At this university, I see stuff posted up about "leadership" all the time. Student leadership conferences, that sort of thing. It kind of bugs me, because when I see such things, I think of an old (and hence not very culturally sensitive) saying, "Too many chiefs, not enough Indians." Leadership opportunities are limited, kind of by definition. Almost all organizations have a pyramid structure, and not everyone can fit at the top of that pyramid.
I would argue that the skills needed to be a great follower are just as important. Good underlings are just as important as the masterminds. Oddjob and Auric Goldfinger in Goldfinger. Darth Maul and the Emperor in Star Wars.
But people rarely talk about what skills make you an exceptional follower. Anticipating needs. Working within limitations. Balancing contradictory directives. Knowing when to take initiative. Meeting deadlines. Giving useful feedback. Not as sexy as a leadership skills, but so valuable.
This post over at Seth Godin's blog echoes this point in some ways.
I've certainly noticed that only takes a couple of students to set the tone in classes I teach. If there are a couple of students who are good listeners, they sort of become your "batteries," and you can play to them and get a little bit of a boost from them when you can see they're engaged and paying attention. Students with the heads on the desk in the back? I'd rather they just didn't come at all. It drags everything down.
31 March 2007
30 March 2007
Bad start
...For my Dees. A thumping at the hands of the Saints! Blast!
On a related note, I loved this article that catches a little bit of the passion that got me actually interested in Aussie Rules when I lived in Melbourne. Remember it the next time you're looking for a pub in southern Australia.
On a related note, I loved this article that catches a little bit of the passion that got me actually interested in Aussie Rules when I lived in Melbourne. Remember it the next time you're looking for a pub in southern Australia.
28 March 2007
Other people’s impressions
I've observed an interesting phenomenon this last week and a half. Several times, people have stuck their heads into my office and said something like, “I know you're really busy with the grant...”
What the heck did people think I was doing before I got the grant? That I was just hanging out in my office, reading the latest copy of FHM? Counting the number of little perforations in the ceiling tiles? Arranging the magnetic poetry tiles above my computer?
You get money, you’re assumed to be busy. Interesting.
What the heck did people think I was doing before I got the grant? That I was just hanging out in my office, reading the latest copy of FHM? Counting the number of little perforations in the ceiling tiles? Arranging the magnetic poetry tiles above my computer?
You get money, you’re assumed to be busy. Interesting.
23 March 2007
Coming up for air for a few seconds
It was not surprising that week kicked my butt. But even when you're expecting it, the soreness is never diminished much.
The week bit at me for three reasons. First, last week was the break, and suddenly there's all the catch-up that has to happen on things I couldn't do because... nobody was around.
Second, I'm spending a lot of time trying to get the new undergrad research program up and running. Meetings, recruiting, talking to interested students, updating the webpage, and just trying to think about all the things that still have to happen for everything to start on cue.
Third, and arguably the biggest, was that I had a writing deadline to meet yesterday. I was co-authoring a book review with my colleague Anita Davelos Baines for Behavioral and Brain Sciences (which was where I'd published one of my first articles as a grad student). Due to the combination of finally receiving word on the grant plus my general lack of willpower and concentration, the review was not as far along in the writing as I was hoping for on Thursday morning. I was going a little nuts inside my office on Thursday, trying to finish this short article -- and people kept knocking on my door! Gah!
It is said that no work of art is ever finished; merely abandoned. While I don't pretend the review was a work of art, I definitely felt it was abandoned rather than finished. I am satisfied with it, although I really wish that I had more time to think about some issues, discuss them with my colleagues, and polish the writing a bit.
It was pushing close to midnight when I emailed the final review. I felt like the stereotypical student, sliding the term paper under the professor's door before midnight. Some habits die hard. Others never die at all.
The week bit at me for three reasons. First, last week was the break, and suddenly there's all the catch-up that has to happen on things I couldn't do because... nobody was around.
Second, I'm spending a lot of time trying to get the new undergrad research program up and running. Meetings, recruiting, talking to interested students, updating the webpage, and just trying to think about all the things that still have to happen for everything to start on cue.
