Oh dear me! I always find Pride and his lesser cousin Vanity two unwanted guests at my table. Academic brilliancy is one of those things that, as you well state, usually come to those who go on about their work without thinking about that particular outcome, but just relish in the science. The funny thing is that academic brilliancy is so compartmentalized. When I talk to my husband about this or that great contributor to the field, he stares at me with the same blank gaze of ignorance I bestow upon him when he tells me of his scientific heroes. We work in different scientific fields, you see, and although the theme is cancer, we sometimes just do not understand each other.
Your thoughts reminded me of the proverbial middle-life crisis I had when I was 40 (how very cliché of me). I made a titanic effort to evaluate my self-worth, and I came up with a system to re-evaluate it every birthday. Needless to say, academic recognition was nowhere near the top-five items to focus on actively... So I decided to keep working hard, as always, and should Pride and Vanity claim a place at my table, I just serve them well by remembering the many patients who have simply thanked me for my help. It is hard to keep the appetites of those two satisfied on such a menu, considering how wrong the world teaches us to see and measure success from the cradle. That is the true drama of our days.
That's a great take. I need to reflect on Pride and Vanity as drivers. My initial thought is that both still reflect a definition of worth that largely relies on external judgments. Can one be prideful or vain without projecting how one appears in the eyes of others? Perhaps Pride can be self-referential to a degree, but I don't think Vanity can.
I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with wanting to manifest to others in a positive light. It's just important to see that it gives others some of the power to define your worth.
Oh! I agree with that, there is nothing wrong in wanting your work to be valued and appreciated by your peers. The problem, I believe, lies when it is the primary driver of your efforts. This is when Pride (thinking you are above others) and Vanity (depending solely on their opinion to base your self-worth) take the reins.
I also believe that academia suffers a bit from both Pride and Vanity, since the external factors used to measure excellence (H-index, impact factor, number of published articles) are limited at best, blinding at worst (i.e. grants can be given out to CVs, not to great ideas, or to fill in some of the urgent gaps in clinical knowledge). But I will be humble and say that regardless of this, or maybe because of it, for lack of a better "biomarker", science keeps moving forward in a positive way.
Oh dear me! I always find Pride and his lesser cousin Vanity two unwanted guests at my table. Academic brilliancy is one of those things that, as you well state, usually come to those who go on about their work without thinking about that particular outcome, but just relish in the science. The funny thing is that academic brilliancy is so compartmentalized. When I talk to my husband about this or that great contributor to the field, he stares at me with the same blank gaze of ignorance I bestow upon him when he tells me of his scientific heroes. We work in different scientific fields, you see, and although the theme is cancer, we sometimes just do not understand each other.
Your thoughts reminded me of the proverbial middle-life crisis I had when I was 40 (how very cliché of me). I made a titanic effort to evaluate my self-worth, and I came up with a system to re-evaluate it every birthday. Needless to say, academic recognition was nowhere near the top-five items to focus on actively... So I decided to keep working hard, as always, and should Pride and Vanity claim a place at my table, I just serve them well by remembering the many patients who have simply thanked me for my help. It is hard to keep the appetites of those two satisfied on such a menu, considering how wrong the world teaches us to see and measure success from the cradle. That is the true drama of our days.
That's a great take. I need to reflect on Pride and Vanity as drivers. My initial thought is that both still reflect a definition of worth that largely relies on external judgments. Can one be prideful or vain without projecting how one appears in the eyes of others? Perhaps Pride can be self-referential to a degree, but I don't think Vanity can.
I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with wanting to manifest to others in a positive light. It's just important to see that it gives others some of the power to define your worth.
Oh! I agree with that, there is nothing wrong in wanting your work to be valued and appreciated by your peers. The problem, I believe, lies when it is the primary driver of your efforts. This is when Pride (thinking you are above others) and Vanity (depending solely on their opinion to base your self-worth) take the reins.
I also believe that academia suffers a bit from both Pride and Vanity, since the external factors used to measure excellence (H-index, impact factor, number of published articles) are limited at best, blinding at worst (i.e. grants can be given out to CVs, not to great ideas, or to fill in some of the urgent gaps in clinical knowledge). But I will be humble and say that regardless of this, or maybe because of it, for lack of a better "biomarker", science keeps moving forward in a positive way.