Education

In physics, where I got my PhD, there is a strong divide between theory and experiment. There's no clear line between them, but generally everyone can tell them apart. The rest of academia and the world uses the term theory so loosely, I can't tell what they mean and I doubt many of them can either. It's on my mind because administrators keep looking at my syllabuses and asking where the theory and academic rigor are. Syllabuses of existing courses reveal what they mean---lots of reading and writing papers, as best I can tell. Reading and writing papers doesn't teach theory. Readings teach what other people reflected after doing---if they did anything, that is. Am I overstating things to say that you have to do…

Growing up the son of a tenured history professor led me to view universities in high regard---the pinnacle of education and learning. I've since come to see changing behavior as a measure of education and learning. That is, if it didn't lead you to change your life, how can you say you learned? Without alternate universes to test what would have happened, you can't test this, so I'm speaking loosely, but I figure you get what I mean. Well, universities tend to follow the educational model that the teacher knows, the student doesn't, so the teacher tells information to the student and the student is supposed to change as a result of the information. The student shows his or her knowledge and analytical ability through…

Following up yesterday's post, Universities don't teach as well as they think they do, I'll offer a big way they could improve. Learning social and emotional skills requires facing and overcoming social and emotional challenges, at least in my experience. Most active, social, emotional, expressive, performance-based (ASEEP) fields train people through practicing the basics---footwork in dance, groundstrokes in tennis, and scales with musical instruments. Universities teach wonderful facts but regarding behavior, they teach compliance, sitting still, reading, and writing analytical papers---behaviors few value outside the academic world. What the basics teach in one ASEEP field apply in most others---discipline, self-awareness, persistence, resilience, listening, self-expression, etc. Schools used to teach such things through sports and the arts. To clarify, not classes about the arts or sports,…

A friend once asked why I wanted a PhD in physics, or to become a professor. I told him I wanted to stay in academia because I wanted to keep learning. He responded, "I learn something new every day!" He worked at a bank. I presumed banks didn't care about employees except that the did their work. My dad taught as a tenured professor since I was born. I grew up seeing universities as places to learn---as the places to learn. I saw the business world as crass in comparison. Corporations just worked people for money. Teaching for years at elite universities and corporations have taught me otherwise, at least in the present. The past may have differed. Universities are geared to give diplomas. They…

Someone mentioned the idea of a failure resume a month or two ago. You know as much about them as I do now. I haven't looked up the idea but the name describes enough to go on. I've thought about it long enough. Time to start it. I expect I'll add to it and refine. DateEventLessons1970s and 80sMugged 5 times growing up, three bikes stolen, etc, felt shame, and kept the stories private.I can feel shame for things beyond your control and not realize it for decades.Suppressing shame causes it to persist and fester.1983Got a 55 on a 6th grade math test, on percentages. Possibly my worst test score.Low test scores aren't the end of the world.1988In courting Julie, my first girlfriend, considered by some…

On Monday I spoke on Initiative at Google in Chelsea, Manhattan. (EDIT: here are video clips from a future talk there) It was my first time speaking with them (here's my speaking page, by the way, for those looking to book an amazing speaker who will get them promoted for hiring me). It reminded me that I started using Google in graduate school because they used GNU/Linux before anyone else had heard of them, probably around 1997 or 98. Many of their current employees weren't born yet. I kept telling people to use it because it returned better search results but most people preferred portals. A few years later I kept telling people to use Wikipedia, also based on Free Software and its principles, and…

I wrote an in-depth piece answering why we as a culture and as individuals tend to lack initiative, as developed in my book, and how to develop more initiative. It presents more from my book than most reviews or excerpts I've posted. The piece is called Initiative: Why We Lack It and How to Develop It and appears in a community site for coaches and people getting coached called The Coaching Connector. I recommend it if you're looking to create more initiative in yourself and teams and haven't read the book yet. Also if you're thinking of getting coaching.