Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes,Japanese Golfer:
But do you have a job where you actually do work? Or is writing well conceived analyses about just about any topic under the sun part of your daily workload?
The answer is both, actually. I am the consummate multi-tasker. I wrote the Pakistan piece last night, but really have been working on it in my head since Dec 27. I spent about 5 minutes on it this morning cleaning up the email I sent myself, but not much else (which is why it has typos). The China thing I developed this morning while loading up on the morning news. I spend the first 30-60 minutes of my day gathering news (my job), and then spent about 2 minutes writing that little blip on China.
While I would normally throw out putting folks into categories, I am known in my dept as a "lower right quadrant" guy. We all took this test as part of a staff retreat, and if you're familiar with the work of
David A. Kolb (the educator, not the philosopher), I would be what is described as more of an abstract conceptualizationist mixed with reflective observation. 3%-5% of Americans would fit into this category. (I should put that test together for folks on the board to see where you fall in this analysis as I feel it's been one of the best descriptors of me ever.)
Anyhow, big words aside, this means that I love details, learn by thinking through ideas, absorb information, am driven by intellect, etc., etc. In practice, this means I don't talk much at meetings, process everything in the room (both the information, where it's coming from and who it's being said to - sometimes down to body language - always watch the eyes!), reflect on it for a while with other information I've gathered, then report my analysis to my team, usually accompanied with a big idea.
Not unlike this board, rarely will a day go buy that I don't send my education coworkers an email about something they think is not related to education (my most recent example is hydrogen fueling plants) and then a week or two later when we gather for a staff meeting I'll have some big idea for curriculum or practical idea about how we can tie a shortage of hydrogen fueling stations in the Bay Area into our work here at the university. Usually, I hadn't thought it out yet, but I knew it was important when I saw it.
Posts on politics, well, that's my job. I handle Government Relations for a university. If we're ahead of the nation, state and city, our job is a lot easier. Usually the stuff you see here on politics is similar to emails I've sent my colleagues (so it's cut and paste).
The foreign policy bent is obviously a hold over from my previous job (I'm also an occasional guest lecturer in our International Relations dept.). While not officially part of my job, I was once asked to share a lecture I gave to students, and that has turned into an email I send out with my thoughts on the hot topics in the rest of the world to our dept. Some of those I simply reprint here.
My posts on tech, well, I'm a self admitted tech dork. I'm always asked to fix something or recommend a new something by friends and colleagues, so I keep up on that stuff.
So yes, I have a job where I do actual work, the majority of which I spend thinking and analyzing higher ed policy and politics, and go off topic often. My employer tolerates it because I'm well known to send my ideas in the middle of the night (I never stop thinking really, with at least one side of my brain).
One question I have yet to answer (but have been thinking about) is why I chose this particular venue to share the majority of my thoughts despite having a blog of my own. I don't know - perhaps I enjoy the diversity of the audience here. Perhaps I just feel comfortable with all the people. I might never know. Part of it is surely the fact that this web site is not picked up by search engines. I enjoy (virtual) anonymity.
(by the way, I wrote this while eating my lunch)
