Tips and Tricks: A Call for Lessons Learned

This one goes out to everyone: grad students, entry-level faculty, senior faculty, etc. What are the most important things you've learned over the years, in terms of being successful (and happy) in the profession?  Here are five of mine (I'm sure I could think of a lot more):

1. Communicate: seek out a friendly ear when you need help or advice.

• I remember quite well: like many other grad students I knew, I did everything I could to avoid my dissertation director when I was having trouble. That was stupid. I had a great, supportive advisor and good people in my department. I only got on track when I was force-fed advice. Much suffering could have been avoided if I'd only sought out help to begin with.
• When I was a VAP at UBC, strugging with publishing, I finally thought about asking other people who'd published a lot how they did it. I listened. I published. I'm glad I asked! :)

2. You are not a failure: until you give up. (nuff said?) Even when things get very, very bad, it is possible to turn things around.  

3. Enjoy yourself: philosophy is awesome. We are all privileged to do this. Don't get hung up on who is or is not "smarter" than you, on how many publications you don't have, or how many job interviews you don't have. You can go to the Eastern APA with no interviews and enjoy yourself anyway. Go to a talk or two. Go to the book exhibit. Talk to people. Enjoy talking to people. You can do it, I swear! It doesn't have to be torture. Philosophy is rad. I only started publishing papers when I got this through my thick skull. Think about things you enjoy, write about things you enjoy, do it rigorously, you'll be fine. I sort-of promise. :)

4. Be a good dude(-ette), and realize the things you do that don't come off so well: as we all know, philosophy in some parts is a blood sport. Some people like to show-up others. Don't do it. You may be the smartest person in the room (though probably not). Whatever. One thing's for certain: even if you're the smartest person in the room, if you behave like a jerk everyone will think, "What a jerk!", not, "Wow, how smart is s-/he!?" Also, even if you're not a jerk, realize the things you do that come off jerk-like, and clamp it down. 

5. Find yourself, including your own values: in graduate school, you have faculty and supervisors to satisfy. Now that you're not in graduate school, you only have to satisfy you. You shouldn't take this as an opportunity to forget all of the important things your grad faculty and supervisor taught you. Hopefully, they taught you well. Still, now that you're out in the world, figure out who you want to be. Is publishing in Phil Review the most important thing to you? If so, try to do it. But it doesn't have to be the most important thing to you. Teaching can be important to you. If it is, do it, and do it well. Similarly, if simply doing work that you enjoy and believe in is important to you -- even if it doesn't appear in Phil Review -- then do that! I used to care very much about publishing in "top places." Now, I would certainly still like to -- but it's not my top priority. My priorities are my wife, my family, my students, and doing work I think is good. I don't care if anyone else thinks it's good. It's not their work, it's mine.  :)

Anyway, anyone else have lessons to share?

Comments

[Mark Alfano]

Lots to say here, of course, but I'll just add one:

Conferences are for meeting people. This took me about four years to learn. I'd go to conferences to present, give comments, ask questions at the Q&A, etc. I didn't make any connections that lasted beyond the final day of the conference. That was silly. Now, when I attend a conference, I try to arrange coffee, lunch, dinner, beers, whatever with people in advance. It makes the conference much more enjoyable, helps me to get to know people in my field, and has even resulted in a couple of joint publications.

[Marcus Arvan]

Ditto - I wish I'd learned that lesson sooner myself!