Ansuz

Bad enough to qualify

Today is the Queen's Plate, a horse race here in Toronto that is considered a big enough deal to be reported in the general news media, and it had me thinking about a peculiarity of horse racing: the qualifications to enter a race are usually backward compared to human sports. Whereas human athletes need to be good enough to qualify for an event, horses need to be not too good.

Scarcity, abundance, and lost careers

How should institutions make hiring and promotion decisions, in theory? How do institutions make such decisions, in actual practice? What happens, and what should happen, when someone's career is interrupted? Is it possible to restore an interrupted career, and should that be done? What happens to institutions when society overproduces, or underproduces, elite individuals? This article looks at ways to understand these questions, starting from an historical episode.

The bridge across Avon Gorge

The question has come up of building a bridge across the Avon Gorge. Davies, who manages the funds, says the project must be abandoned because it is technically impossible. Isambard, the engineer, says it can be done.

Take it to Zdrabko

Many years ago, when I was less than half my current age, I worked at a software company where they had a unique engineering process I haven't seen anywhere else. It was called something like "taking it to Strafco"; it wasn't a written-down process and when I first heard about it I wasn't sure of the spelling, but that was what it sounded like.

A palindrome

From roughly 1999, when I completed a Bachelor's degree and started a Master's, until 2016, when I left academia at the postdoctoral research level, I regularly received solicitations from recruiters trying to interest me in work in the computing industry. I generally ignored and rejected these solicitations - mostly because I wanted an academic career instead, and also partly because the recruiters steadfastly refused to use ever email as a first-class communications medium, instead trying to "set up a phone call" for any substantive communication. More about the telephone thing another time.

For now, the point I'd like to highlight is that as soon as I left the academic path and updated my LinkedIn profile to say I no longer worked at a university, I stopped hearing from these people. My qualifications are the same or better now; it would seem (since I now have some business experience, and I'm no longer committed to research as a career) that I might be a better prospect, with more freedom and possible interest to listen to what they have to say; but the solicitations have just dried up. It's almost like they only want the one that they can't get.

Eight of Cups

Summer 2019 marks eleven years since I completed my PhD, and three since I decided to stop looking for an academic job. I want to write about that but it's hard to do so. I've written and thrown away many drafts of comments on my own experience, what was promised, what I found instead, and where I stand now.

Walking the Earth

Vincent: So if you're quitting the life, what'll you do?

Jules: That's what I've been sitting here contemplating. First, I'm gonna deliver this case to Marsellus. Then, basically, I'm gonna walk the earth.

- Pulp Fiction

Next steps

My contract with the IT University of Copenhagen ends at the end of August, and I'll be returning to Canada around the end of September.

Don't plagiarize your cover letters!

The text below pretty much speaks for itself. Bold highlighting and numbered footnotes in [square brackets] are mine; all the rest is as I received it. Some irregularities of spacing and punctuation, visible in the original email, aren't obvious in the HTML. Names of the students are redacted because (after finding several more copies on the Web) I imagine the students are relatively innocent victims of bad advice. Name of the institution not redacted because I hope others who receive such letters and look for them on the Web will be able to easily find this posting.