Friday, December 9, 2011
Freedom vs Commitment
It is not even mid December, and we are planning for the upcoming summer interns, and I am already panicking about how I am supposed to supervise six of them together this time! We have six months to go, and I think I do not have enough time to define their projects, find them lab space, .... Something is wrong in this bureaucratic system, or maybe perfectly fine. Everything is accounted for and taken care of in advance. Maybe it is just time's fault flying so fast, wrapping winters and summers around each other so quickly. Can you imagine how hard it is for me to adjust from this world of rules and plans to the one that is not sure what time one would meet for dinner on a daily basis!? It drives me crazy, pulls me to two opposite directions, and it never gets old. Extreme rigidity and extreme flexibility do not mesh well together. Not for me at least, and I am afraid my nature always leans towards the rigid planned world. Even though commitment phobia people think planning steals their freedom, ties them to a certain plan and place for a certain time, I find it liberating. If I know when exactly I am doing a certain task, say 3-5 pm on Wednesday, it means I can do anything else the rest of the time. If I do not know it, that 2-hour task is floating all over my thoughts and schedule, assigning a probability to every time slot, claiming them all and none, distracting me from focusing on other tasks. I am happier, more productive, and energetic if I know what I am doing when, but that is just me.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Talk, Ask!
It is never too early to start talking.
There is no such thing as too much communication.
Just as you think you might be bothering your teammate, colleague, or partner, going over all the details of a task, how to go about it, when to get it done, what the mutual expectations are,..., just as you think you are mastering the task and handling it very well, there comes the surprise, some fact you did not know about, because you just never asked about it and they just never talked about it.
There is no such thing as too much communication.
Just as you think you might be bothering your teammate, colleague, or partner, going over all the details of a task, how to go about it, when to get it done, what the mutual expectations are,..., just as you think you are mastering the task and handling it very well, there comes the surprise, some fact you did not know about, because you just never asked about it and they just never talked about it.
انگيزه
اگر فقط به خاطر اين كامنت هم شده، راديو كالج پارك رو بايد سر پا نگه داشت. اينكه شنونده اى در ايران داره كه فقط براى شنيدن اين پادكست اينترنت رو ميخواهد.
"
سلام و صبح بخیر. من دیشب با این رادیو آشنا شدم وحالااینترنت را فقط برای شنیدن برنامه این رادیو میخواهم. البته پسرم میخواهد با افکار بچه گانه اش دراین رادیو برنامه های سن وسال خودش را گوش کند ولی من نمی گذارم و دنبالش میدوم واو هم فرار میکند.
"
شما هم گوش بديد :-)
"
سلام و صبح بخیر. من دیشب با این رادیو آشنا شدم وحالااینترنت را فقط برای شنیدن برنامه این رادیو میخواهم. البته پسرم میخواهد با افکار بچه گانه اش دراین رادیو برنامه های سن وسال خودش را گوش کند ولی من نمی گذارم و دنبالش میدوم واو هم فرار میکند.
"
شما هم گوش بديد :-)
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Firemen
The next time your smoke detector starts beeping insanely,
Not because it needs new batteries,
In fact it is wired and works with electricity,
But because it so old that is has gone crazy,
And you need to remove it and install a new one
Correctly and safely,
Instead of dreading to call your brother, uncle, boyfriend, or neighbor for help,
Or trying to figure it out yourself if you are not an electrical engineer,
Call your local fire department.
In no time,
Three tall handsome men are at your door at your service at no charge with pleasure.
They remove the old one, install a new one, check all other ones, and drive back in their big truck.
You feel safe,
Have to never hear brags about it from anyone,
And you have used your tax dollars wisely!
It does not hurt seeing some good looking tall strong guys either, does it?
Not because it needs new batteries,
In fact it is wired and works with electricity,
But because it so old that is has gone crazy,
And you need to remove it and install a new one
Correctly and safely,
Instead of dreading to call your brother, uncle, boyfriend, or neighbor for help,
Or trying to figure it out yourself if you are not an electrical engineer,
Call your local fire department.
In no time,
Three tall handsome men are at your door at your service at no charge with pleasure.
