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He is so right on the 'interdisciplinary' thing: as long as you try to learn something new, you are wasting your time (not only from the financial standpoint bu
by pfortuny 13y ago
He is so right on the 'interdisciplinary' thing: as long as you try to learn something new, you are wasting your time (not only from the financial standpoint but also from the 'status' one). Even more: those interdisciplinary studies will most likely be seen as 'not interesting' by each of the 'departments' they link. So... less ranking for your possible publications.
And on and on and on. It takes guts not to grind the same mill as everybody. And of course, it requires a permanent position to begin with! Otherwise, you will not get it.
- mathattack 13y agoThere are reasons that departments exist, and that they are primary. For better or worse, you trade off interdisciplinary studies (and organizational flexibility) when you have a tenure driven department system. My impression is that some schools (MIT & Stanford?) seem to get it right, but most don't. Of course getting interdisciplinary right could just be the job of the real world.
- pfortuny 13y agoOh, certainly, I am not the one to disagree on then necessity of departments. The problem is that Rectors seem to push for "interdisciplinarity" but without any reward for it in any way. So, it is just grandiloquent speech as far as it goes on like this.