9 ms·

Academic politics is something else. I thought for awhile those guys got lucky and skip office politics. Then I realize that PhD level IQs + pressure to get i

by urthor 3y ago

Academic politics is something else. I thought for awhile those guys got lucky and skip office politics. Then I realize that PhD level IQs + pressure to get into the fancy journals means that the politics is 古典小說 tier.

daniel-s 3y ago
The Chinese translates to, "classical novels," according to Google.
- ovi256 3y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_Chinese_Novels https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_Chinese_Novels They're about court life and conflict, so of course they're full of court politics and intrigue
  - seabass-labrax 3y ago
    I'm really intrigued, but I can't read Chinese (yet!) - would you be able to tell me in which person these are written?
    - VHRanger 3y ago
      As an anglophone, I really enjoyed the Water Margin podcast [1] which is a tranlastion of one of the great classics in full length, and with appropriate explanations for contemporarty cultural context. 1. http://www.outlawsofthemarsh.com/ http://www.outlawsofthemarsh.com/
- thrdbndndn 3y ago
  I'm a native Chinese speaker but I have no idea what OP means by "古典小說 tier".
  - dogben 3y ago
    武侠小说 may be more appropriate.
  - birdyrooster 3y ago
    Maybe it’s not Chinese but uses Chinese characters. Not all Latin character use is English.
    - thrdbndndn 3y ago
      It is. I know what 古典小說 is (others have already said, "classic novels"). I just don't know what "古典小說 tier" means since I don't remembered they're known for "high-intelligent politics".
      - urthor 3y ago
        Maybe for context, the fact that high-ranking public servants in the West are known as "Mandarins" should indicate the reputation of Chinese government officials for political intrigue. The Big 4 novels contain a lot of public servants.
HerculePoirot 3y ago
In french academic circles, we use the word "mandarin" to refer to a powerful academic figure.
- simonh 3y ago
  Cool. In the UK that's used for powerful civil servants.
  - azepoi 3y ago
    Understood it that way in french too.
seanhunter 3y ago
> Academic politics is something else. There is a famous formulation of this known as Sayre's law[1], which is often stated via the quote "In any dispute the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the issues at stake. That is why academic politics are so bitter," which wikipedia attributes to Charles Philip Issawi. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayre's_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayre's_law
- kranke155 3y ago
  I’m advertising, where I work, it’s 100% this
- act_of_dog 3y ago
  Link didn't work because of the apostrophe. Here's a fixed link https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayre%27s_law https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayre%27s_law
  - xxs 3y ago
    posting a mobile link? the original one is fine too, aside using 1-based indexing
- leemailll 3y ago
  That's a wonderful sum up. The pettiness often drive you insane, when you read the comments from reviewer 2
belinder 3y ago
If academic is all politics and favoritism then wouldn't that also apply to the prizes at the top? The people deciding or at least confirming scientific breakthroughs for stuff like nobel prizes must be scientists too, no? So if it's all politics, why are they immune to it?
- nyssos 3y ago
  > then wouldn't that also apply to the prizes at the top? It does, but the politics and favoritism is happening within a heavily selected group of very, very competent people. Plenty of people get snubbed for petty reasons, but they get snubbed in favor of others who are also doing Nobel-worthy work.
- dotnet00 3y ago
  There's plenty of politics and arbitrariness to Nobel prizes (especially in non-science prizes, eg giving Obama or Malala the peace prize), which probably makes it less of an issue that there may be some politicking within the small group of potential laureates since who among them actually wins is relatively arbitrary. Eg since only 3 people can win a prize, you can have cases like Francois Englert and Peter Higgs winning the prize for the Higgs Boson despite 4 other scientists having published papers on the same thing around the same time, and the scientists at the LHC who actually confirmed its existence. Similarly, a work can have won a prize, but if one of the authors passes away before the nomination is made, that person misses out on the title.

by urthor 3y ago

daniel-s 3y ago

The Chinese translates to, "classical novels," according to Google.

ovi256 3y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_Chinese_Novels https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_Chinese_Novels They're about court life and conflict, so of course they're full of court politics and intrigue
- seabass-labrax 3y ago
  I'm really intrigued, but I can't read Chinese (yet!) - would you be able to tell me in which person these are written?
  - VHRanger 3y ago
    As an anglophone, I really enjoyed the Water Margin podcast [1] which is a tranlastion of one of the great classics in full length, and with appropriate explanations for contemporarty cultural context. 1. http://www.outlawsofthemarsh.com/ http://www.outlawsofthemarsh.com/
thrdbndndn 3y ago
I'm a native Chinese speaker but I have no idea what OP means by "古典小說 tier".
- dogben 3y ago
  武侠小说 may be more appropriate.
- birdyrooster 3y ago
  Maybe it’s not Chinese but uses Chinese characters. Not all Latin character use is English.
  - thrdbndndn 3y ago
    It is. I know what 古典小說 is (others have already said, "classic novels"). I just don't know what "古典小說 tier" means since I don't remembered they're known for "high-intelligent politics".
    - urthor 3y ago
      Maybe for context, the fact that high-ranking public servants in the West are known as "Mandarins" should indicate the reputation of Chinese government officials for political intrigue. The Big 4 novels contain a lot of public servants.

HerculePoirot 3y ago

In french academic circles, we use the word "mandarin" to refer to a powerful academic figure.

simonh 3y ago
Cool. In the UK that's used for powerful civil servants.
- azepoi 3y ago
  Understood it that way in french too.

seanhunter 3y ago

> Academic politics is something else. There is a famous formulation of this known as Sayre's law[1], which is often stated via the quote "In any dispute the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the issues at stake. That is why academic politics are so bitter," which wikipedia attributes to Charles Philip Issawi. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayre's_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayre's_law

kranke155 3y ago
I’m advertising, where I work, it’s 100% this
act_of_dog 3y ago
Link didn't work because of the apostrophe. Here's a fixed link https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayre%27s_law https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayre%27s_law
- xxs 3y ago
  posting a mobile link? the original one is fine too, aside using 1-based indexing
leemailll 3y ago
That's a wonderful sum up. The pettiness often drive you insane, when you read the comments from reviewer 2

belinder 3y ago

If academic is all politics and favoritism then wouldn't that also apply to the prizes at the top? The people deciding or at least confirming scientific breakthroughs for stuff like nobel prizes must be scientists too, no? So if it's all politics, why are they immune to it?

nyssos 3y ago
> then wouldn't that also apply to the prizes at the top? It does, but the politics and favoritism is happening within a heavily selected group of very, very competent people. Plenty of people get snubbed for petty reasons, but they get snubbed in favor of others who are also doing Nobel-worthy work.
dotnet00 3y ago
There's plenty of politics and arbitrariness to Nobel prizes (especially in non-science prizes, eg giving Obama or Malala the peace prize), which probably makes it less of an issue that there may be some politicking within the small group of potential laureates since who among them actually wins is relatively arbitrary. Eg since only 3 people can win a prize, you can have cases like Francois Englert and Peter Higgs winning the prize for the Higgs Boson despite 4 other scientists having published papers on the same thing around the same time, and the scientists at the LHC who actually confirmed its existence. Similarly, a work can have won a prize, but if one of the authors passes away before the nomination is made, that person misses out on the title.