This post is the third and final in a series of reflections on Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman, a collection of vignettes by the Nobel-Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman. The first posts covered two different reactions I had to the book: indignation and inspiration. In this post, I describe a third reaction, empathetic amusement—on the topic […]
No Joking Matter: Feynman on Research (Feynman Part 2)
This post is the second in a series of reflections on Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman, a collection of vignettes by the Nobel-Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman. In the previous post, I had my dander up about Professor Feynman’s ogling of the co-eds. I can see that his creepiness was a distraction—for him and for me—from […]
No Joking Matter: Feynman on Women (Feynman Part 1)
I recently read Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman. The book is a collection of vignettes by the Nobel-Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman. The title of the book refers to an awkward reaction he got at a prim Princeton social event, where he said yes to both lemon AND cream in his tea. But the phrase has […]
Birthday Present
Tomorrow is a big birthday. A BIG one. I’ve been thinking about what I want the day to be like. I came up with this: This post is dedicated to Jenny the Genie. 🙂
No One Was Listening
I read Steal Like an Artist recently. There is a poetic justice that my favorite bit of it was this quote, attributed to Andre Gide: Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But since no one was listening, it needs to be said again. This sums up a key challenge of raising […]
Chair Evaluation of Teaching (vs. SET)
It’s my third annual evaluation season as chair. I’ve progressed, or at least improved my attitude, since the first year. Our school has a reasonable system in place for the annual evaluation of research, one that addresses a big pain point—consistency across disciplines. But that system is not the focus of this post. (If you […]
Airline Armrest: A Message to My Male Readers
Dear Men:You do not own the armrest between our seats on the plane.With irritation, LK I find this inconvenience maddening. It’s worse because of the larger things it represents. The poet Lily Myers selects the perfect word. Accommodation. I have been taught accommodation. The whole video is here:
Apologies to David Brooks: Students Learn From People Who Love Them
My social feeds are circulating a David Brooks column: “Students Learn From People They Love.” The piece cites research from cognitive scientists about how integrated emotions are with learning. The many comments on the NYTimes site wonder whether Brooks would have more accurately said “respect” rather than “love.” Probably, yes, but my read is that […]
New Year’s Aspiration
Instead of a New Year’s Resolution, here’s my New Year’s Aspiration: People, let’s do the best with what we have in 2019!