Third, and arguably the biggest, was that I had a writing deadline to meet yesterday. I was co-authoring a book review with my colleague Anita Davelos Baines for Behavioral and Brain Sciences (which was where I'd published one of my first articles as a grad student). Due to the combination of finally receiving word on the grant plus my general lack of willpower and concentration, the review was not as far along in the writing as I was hoping for on Thursday morning. I was going a little nuts inside my office on Thursday, trying to finish this short article -- and people kept knocking on my door! Gah!
It is said that no work of art is ever finished; merely abandoned. While I don't pretend the review was a work of art, I definitely felt it was abandoned rather than finished. I am satisfied with it, although I really wish that I had more time to think about some issues, discuss them with my colleagues, and polish the writing a bit.
It was pushing close to midnight when I emailed the final review. I felt like the stereotypical student, sliding the term paper under the professor's door before midnight. Some habits die hard. Others never die at all.
15 March 2007
10 March 2007
Back from NSF
Unexpected fact: The outside main floor of the National Science Foundation building has a Quiznos and a bagel shop.
Despite the ugly early start for my flight to the NSF, everything went about as smoothly as could be hoped for. I got there about on time. I got to have lunch at Ruby Tuesday (which we don't have locally, but see ads for all the time).
I got my PocketPC successfully set up for NSF wireless internet access – in fact, the staffer who help me told me she had fun doing it, because she'd never tried to set up their wireless system on a Pocket PC before. I got a tiny bit lost, because the initial poster session was not on the room written on my badge, but again, found the starting poster session in time.
The featured speaker at dinner, Elaine Seymour, was very good, very thought provoking. And just to prove that the scientific community is way too small, met someone at dinner and found we had one degree of separation between us: he knew someone in our department, my buddy Fred.
I never sleep well in hotels, particularly the first night, so I wasn't real pleased that the next day started early and went long. But heard quite a few important things, and had no shortage of things to think about. Another keynote speaker, Tyrone Hayes, was awesome. Although he said to me later he is normally a "PowerPoint maniac," he made absolutely the right choice in ditching all that and delivering a fairly personal talk about his experience being a minority in research, and some of his success in mentoring minorities in research.
After the afternoon sessions finished, I just walked around some of the stores in a nearby mall, and ran into a few workshop participants for dinner at the Rock Bottom Brewery. (They'd been told there was a Macaroni Grill in the mall, but it had shut down!), and ended up talking with several of them in the hotel bar for even longer after getting back to the hotel.
It was really a stupidly long day. But in the morning, I was able to find a place with good croissants for breakfast, which I appreciated. It's so hard to find good croissants in southern Texas...
And since getting back, I've been trying to get this undergrad research program up and ready to run. Many meetings, many emails, many things to plan. I'm quickly finding that I have to be thinking about things that are years away, which is not easy for me. So I look forward to receiving the massive wall calendar / planner I asked for.
Despite the ugly early start for my flight to the NSF, everything went about as smoothly as could be hoped for. I got there about on time. I got to have lunch at Ruby Tuesday (which we don't have locally, but see ads for all the time).
I got my PocketPC successfully set up for NSF wireless internet access – in fact, the staffer who help me told me she had fun doing it, because she'd never tried to set up their wireless system on a Pocket PC before. I got a tiny bit lost, because the initial poster session was not on the room written on my badge, but again, found the starting poster session in time.
The featured speaker at dinner, Elaine Seymour, was very good, very thought provoking. And just to prove that the scientific community is way too small, met someone at dinner and found we had one degree of separation between us: he knew someone in our department, my buddy Fred.
I never sleep well in hotels, particularly the first night, so I wasn't real pleased that the next day started early and went long. But heard quite a few important things, and had no shortage of things to think about. Another keynote speaker, Tyrone Hayes, was awesome. Although he said to me later he is normally a "PowerPoint maniac," he made absolutely the right choice in ditching all that and delivering a fairly personal talk about his experience being a minority in research, and some of his success in mentoring minorities in research.
