tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post3654318143899547665..comments2024-03-16T04:17:51.852-07:00Comments on 100 Reasons NOT to Go to Graduate School: 74. Academic conferences.100 Reasonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13655155303350793785noreply@blogger.comBlogger139125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-65370277835034350212021-04-27T16:38:47.875-07:002021-04-27T16:38:47.875-07:00Although the lockdowns and other restrictions on p...Although the lockdowns and other restrictions on people's lives in recent times represent dreadful and pointless tyranny, they have saved people from physically attending equally pointless academic conferences.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-53418829437371375862020-07-20T01:57:53.379-07:002020-07-20T01:57:53.379-07:00I note that "networking" is not a reason...I note that "networking" is not a reason to go to a conference. In fact, there is far too much emphasis on "collaboration" in academia. Science and other knowledge progress when a new very smart person makes a brilliant individual contribution, like Newton or Darwin or Einstein, which happens about once a century. Most people who are "academics" are just making a living from it, rather than doing anything profound or worthwhile. And it's a poor living to make, since it involves temporary job contracts, relocations, and low pay. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-83665132736380347812020-03-05T14:55:51.907-08:002020-03-05T14:55:51.907-08:00Before I left academia, I went to many conferences...Before I left academia, I went to many conferences. I never learnt anything useful from any of them, and I am glad I no longer have to go to them. I learn more from the first paragraph of a wikipedia article than I have ever learnt from a conference, and I am sure most other people who have attended academic conferences would find the same thing.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-76080920818144242562020-03-05T09:09:08.926-08:002020-03-05T09:09:08.926-08:00You are replying anonymously, hypocrite.You are replying anonymously, hypocrite.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-12652866159464981292019-06-20T10:15:22.368-07:002019-06-20T10:15:22.368-07:00I went to conferences simply to add a line to my C...I went to conferences simply to add a line to my CV. As soon as I no longer needed to do that, I stopped going to conferences. I always found them to be depressing and boring affairs. There are a huge number of academic conferences, all around the world, every year, and they are all depressing and boring affairs. They represent an enormous waste of time and resources. They should be banned. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-14944248816040052242019-03-26T14:46:35.074-07:002019-03-26T14:46:35.074-07:00Another are the phony awards to the same old same ...Another are the phony awards to the same old same old (company man/or yes womyn etc....). They CREATE these BS awards to appear relevant or create lists to create anticpation or sales (just like usa uni "rankings"). The academic scene was a brotherhood of losers.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-28968139290360016712019-03-26T14:41:57.423-07:002019-03-26T14:41:57.423-07:00We attended a few conferences; however, they were ...We attended a few conferences; however, they were really bad. All that was discussed was the same old stuff, badly aging boomers, and ambitious 30somethings. Regi fees crazy, pricey hotels, airfare with fat folks in seats, pricey cab rides. No thanks.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-12450827299613869682018-05-27T11:23:45.095-07:002018-05-27T11:23:45.095-07:00I have been to quite a few conferences. I found th...I have been to quite a few conferences. I found them all depressing, lonely experiences. I only went to them to add a line to my CV, as the article says. Now that I have a proper job, I will never go to a conference again.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-49338742958936987102016-10-21T21:04:25.390-07:002016-10-21T21:04:25.390-07:00Yes, it's a huge red flag when someone has pag...Yes, it's a huge red flag when someone has pages and pages of conference presentations but no publications to show for it. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-30375291563415460192016-10-21T20:58:06.912-07:002016-10-21T20:58:06.912-07:00I'm ambivalent about academic conferences. I e...I'm ambivalent about academic conferences. I enjoy visiting cities I've never been to before, but the costs, the grandstanding, and the presentations are not worth the hassle. I'm also part of a discipline where 95% of the presenters read from their papers in a monotone voice, as if they've never learned how to give a presentation. <br /><br />Also, conference interviews need to die. Due to the adjunctification of academia, job candidates do not have money to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars for a mere interview. There's Skype, Google Hangout, and other video chatting programs - academia needs to utilize those more. The conference in my field is in Montreal this year and I live on the West Coast. It would have cost at least $1,500 for me to go. No thanks. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-70427442085627084832016-07-03T18:49:53.319-07:002016-07-03T18:49:53.319-07:00"I would walk out on anyone (and make a fuss ..."I would walk out on anyone (and make a fuss in doing so) reading a paper as a form of presentation." <br /><br />Says the person who is posting anonymously on an internet blog. I bet it takes you a few days just to build up the courage to leave your moms basement.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-51198110401640714182016-04-08T06:42:14.125-07:002016-04-08T06:42:14.125-07:00Gave a talk, 7 sheeple in the room (3/7 were prese...Gave a talk, 7 sheeple in the room (3/7 were presenters yet to go on. One was a young green horn eager beaver gal, all excited, the other, a foreigner who could barely speak English, then a morbidly obese individual who was giving the usual common sense speech--water wet, winter, cold. She is funded of course as whatever is neutral, status quo is held sacred in the failed nation.Christinenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-34153766471183009342016-04-08T02:35:39.580-07:002016-04-08T02:35:39.580-07:00wow--who goes to these things other than clueless ...wow--who goes to these things other than clueless grad stupdents, brain washed polly anna poorfessors, and hustlers/opportunists looking to dupe the guillable, uniformed, misinformed? you're paying to give a talk via registration fees, hotel, airfare, transfers, food, etc....who in their right mind would do this? mentally ill guillable folks, or being coerced by the tormentor poorfessor requiring stupdents to warm seats and act like they give a sh-t.