The more I read of Semenza’s book, the more I like his entire approach to the academic career. Systematizing work, laying out all those mystified processes and stages is obviously his goal in this work, however, the insights he gives into his own thinking also help a great deal. Specifically, Semenza recounts, although without nearly the emphasis I am currently placing on it, a particular turning point in his graduate studies.
After learning that the average Assistant professor has a 65 hour work week, he describes encountering two particular reactions, one of which was his own. The first, less successful, reaction saw the tenure track assistant professorship as a state of responsibility, knowledge and skill that cannot yet be grasped by the graduate student, which in turn, alleviates her of that work schedule. The other reaction, one I share with Semenza, is to say that I must work at least as hard, if not harder, precisely because I don’t have that skill and knowledge yet.
“Think like your professors not your students.”
I highlight this moment because it has been so beneficial in understanding both the orientation a graduate student should have and a real quantifiable measurement of ‘working hard.’ Obviously, putting in 65 hours a week does not mean one is necessarily more productive than one who works a paltry 50 hours; however, it does offer a crude measure of life-time one is expected to give.
I have a clear sense of ‘being productive’, or rather, I have a clear sense of when I have been productive. Unfortunately, productivity feels much like a muscle that, left unused and atrophied, will yield that wonderfully satisfying soreness once used even minimally. When I persist in exercising that muscle (be it productivity, concentration, writing), the greater the threshold before fatigue. Measuring productivity in terms of time, although ineffectual in measuring quality, does have the advantage of demonstrating the professionalism and dedication we need.
P.S: Have fun with it…you know you don’t see yourself doing anything else, so make this as enjoyable as you can; in fact, make that one point by which you measure productivity
(p.s = para Shashi: I am talking to myself: Pay no attention to the didactic all knowing, all simplifying voice, because she’s talking to me…)