After the afternoon sessions finished, I just walked around some of the stores in a nearby mall, and ran into a few workshop participants for dinner at the Rock Bottom Brewery. (They'd been told there was a Macaroni Grill in the mall, but it had shut down!), and ended up talking with several of them in the hotel bar for even longer after getting back to the hotel.
It was really a stupidly long day. But in the morning, I was able to find a place with good croissants for breakfast, which I appreciated. It's so hard to find good croissants in southern Texas...
And since getting back, I've been trying to get this undergrad research program up and ready to run. Many meetings, many emails, many things to plan. I'm quickly finding that I have to be thinking about things that are years away, which is not easy for me. So I look forward to receiving the massive wall calendar / planner I asked for.
07 March 2007
Finally
Way back in December, I wrote about a project that I couldn't talk about and some of the excitement I felt about it.
Now I can finally talk about what all that was about.
The National Science Foundation gave us a Research Experiences for Undergraduate grant. This is getting funded in portions, but over $156,000 is set and ready. If the funding to the NSF doesn't collapse, we'll get another year and a bit and the total will be over $284,000.
Hooray.
I've been sitting on that since December. Waiting and watching, hoping that the U.S. Congress will pass a good budget for the NSF. Congress was supposed to pass the NSF budget before Christmas, but didn't. They waited until the last possible second, which was the last day the continuing resolution ran out on 15 February. Much was written about this wait in the pages of Science and elsewhere. The delay was so bad that many funding agencies had to scale back planned projects. Reading those articles was highly nerve-wracking.
But in the end, NSF got a bit of a budget increase, fortunately, when many other federal research agencies got no increase. Whew.
And another thing I mentioned cryptically: an upcoming conference? It's actually a workshop for people running NSF sponsored undergraduate research programs. My flight leaves verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry early tomorrow morning.
It's just a relief to go to a conference knowing that I actually have the award. I would have sucked to go to this workshop not knowing if we were getting it or not.
Playlist for the day: Finally by CeCe Peniston, New Man by Sonic Hub, Food For Songs by Del Amitri, and especially Won More Time by God Made Me Funky.
Now I can finally talk about what all that was about.
The National Science Foundation gave us a Research Experiences for Undergraduate grant. This is getting funded in portions, but over $156,000 is set and ready. If the funding to the NSF doesn't collapse, we'll get another year and a bit and the total will be over $284,000.
Hooray.
I've been sitting on that since December. Waiting and watching, hoping that the U.S. Congress will pass a good budget for the NSF. Congress was supposed to pass the NSF budget before Christmas, but didn't. They waited until the last possible second, which was the last day the continuing resolution ran out on 15 February. Much was written about this wait in the pages of Science and elsewhere. The delay was so bad that many funding agencies had to scale back planned projects. Reading those articles was highly nerve-wracking.
But in the end, NSF got a bit of a budget increase, fortunately, when many other federal research agencies got no increase. Whew.
And another thing I mentioned cryptically: an upcoming conference? It's actually a workshop for people running NSF sponsored undergraduate research programs. My flight leaves verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry early tomorrow morning.
It's just a relief to go to a conference knowing that I actually have the award. I would have sucked to go to this workshop not knowing if we were getting it or not.
Playlist for the day: Finally by CeCe Peniston, New Man by Sonic Hub, Food For Songs by Del Amitri, and especially Won More Time by God Made Me Funky.
02 March 2007
26 February 2007
Odd instructions
From a conference I'll be going to in the near future:
“You will be expected to be present to respond to questions from delegates for half of the time during this session.”
Meaning... I can ignore questions from delegates the other half of the time?
“You will be expected to be present to respond to questions from delegates for half of the time during this session.”
Meaning... I can ignore questions from delegates the other half of the time?
22 February 2007
20 February 2007
“... and it's only Tuesday!”
