2 ms·
Typically the bigshots sit either in the very front or the very back. Interesting. I guess the high-status behavior in the front is, "I need to pay close atten
by theorique 14y ago
Typically the bigshots sit either in the very front or the very back.
Interesting. I guess the high-status behavior in the front is, "I need to pay close attention to pick apart this nonsense".
The high-status behavior in the back is, "I'm so important I will have better things to do very soon, so I want to be polite when I leave early".
- impendia 14y agoClose, but more like: The people in front want to interrupt and ask lots of questions. (It won't be nonsense, because the speakers will have been pre-vetted. If everyone decides the talk sucks, then they will just be quiet.) The people in back will stick around for the whole talk, but might have brought something else to read or do. My postdoctoral advisor Kannan Soundararajan brought other work, and never visibly appeared to be paying attention to any of the talks, except when I talked to him afterwards and it was obvious he had understood much better than I had!