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[sciencephd]

Reputation prohibits reputation in an executive. How will the collapsed anthology purge the preview? The pressed cricket returns reputation. How can a guided distress gladden reputation?   The pointer complains about reputation with a scarce rhythm. Reputation renders the matrix on top of a directing glue. Reputation graphs the pragmatic academic. Above the ghastly terminator sighs the tested scholar.

Outrage !  Conspiracy !   Penguins !

[msparticularity]

But you don't seem to have changed your mind at all. Even on the previous page you've suggested that academia is corrupted. If you have changed your mind, then affirm the following:

"For the major part, academia works very well. However, there are a very small number of troublesome individuals working within it."

And then nobody's going to discuss with you anymore.

Or, to suggest a slight reframe: "Academia functions in an evolutionary manner. That is, there are ideas and individuals in it that exist along a continuum of 'fitness.' Over time, selective pressure (much of it in the form of peer review and professionalization) functions to preserve and propogate the 'fit' and to marginalize or eliminate the "unfit.'"

[european]

Reputation prohibits reputation in an executive. How will the collapsed anthology purge the preview? The pressed cricket returns reputation. How can a guided distress gladden reputation?   The pointer complains about reputation with a scarce rhythm. Reputation renders the matrix on top of a directing glue. Reputation graphs the pragmatic academic. Above the ghastly terminator sighs the tested scholar.

Outrage !  Conspiracy !   Penguins !

You had me laughing out loud, there.

[symbolicsorcery]

But you don't seem to have changed your mind at all. Even on the previous page you've suggested that academia is corrupted. If you have changed your mind, then affirm the following:

"For the major part, academia works very well. However, there are a very small number of troublesome individuals working within it."

And then nobody's going to discuss with you anymore.

For the most part, academia USED to work well.  Then a small minority of troublesome individuals working within it discovered they had no real ideas.  These individuals claimed to have good ideas merely because they had a PhD and not because they had good ideas.  This caught the attention of others who did have good ideas, but were not getting recognized for them.  Soon everyone realized that the name of the game is that you have good ideas because of your reputation, and not that you have a good reputation because of your ideas.

Soon every student entering the academic life realized that this is the operating mode of the profession.  Eventually the people who care only about good ideas leave academia and pursue other means of getting their ideas out.

If things continue on this path, then we're likely to see a new type of institution for the discovery of truth and knowledge.

Basically, I'm trying to address a problem I see with academia in hopes that it can be repaired before it's too late.

[european]

Ah, so now it's a majority of academics again?

Just to keep track, could you please indicate at the top of each of your posts whether that post will assume that a majority of academics are corrupt, or a minority?

[sciencephd]

For the most part, academia USED to work well.  Then a small minority of troublesome individuals working within it discovered they had no real ideas.  These individuals claimed to have good ideas merely because they had a PhD and not because they had good ideas.  This caught the attention of others who did have good ideas, but were not getting recognized for them.  Soon everyone realized that the name of the game is that you have good ideas because of your reputation, and not that you have a good reputation because of your ideas.

Soon every student entering the academic life realized that this is the operating mode of the profession.  Eventually the people who care only about good ideas leave academia and pursue other means of getting their ideas out.

If things continue on this path, then we're likely to see a new type of institution for the discovery of truth and knowledge.

Basically, I'm trying to address a problem I see with academia in hopes that it can be repaired before it's too late.

OK, you're even nuttier than I originally thought !

[symbolicsorcery]

It looks like we've reached the end of any sort of meaningful discussion.

Keep quibbling over the minor details and ignore the overarching metaphors.

Please just stop and think for a minute: do you guys care so much about your reputation that your creative work is likely to suffering?

That's all I have left.  Thanks for your opinions, I now understand just how difficult it is to get people to examine the unexamined.

[sciencephd]

GCF !

[european]

Please just stop and think for a minute: do you guys care so much about your reputation that your creative work is likely to suffering?

Nope. Interesting question, though!

[sciencephd]

Please just stop and think for a minute: do you guys care so much about your reputation that your creative work is likely to suffering?

It's my continued quest for the hottest students that has the biggest effect on my creative work.

[untenured]

At least a dozen academics who have posted in this thread have strongly disagreed with your assessment of academic life.  Is it perhaps possible that a single former graduate student just might have an inaccurate view when compared to the perceptions of so many experienced professors?

Gee, I wrote this perty little parable.  Nobody cared?  Noone? *pout*

Untenured

[kedves]

Gee, I wrote this perty little parable.  Nobody cared?  Noone? *pout*

Untenured

It was HOF'd within seconds.  You are among the Pure and Truthful, however small their Number.

[scheherazade]

I think the OP missed his/her true calling.  Working on the X-Files would have been perfect.  The Truth Is Out There, you know.

[polly_mer]

Please just stop and think for a minute: do you guys care so much about your reputation that your creative work is likely to suffering?

Again, you've set up a false dichotomy.  My creative work is how I build my reputation.  I go to conferences to tell people about the exciting, new work that I have done.  I publish papers because I want to share the work I have done.  People ask me to come speak because I have done interesting valuable work.  People request reprints and preprints of my papers because they find my work useful.

Very few academics can maintain a reputation with other academics without doing and publishing good work.  While I admit that some actions were taken specifically to raise the profile of my work, it's the work that supports my reputation, not the other way around.

Oh, and for the record, people outside of academia often care about what's happening in academia because they do value the basic research and education that we provide for the world.  More than a third of the attendees at the national conference that I attend most frequently are nonacademics, who want a chance to talk to those of us with the time and energy to spend on pure research instead of market-driven tinkering.

[dolljepopp]

[...]

Do you value your acadmic reputation more than your ideas or your students?

[...]

Meh. I don't give a rat's ass about any of the three. I'm just in it for the money.