23 ms·
A colleague of mine told me a story about Roger Schank, whom he knew well. I'd like to think this was apocryphal but I suspect it is not! As soon as Schank's
by SeanLuke 4y ago
A colleague of mine told me a story about Roger Schank, whom he knew well. I'd like to think this was apocryphal but I suspect it is not!
As soon as Schank's PhD students graduated, he would start talking trash about them. The colleague asked Schank why in the world he would do something like this, and the response was that Schank had realized that whenever he bad-mouthed someone, others would come to assume that the person's work had to be impressive. So this was his approach to promote his students and increase their hiring prospects.
- jimbo9991 4y agoThat's hilarious. I guess it does seem that it is probably true that I would be impressed if somebody applying for a job had managed to elicit such great interest by their advisor that said advisor would publicly denounce them, in turn risking their own reputations and careers. At a certain point a bad reference becomes a good one I guess.
- hgsgm 4y agoWhy would you want to hire someone who the leading expert in their work says is wrong?
- toomuchtodo 4y agoCertain decision makers are attracted (in a hiring sense) to contrarians or an underdog. Followers rarely revolutionize an industry (or so I’ve been told the thought process goes). To rely on a leading expert as an appeal to authority might get you blindsided.
- hackernewds 4y agoI'm struggling to grasp this logic still. An incompetent person is more likely to be admonished publicly
- eric-burel 4y agoResearchers logic stops to their research, they are bad at HR
- Dalewyn 4y ago>At a certain point a bad reference becomes a good one I guess. "There is no such thing as bad publicity."
- lordgrenville 4y agoKind of the inverse of the Talmud's rule that the sin of speaking badly about someone also covers praising them excessively, on the theory that this will usually lead to pushback.
- NicoJuicy 4y agoIronically, this would be something that IA would not adapt too, i guess.
- jagrsw 4y agoProbably a bad sign? It's concerning to see young scientists' job prospects being manipulated based on personal relationships rather than merit. This form of tribalism goes against the principles of the academic system. If this behavior is deemed as "pragmatism," it's a sign of a larger issue within the academic community.
- inglor_cz 4y agoThat's not surprising. The academic community has more issues than Reader's Digest. The academia is a small, petty world full of inflated egos and prone to political hysteria, with people eternally locked into zero sum games. When I moved to the private sector, it felt like a breath of fresh air. There, people will "only" try to rip you off, but given that their reputation precedes them, you will orient yourself pretty quickly and stop cooperating with the nasties, unless they are as dominant as Google or Microsoft are. You cannot do this in rigid hierarchies of the academic world.
- bongoman37 4y ago[dead]
- rebolek 4y agowow, it's like academic system is some sort of divine intervention and not people doing people's stuff
- moffkalast 4y ago> the principles of the academic system Lmao. Those being what, signing one's name under as many bullshit papers and articles as physically possible to get tenure and then doing the bare minimum till you retire while your students hate you? Today's academia has no principles left, it's a rat race to the bottom.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- 4y ago