They remove the old one, install a new one, check all other ones, and drive back in their big truck.
You feel safe,
Have to never hear brags about it from anyone,
And you have used your tax dollars wisely!
It does not hurt seeing some good looking tall strong guys either, does it?
Checks and balances
As inefficient and frustrating government bureaucracy is, I believe government regulations and oversight on many tasks and projects are needed. I have found a newly gained respect for it which makes me go through all bureaucratic hassles on a daily basis. Without checks and balances, it is amazing what people are capable of doing!
Monday, November 28, 2011
Publication etiquette! (or maybe My Life as a Female Engineer 3?!)
Ok, I need some sanity check. Sometimes somethings are such primitive and obvious rules of behavior to me that I get so upset if they are violated, and more if it is perceived that I am over reacting and everyone is cool about it. So, I need your sanity check and point of view.
I have a collaborator. He has been working on a paper based on the work he did when he was a visiting scientist at my institution. He had shown me a draft. I had provided feedback, requests for revisions, more input, and even asked for more experiments and results. He thanked me. Said he will work on them and will keep me posted.
Couple of months pass. He sends me a draft for a different paper for my feedback. It reminds me of the first paper. I ask him about its status. He informs me he has submitted it to a journal and is waiting to hear back the response.
He never sent me the version he submitted with my name on it. I do not even know where something with my name is submitted to. He is a professor and is supposed to teach publication etiquette and culture to his students not to violate them for God's sake! I get upset, very upset. I am trying to draft an email to him as polite as possible and am afraid that I may upset him, and I get upset at myself for feeling this way too. I get even more upset because he had a history of submitting a poor paper to a conference without my knowledge in the past. In that case, I worked long hours before his presentation trying to make it a reasonable version, not to mention getting approval for its publication and release from my employer, and being reprimanded by higher management for my delay and not following rules. I saved the paper before publication and presentation and what happened? He missed his flight, arrived late to his presentation, and the paper was withdrawn. I was happy it was!
Now, this time, he thinks he had done all he had to do by showing me a draft and asking for feedback. Yet, I do not know which journal he sent the paper to, when, and I did not see the final version, and he is using, I would not say my name, I am not such a big shot, but my affiliation. Am I over reacting? How would you handle this guy? He probably even thinks he is doing me a favor, writing papers and including me. How can he feel so comfortable to walk over me? Is he like this with everyone, the result of him being clumsy and easy going, or is it because I am a young female professional who is not being taken seriously?
I have a collaborator. He has been working on a paper based on the work he did when he was a visiting scientist at my institution. He had shown me a draft. I had provided feedback, requests for revisions, more input, and even asked for more experiments and results. He thanked me. Said he will work on them and will keep me posted.
Couple of months pass. He sends me a draft for a different paper for my feedback. It reminds me of the first paper. I ask him about its status. He informs me he has submitted it to a journal and is waiting to hear back the response.
He never sent me the version he submitted with my name on it. I do not even know where something with my name is submitted to. He is a professor and is supposed to teach publication etiquette and culture to his students not to violate them for God's sake! I get upset, very upset. I am trying to draft an email to him as polite as possible and am afraid that I may upset him, and I get upset at myself for feeling this way too. I get even more upset because he had a history of submitting a poor paper to a conference without my knowledge in the past. In that case, I worked long hours before his presentation trying to make it a reasonable version, not to mention getting approval for its publication and release from my employer, and being reprimanded by higher management for my delay and not following rules. I saved the paper before publication and presentation and what happened? He missed his flight, arrived late to his presentation, and the paper was withdrawn. I was happy it was!
Now, this time, he thinks he had done all he had to do by showing me a draft and asking for feedback. Yet, I do not know which journal he sent the paper to, when, and I did not see the final version, and he is using, I would not say my name, I am not such a big shot, but my affiliation. Am I over reacting? How would you handle this guy? He probably even thinks he is doing me a favor, writing papers and including me. How can he feel so comfortable to walk over me? Is he like this with everyone, the result of him being clumsy and easy going, or is it because I am a young female professional who is not being taken seriously?
Sunday, November 27, 2011
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