, but it just might be the foundation of a personal philosophy.

And yes, I know that my decision to compare him to some Soviet apparatchik is loaded, but allow me to repeat a sentiment from the first paragraph: I really hate it when people compare professions. Everyone has to do something and everything has to be done. There isn't one ideal, more-valid-than-others job out there that allows its practitioners to complain more than others. -Zh.

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