This week is going to be ratty ugly nasty busy. There are two job candidates interviewing for positions today and Thursday. Tomorrow I'm currently slated for four meetings and office hours. Thursday I'm running out the Coastal Studies Lab for some animal collection, and Friday I teach and have Journal Club. Which reminds me... I have to pick a paper for that.
I really do feel like the punchline to the old joke: ”This has been a horrible week, and it’s only Tuesday!”
On the plus side, I was isolated all weekend so I was able to finish reading a book I'll be reviewing for a journal. Now I just have to actually think and write the review.
I really do feel like the punchline to the old joke: ”This has been a horrible week, and it’s only Tuesday!”
On the plus side, I was isolated all weekend so I was able to finish reading a book I'll be reviewing for a journal. Now I just have to actually think and write the review.
16 February 2007
You can learn a lot from a game
“Kill the wounded monster first” is quickly becoming a mantra of mine after reading this post.
Another favourite quote on the subject of games: "You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation." - Plato.
Another favourite quote on the subject of games: "You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation." - Plato.
15 February 2007
Reviews
I feel like much of what I'm doing intellectually this week is just reviewing other people's stuff. I'm reviewing one paper for Journal Club tomorrow. I'm reviewing one paper to help out a local newspaper reporter at The Monitor. I'm reviewing a manuscript for one scientific journal, and reviewing a book for another.
I'm particularly pleased to be reviewing for journals. A lot of my colleagues have been mentioned reviewing articles at one time or another, and I really haven't been asked to do many since I got here. When you're asked to do those sorts of things, it's one of those signs that you're "known" in the field.
So far, I haven't run into the problem that one of my supervisors warned me about. Because editors have trouble finding reviewers who make constructive comments, and get the reviews done on time, once you do a couple of reviews well, you get asked to do a lot of them.
I'm particularly pleased to be reviewing for journals. A lot of my colleagues have been mentioned reviewing articles at one time or another, and I really haven't been asked to do many since I got here. When you're asked to do those sorts of things, it's one of those signs that you're "known" in the field.
So far, I haven't run into the problem that one of my supervisors warned me about. Because editors have trouble finding reviewers who make constructive comments, and get the reviews done on time, once you do a couple of reviews well, you get asked to do a lot of them.
Cephs are fun
Great video footage (scroll down to the bottom) of some squid having a go at bait. Not the lethargic animals they were thought to be, the video shows them zipping around, and flashing lights as they attack. Cool stuff. I really must work with octopuses again one day.
It’s like I’ve been sayin’ for years...
I've been interested in the ethics associated with brain scans for years now, and I've been saying for years that we're on the verge of a revolution that's going to make the use of DNA in courts look like peanuts. My talk last year, "Brain scans and the magic lasso" was about just this point (available on the right hand side of the screen).
The latest findings show that we're getting very close to reading minds. With high accuracy.
A lot of people are worried about this. I prefer to see an upside. I would love it if it worked in part because there would no longer be need to hold "suspected terrorists" without regular legal process. Debates about “washboarding” would end. The television series 24 would have to find new ways of creating dramatic tension. (Don't get me wrong, I enjoy 24, but dislike what it reveals about American thinking about torture.)
I'm considering starting a pool for the date of the first court case that accepts fMRI brain scans as legitimate evidence. Any takers?
The latest findings show that we're getting very close to reading minds. With high accuracy.
A lot of people are worried about this. I prefer to see an upside. I would love it if it worked in part because there would no longer be need to hold "suspected terrorists" without regular legal process. Debates about “washboarding” would end. The television series 24 would have to find new ways of creating dramatic tension. (Don't get me wrong, I enjoy 24, but dislike what it reveals about American thinking about torture.)
I'm considering starting a pool for the date of the first court case that accepts fMRI brain scans as legitimate evidence. Any takers?
07 February 2007
I can stop being obsessed for a while
I just submitted my latest manuscript, a review article, into Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. I'm aiming high on this one, because I'm really happy with how this article turned out.
Apart from the one little typo I found about a minute after submitting the article. In the title. Sigh.
One of the nice features of this submission is that this journal has an entirely electronic submission. That probably saved me an afternoon, if not more, of photocopying, sorting, writing a cover letter, and so on.
