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Author Topic: Metaphor for your career so far?  (Read 1263 times)
goldenapple
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« Reply #30 on: November 06, 2009, 10:11:57 PM »

I'm Walter Matthau in "The Bad News Bears." The only thing is, I haven't found Tatum O'Neil yet.
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der_gadfly
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Ah, to be young and stupid again...


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« Reply #31 on: November 06, 2009, 11:04:58 PM »

Some days you're the windshield - some days you're  the bug...
Some days you eat the bear, some days the bear eats you
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der_gadfly
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« Reply #32 on: November 06, 2009, 11:08:53 PM »

The Kobayashi Maru. In Star Trek, command school cadets are given a test--a battle simulation--they cannot winner no matter what. The point of the exercise is that it is a test of character to determine how you deal with a no win scenario.
It is not so much of a no-win situation, it is more like that in order to survive (aka - a winning outcome), one must order someone to perform a task that will result in certain death. It is a cognate equivalent to the Vulcan adage that "the good of the many outweighs the good of the one" (something along those lines)
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erzuliefreda
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« Reply #33 on: November 07, 2009, 11:39:37 AM »

My relationship to the historical profession is aptly conveyed in song.
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locutus
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« Reply #34 on: November 07, 2009, 04:42:17 PM »

Survivor, Top Chef or some other reality game show. I feel like the contestant who never wins the weekly challenge but never comes in last and somehow ends up in the final 3 despite not seeming that impressive at any given point.

I think that's pretty apt actually.
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thundering_
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« Reply #35 on: November 07, 2009, 04:49:37 PM »

I'm a tugboat amongst ocean liners using me but nonetheless oblivious, and ghost fishing nets catching in my propellers. I chug on.
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civilwarrior
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« Reply #36 on: November 07, 2009, 09:32:25 PM »

Okay, this is WHY we are so tortured in this profession.  Here I am happy with my Kobyashi Maru scenario and then--the CRUELEST of all things happen. I get GREAT news. A job I applied for that is far above my station in life, and I am not exagerating, wants more materials--my to be published book. So right now, I have hope for the dream job. AHHHHH!! Hope kills, despair does not.
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oldassocprof
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Essentialism 4ever


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« Reply #37 on: November 08, 2009, 10:53:36 AM »

Bull Durham  --  pretty good record------ in the minors!  See lotsa Ebbbies get breaks.
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madhatter
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« Reply #38 on: November 08, 2009, 11:55:48 AM »

Okay, this is WHY we are so tortured in this profession.  Here I am happy with my Kobyashi Maru scenario and then--the CRUELEST of all things happen. I get GREAT news. A job I applied for that is far above my station in life, and I am not exagerating, wants more materials--my to be published book. So right now, I have hope for the dream job. AHHHHH!! Hope kills, despair does not.

Your metaphor is apparently Lucy and the football.
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snowbound
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« Reply #39 on: November 08, 2009, 09:06:06 PM »

It's a poker game.  It's all a poker game.  Despite a very late start, I have been lucky.  Got a job, got a book, got tenure a couple of days ago.  I'd like to think that it's because of my superior talent, but it's just not.  I have seen fellow grad students more talented than me getting turned down again and again.  I have a sub-speciality that was in demand the year I finished, the topic of my diss (a very longterm interest of mine) has recently become of some general interest--a big help for publication--while smarter manuscripts get turned down.

It's not a meritocracy.  Well, sure, we've all got to be very smart and very hardworking to get through the whole PhD thing--but after that it's a krap-shoot.
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secretweapon
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« Reply #40 on: November 09, 2009, 01:36:58 PM »

Got a job, got a book, got tenure a couple of days ago. 

Hooray!  Congratulations.
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parispundit
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« Reply #41 on: November 09, 2009, 04:03:55 PM »

Hemingway, of course: "When good Americans die, they go to Paris"
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thundering_
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« Reply #42 on: November 09, 2009, 08:14:15 PM »

It's a poker game.  It's all a poker game. 
And ya done good with the hand what was dealt ya, Snowbound. Congrats and welcome to the high stakes game.
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