Ribh's D'Coopage

[MaryJanet]

So sad ~ & so true. Unfortunately I find a lot of acadamia pompous & so exquisitely funny ~ a tendency I have to curb while amongst them.

Don't do that, make jokes! They'll love you for it!

 

[Shadrach]

So sad ~ & so true. Unfortunately I find a lot of acadamia pompous & so exquisitely funny ~ a tendency I have to curb while amongst them.

They just annoy me.
I've got a couple in my family. Completely useless.

 

[Ribh]

The thing about undertaking the very long journey to highly specialised knowledge creation that contributes to humanity, is that you end up with very few people to talk to about it. And you end up in very high demand with a bananas schedule, decision fatigue, communication fatigue, and no time for taking up practical skills.

That's a great way of looking @ it. And you are so right about no~one to talk to about stuff ~ even @ the lower levels. No~one outside the subject area is interested, nor do most understand. It is very isolating.

 

[Shadrach]

The thing about undertaking the very long journey to highly specialised knowledge creation that contributes to humanity, is that you end up with very few people to talk to about it. And you end up in very high demand with a bananas schedule, decision fatigue, communication fatigue, and no time for taking up practical skills.

Hmmm. My lot are not in high demand. They just don't know how to manage time for one thing and rather than people giving them a slap, they put up with their ignorance.

 

[Ribh]

Don't do that, make jokes! They'll love you for it!

You may be right. My archaeology tut is mostly oldies. There's 1 or 2 in their 20s'/30s' but after that it's 50s, 60,s, 70s ~ maybe even an 80 yr old~ so our sense of humour tends to be rather dry & caustic & we can't take ourselves overly seriously. The lecturer, trying to break down all our careful reserve, asked where a specific resin had come from & the 80 yr old dry wit said, with great seriousness, A tree. Because we are older we can be terribly literal when asked a question. Too long out of the educational system. When asked how we knew about the Uluburu shipwreck I said, because it's all there @ the bottom of the ocean ~ which was quite true but not quite what he was after. He must find teaching a terrible drag in order to pay the bills. He mostly works on digs in the Middle East in the area of metallurgy ~ which is mind blowing. Terribly clever & he gets stuck with us!

 

[Shadrach]

The topic is on my mind currently. One of my brothers is a history professor. I have a friend who is a physics professor. There is no spare capacity it seems in my brothers brain. He is quite capable of setting off for somewhere where the journey would take a normal person a couple of hours and taking a day and night to get there. His university now sends him out with a student because anything outside his area of expertise has been jetisoned to make room for whatever project he's on a the time. Essentially he's a child and can't be trusted.
My physics professor friend is rather different. He is still learning and picks things up really quickly. He appreciates that the universe does not revolve around him and is punctual, eloquent and knowledgeable on a number of subjects.
My brother will tell you about how much pressure he is under to do this or that. He has no idea what pressure means.
My friend who now works in the private sector is under pressure and copes.

 

[GregnLety]

They just annoy me.
I've got a couple in my family. Completely useless.

Shad, that sounds like a lot of engineers I know.

 

[RoyalChick]

I'm not sure that's true anymore, Bob, in the sense employers don't buy it. So many grads can't apply knowledge in practical ways. I had a lovely proff when I was doing my BA but he couldn't change a car tire.

I'm not sure I have made a mistake, Bob. So frustrating. Archaeology, which I'm constantly drawn to, has been moving into the hard sciences for some time. I can't go there. I'm still considering a double. I'm considering dropping back to part time next year as I'm barely coping with the workload ~ which is an age thing. What I'd love to do is forget the degree & just take a bunch of subjects that interest me but sadly that's not on. I could change completely to English, but I have an aversion to some of the greats in literature: Dickens & Hardy are just completely depressing. I could change to archaeology, which I have enjoyed however crazy making it has been.

You're quite right RC. Every time archaeology moves into the sciences I loose it. You should have heard my explanation on how we can determine where an organic material originated! I understood the gist but don't have the scientific language to explain it without sounding completely insane! On the other hand, there is social archaeology & theoretical archaeology & that's where you get into hippo teeth & ostrich eggs & green eyeshadow on Neolithic people. It moves into things like folk museums which are about trying to reconstruct things from what we know to see if & how they worked. I could wallow there happily & indefinitely. What I actually need to do is talk to the archaeology year co~ordinator but while lovely he's male & I'm having difficulties in that area just now. Our mental health system is in crisis thanks to covid & the therapist I was seeing for the PTSD has had a medical emergency & there are, quite literally, no openings anywhere with another. One way or another time alone will sort it all out.

 

[Ribh]

The topic is on my mind currently. One of my brothers is a history professor. I have a friend who is a physics professor. There is no spare capacity it seems in my brothers brain. He is quite capable of setting off for somewhere where the journey would take a normal person a couple of hours and taking a day and night to get there. His university now sends him out with a student because anything outside his area of expertise has been jetisoned to make room for whatever project he's on a the time. Essentially he's a child and can't be trusted.
My physics professor friend is rather different. He is still learning and picks things up really quickly. He appreciates that the universe does not revolve around him and is punctual, eloquent and knowledgeable on a number of subjects.
My brother will tell you about how much pressure he is under to do this or that. He has no idea what pressure means.
My friend who now works in the private sector is under pressure and copes.

I should probably enjoy discussing history with him ~ but I'd hate to work with him!

 

[BY Bob]

The thing about undertaking the very long journey to highly specialised knowledge creation that contributes to humanity, is that you end up with very few people to talk to about it. And you end up in very high demand with a bananas schedule, decision fatigue, communication fatigue, and no time for taking up practical skills.

This sounds like the voice of experience.