Is it cool to work this way ?

On Monday I will be leaving for the US again, where - at the University of Chicago - there is a workshop where I have to give a talk on the use of Z->bb decays for the reduction of b-jet Energy scale systematics for the top mass measurement in CDF.

On the Tuesday of the following week, I will then be in Corfù, Greece, at a conference, where I have been invited to give a review talk on high-Pt Physics. This is a long talk, more like a seminar, and I will be talking for ninety minutes!

So, you'd think I'm giving the final touches to the talk slides of both talks at this point. Change color to this sentence, highlight that, put an arrow to show what plot I'm referring to in that sentence. Nope.

I have not started to put together the slides of the first talk yet. And, for the 90' seminar, I have only a vague idea of what I am going to say, and a seminar I gave in march from which to steal material, which however has to be at the very least reinforced, integrated with new results, etcetera.

Is that cool ? I mean, shrugging shoulders in front of the approaching danger, and keeping a cool head, not worrying about deadlines approaching which cannot be sidestepped ?

I once thought it was cool, when I was a student and I saw this being done by others, while I was usually... well, not terrified, but a bit scared every time I had to give a talk about something somewhere.

No, I don't think it's cool. I think it is a bit of a lack of respect to the people that gave you the occasion to present your work, or give an overview of anything. It does not matter how much you think you are good, and how fast you think you are in preparing your slides, and how smart you think you are, you moron. Get your ass on a chair and start doing your homework, damnit!

Comments

[m.visaya]

may i make a suggestion? why not do doors and windows first, Guns N Roses later - not really a safe undertaking but even for that, the fish is an option of last resort, therefore use last in any talk? take it easy... (CAP-001)

[Tommaso Dorigo]

Hi Manuel,

thank you for all your comments to my blog - some of which I am not intelligent enough to decode, I reckon. This one suggestion is indeed clear, and I intend to follow it.... Give me time. I will post my talk at Corfu here, given that you showed care about it.

Cheers, and keep up with commenting here!
Cheers
T.

[Gordon Watts]

Yeah -- and remember those people you knew that worked that way. Now you have young people watching you seeing you work that way!

I do it too. I always tell myself that I'll do better, or I'll get started earlier. I even start to schedule time earlier to work on these talks. Somehow, it is always a last minute thing. I think at least part is our human nature (well, at least some of us).

It is the same for grant writing (speaking of which...)

[Michael Schmitt]

Hi, I think another "problem" is the explosion in the number of talks and conferences given each year. It used to be that one regular physicist gave one talk in a year, and there were only four or five real conferences. Each effort was singular and unique. Now there is a constant call for talks and contributions and most of us end up recycling and rehashing our previous talks, or those that others have written!

If you start declining invitations you'll find that you take the few you retain much more seriously, and you will at least think about what you want to say - even if you "write" the transparencies the day before...

best regards!

[Tommaso]

Hi Michael! Thanks for visiting!

Michael Schmitt is a Professor of Physics at Northwestern University, a brilliant physicist and a great guy - and his hair has little to envy to Gordon Watts' :). He was my boss for two years when he hired me as a post-doctoral fellow for Harvard University, six years ago.

What Michael writes here is so very true. We are often overwhelmed by the tight progression of conferences we need to attend and talks we need to give, that the latter deteriorate in quality very quickly.

I have an excuse for the Corfu' talk, however! My boss had to give that talk, and HE asked me to give it in his place as a personal favor...

Cheers!
T.