Danny ChaiI read all of your stuff Dave, and it’s only partly boring. Mostly not, though. I dunno. Anyway, just to clarify, you stole short thoughts from Wong. I think you said as much when you started it, not sure, but I think that’s how it went.
It seems like all these people work like crazy, crazy hours, crazy schedules. Why? I dunno, I just wonder if it’s worth it.
I had a fascinating conversation recently with a guy from church, he’s a Chemistry postdoc at Stanford. Anyway, the schedule for these people are just insane. Like, they frown upon taking even a single day off during the week. At any rate, when he went in there he made clear what he’s willing to work, including no work on Sundays. His take was that he’ll work like crazy in the time he’s there to make up for it. His advisor was of course dubious about it but he just said, wait and see how it goes, and if after some time it’s not working, we’ll re-evaluate things. And it seems to be going OK.
Anyway, the interesting thing he said is that although it’s like that now he fully realizes that when he looks for a professorship wherever he goes they’ll expect a young guy like him to work crazy hours. So he and his wife are spending the next few years not just preparing research wise but spiritually, to know that the professor road is the one to take. Just, if you don’t know you’re in God’s will, that path is so hard you’ll never make it. But if you do know you’re in God’s will, there’s no hardship you can’t withstand. I dunno, it was just interesting to hear.
I think I said something during the convo like how does any Christian ever end up being a professor then. And he said something like, that it’s hard is in part confirmation for them that it’s God’s will, just, it’s so hard that if they make it they’ll know it was God working. I dunno, it was just an interesting conversation. And it pretty much confirmed I don’t ever want to be a professor.