The downside is that I've been working so hard to pull this together and finish it, I've been letting quite a few other bits and pieces slide for a week or two. Time to get back to all those other administrative and teaching fiddly bits.
Apart from the one little typo I found about a minute after submitting the article. In the title. Sigh.
One of the nice features of this submission is that this journal has an entirely electronic submission. That probably saved me an afternoon, if not more, of photocopying, sorting, writing a cover letter, and so on.
The downside is that I've been working so hard to pull this together and finish it, I've been letting quite a few other bits and pieces slide for a week or two. Time to get back to all those other administrative and teaching fiddly bits.
Giving good phone
I am constantly amazed by how simple some things are, yet how many people are bad at.
I have voice mail. Anyone who has ever listened to a recorded message has probably realized that what you hear on the phone is not exactly CD quality. Plus, you can't see a person, so you can't see some of the important lip cues that we normally use to help make sense of the sound we're making.
Yet people read off their phone numbers really, really fast. And only once! Yes, I can replay it, but if I can't make it out, I am probably not going to be able to make it out on the rewind.
Also had someone phoning who didn't give their last name... Hm.
The moral of the story is: Say it slow, and say it again!
I have voice mail. Anyone who has ever listened to a recorded message has probably realized that what you hear on the phone is not exactly CD quality. Plus, you can't see a person, so you can't see some of the important lip cues that we normally use to help make sense of the sound we're making.
Yet people read off their phone numbers really, really fast. And only once! Yes, I can replay it, but if I can't make it out, I am probably not going to be able to make it out on the rewind.
Also had someone phoning who didn't give their last name... Hm.
The moral of the story is: Say it slow, and say it again!
04 February 2007
The writing process
I've had my door shut a lot this last week. I've been working on a new paper, and I've been getting increasingly chuffed about how it's coming out. Because as I write it, and have gotten more immersed in it, I've actually been generating a lot more new ideas than usual. And though I say it myself, I think there are a few pretty darned interesting ideas.
It's interesting how the process of articulating something generates new ideas. I think part of the reason why is that in the last week, I have really tried to concentrate a little more on completing this paper. Just forcing myself to have uninterrupted time on something helps, instead of being interrupted every few minutes by various odds and ends, as my days often are.
Most of the good ideas haven't come while sitting in front of the keyboard -- they've come while I've been at home. Even when I'm not actively writing, that I'm spending more time on the process means that the ideas are squirreling around in my head much more than usual.
Even though this paper started off as a relatively mundane summary of stuff I've talked about before, I think it's going to push significantly beyond that. I hope I'll be able to convince and editor and a couple of reviewers of that!
It's interesting how the process of articulating something generates new ideas. I think part of the reason why is that in the last week, I have really tried to concentrate a little more on completing this paper. Just forcing myself to have uninterrupted time on something helps, instead of being interrupted every few minutes by various odds and ends, as my days often are.
Most of the good ideas haven't come while sitting in front of the keyboard -- they've come while I've been at home. Even when I'm not actively writing, that I'm spending more time on the process means that the ideas are squirreling around in my head much more than usual.
Even though this paper started off as a relatively mundane summary of stuff I've talked about before, I think it's going to push significantly beyond that. I hope I'll be able to convince and editor and a couple of reviewers of that!
30 January 2007
What are in da box?
Just checked my mail, and saw a box. But what could be it be? Another textbook being sent by a publisher trying to sway me into adopting a new book for general biology? Ah! No, it's the reprints of my latest paper from Biological Bulletin!
PDFs are convenient, but for a sense of accomplishment, nothing beats the printed page.
The circle nears completion. I will have to send out copies to the people who have requested them. But this particular project can now go to bed, and it's time to push through on my manuscript and get something into an editor's hands again.
29 January 2007
Closing the door and making progress
I've had a good few days. I finally managed to shut my office door over the weekend and this afternoon and make very nice progress on a review article I'm pulling together. I like how it's turning out.
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