Disciplined Minds: A Critical Look at Salaried Professionals and the Soul-Battering System That Shapes Their Lives by Jeff Schmidt

Author:Jeff Schmidt
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Human Resources & Personnel Management, Sociology, Social Science, Professional education, Professions, General, Quality of work life, Knowledge Capital, Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780742516854
Publisher: Lanham, Md. : Rowman & Littlefield, c2000.
Published: 2002-06-15T04:00:00+00:00

Disillusionment

“Are we having fun yet?” This would be a cruel question to ask graduate students during the research phase of their training. It would rub in the fact that the “temporary” compromises they made to get past the qualifying examination are still very much in effect and are going to remain so at least until the end of graduate school, which may be years away. This predicament, and the way the student gets into it, was the subject of an insightful satirical article published anonymously during the Vietnam War. The article appeared in a truly underground newspaper. The Physics Free Press was a short-lived, tell-it-like-it-is publication, produced secretly and distributed nationally by graduate students and postdoctoral research fellows who had to remain anonymous for their own protection. The article, apparently written by a solid-state physicist, is in part a response to the shortage of physics jobs at the time. However, it is mainly a response to a training system in which students expecting to do exciting, important work find themselves instead confined to narrow technical problems that have been detached from the larger goals that engender them—or worse, that are situated in a socially reactionary context such as that of the military or the powerful corporations. Here is the article in its entirety:

Steps to Disillusion a Young Physicist

I

As you walk into Dr. Fartsworth’s office, you timidly wonder. “Why would the world’s distinguished expert on low-temperature thermal conductivity of doped Cap, ever agree to take me as a graduate research assistant? Me—with my B + in Solid State—and him—with his Nat. Acad. Sci. membership, consulhintship with ITT, 150 published works and well-chewed pipe. I was in his course, but I wonder if he ever saw me.”

II

As he puffs pipe smoke in your face, he tells you his research group is large, but yes, he can “take on” one more student in the fall. He gives you a stack of his most recent works for you to read. You’re in the group!

III

Let’s see—what are Fartsworth’s articles?

Refinement of Pa riser-Pa rr-Pople Calculations on Praseodymium Crystals.

Linv-Temperature Thermal Conductivity of Lanthanum Fluorides: Deviation from Debife Approximation.

Splitting of Metastable Excited Configuration in Crystalline Gel-CaF., at Low Temperatures.

A twinge of boredom and frustration touches down, but you chase it away with the thought that you are reading real science.

Pariser-Parr-Poplc Methods Applied to Cd-Doped CaF2

Does Fartsworth really like this shit?

IV

Well, there you are, fixing the leak in the vacuum system which insulates the liquid helium which cools the neodymium ,strontium chloride crystal which needs to have a splitting in its absorption spectrum lix iked at, for some reason.

V

Fartsworth gets the funds to take you to the Gordon Solid-State Conference in Boulder, Colorado, with him. He invites you; you say yes as you think, “Wow! Near the Rockies! I can get in some hiking!” Apparently, Fartsworth wants to keep up with new developments in calcium fluoride. Sure he does, right?

VI

The lobby and conference rooms ol the Boulder Hilton are filled with welldressed Dr. Fartsworths from all over the country,

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