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-1129600209156125502016-04-07T02:48:37.632-07:002016-04-07T02:48:37.632-07:00"networking" LOL. Most conference attend..."networking" LOL. Most conference attendees have no money, or want something for nothing--US way-- it's a brain picking (FREE) fest. Business cards exchanged, emails etc...nothing comes of it except hope, dreams, and delusions. Passive aggressive/polite exchanges worth nothing. Waste of time. Christinenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-19216740738395114032016-04-06T07:33:03.548-07:002016-04-06T07:33:03.548-07:00Facts: sharing the a low end hotel room with 2-3 o...Facts: sharing the a low end hotel room with 2-3 others, traveling to asstown, ass-state, ass-country in the middle of nowhere in some souless convention centre that has not been updated in 30yrs+, listening to redundant, non-provocative, me to, happy talk, neutral BS with clapping, smiling, and nodding. Nothing really interesting or thought provokingly different, lame socially ackward cocktail/cheese on toothpick receptions with losers, geeks, and mentally deranged narcopaths trying to one up each other; ackward luncheons with narcopaths who cannot talk about anything other than work--how americant, staring at their phones every 2minutes, and a goody bag filled with abstracts, proceedings, future sign ups, and propaganda swill. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-68753779315654683482016-04-06T07:24:30.811-07:002016-04-06T07:24:30.811-07:00Most academic CONferences are a joke. A bunch of y...Most academic CONferences are a joke. A bunch of young eager beavers clueless trying to impress the bossman/womyn or some other pseudo-luminary. A mini holiday whereby you pop in/pop out, and play pretend. Such is life. The illusion, the delusion, the sham scam of 'work'. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-71042628292443143522015-10-14T11:50:27.526-07:002015-10-14T11:50:27.526-07:00Loserville--CONferences. more of nothing.Loserville--CONferences. more of nothing.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-89975549593459492532015-06-09T21:03:53.630-07:002015-06-09T21:03:53.630-07:00If everyone abided by Christy Wampole's Confer...If everyone abided by Christy Wampole's Conference Manifesto the world would be a better place: http://nyti.ms/1F19UIS<br /><br />The best line: "I will strive to maintain a certain compassion toward my captive audience."<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-53825879849039479142014-09-21T15:40:02.867-07:002014-09-21T15:40:02.867-07:00In my academic discipline, there is a lot of fight...In my academic discipline, there is a lot of fighting, grandstanding and backstabbing... also too many papers are ill-prepared and dull. It's a shame, but there is only one sensible solution to this anachronistic tradition. As Anon 4.14 indicates above, the best solution is the 'SISO' method of 'sign in and sod-off', only present your paper first. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-78087165583174840062014-09-12T08:53:59.699-07:002014-09-12T08:53:59.699-07:00Ah, the fanatic finally emerges. It's obvious ...Ah, the fanatic finally emerges. It's obvious you find this post threatening because your entire identity as a human being is wrapped up in your academic persona. This is a sad phenomenon among grad students, but a common one. If teaching was truly 'in your blood' as you state in such a cliched manner, perhaps you would be open to criticisms and be more willing to improve a system that is, in the end, detrimental to teaching? Others do in fact see the 'relevance' of the entire enterprise. Evidently, they see it better than you do. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-35849245205723913172014-05-25T14:03:24.166-07:002014-05-25T14:03:24.166-07:00I guarantee you, if your brother works as a high s...I guarantee you, if your brother works as a high school teacher, he doesn't get summers off.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-16410035741725671592014-05-25T14:02:28.786-07:002014-05-25T14:02:28.786-07:00'Graduate students and professors are trained ...'Graduate students and professors are trained to identify and accept "facts" .'<br /><br />In my humble opinion, nothing could be further from the truth. Academics are every bit as gullible as anybody else - they may have developed some of the apparatus for sniffing out truths, but more frequently than not they just don't use their critical faculties.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-69672707530699543382014-05-25T13:59:17.140-07:002014-05-25T13:59:17.140-07:00Anybody notice how these days many of the chosen e...Anybody notice how these days many of the chosen elite really excel at putting the "dick" in "Dickensian?" Also I'm amazed how many of them (despite the party rhetoric) are Democrats.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-8344058194420702632014-05-25T13:53:05.061-07:002014-05-25T13:53:05.061-07:00What is sad is that the people making the real mon...What is sad is that the people making the real money in academia are not academics themselves, and it ultimately costs the students.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-88903737551560622502014-05-25T13:50:21.213-07:002014-05-25T13:50:21.213-07:00While working for General Electric in the early 19...While working for General Electric in the early 1950s, <br />chemist Howard Tracy Hall discovered a process for synthesizing diamond. This discovery made billions of dollars for GE, the company that refused him the $1000 funding and access to the company machine shop to develop the press in the first place.<br /><br />Hall's reward was a $10 US savings bond.<br /><br />Disheartened, Hall left GE but found that the press he had developed was now labeled "classified" by the US government and no longer available for his use. He developed an alternative process which was promptly also labeled "classified." After several months Hall was allowed to use his new press.<br /><br />I would have liked to have thought that STEM rewards talent and intelligence. I now firmly believe it does not. Anecdotes like the story of Hall's invention are far too commonplace.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com