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I am posting this as a benchmark, not because I think I'm playing very well yet.  The idea would be post a video every month for a ye...

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Yes, but what have you done recently?

I'm quite adept at discounting my own achievements. Maybe you are as well. You can always say...

I haven't done a whole recently.  (My achievements are in the past: who's to say I'll ever do anything else?)

I'm just a literary critic. (Not a real poet, or a physicist.  I'm not even a real scholar because I don't do archival research.)

I haven't submitted and published a peer review article to a journal blind (not being invited) in quite a while.

No major grants or awards in the last five years.

etc...

Yet a look at my cv does not reflect this negative opinion of myself.  I wonder...


2 comments:

Thomas said...

Reminds me of Charles Mingus and Bobby Fischer in Bellevue (from Beneath the Underdog):

'He looked very thoughtful, and said, "I don’t have time to hear everything, but I’m interested in music and keep abreast of what’s happening. It’s odd you say you haven’t been productive. It seems to me you have several-Let’s see-" and he counted in his head - "I’d say six or seven albums that came out last year. That isn’t bad." I was amazed, but he was right, and I realised last year seemed like ten years ago to me.'

PS: I only learned just now while Googling this that it was Fischer.

Phaedrus said...

I love this anecdote!