academe

[Peter van Heusden]

On Thu, May 31, 2001 at 12:57:44PM -0400, Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
> At 11:12 AM 5/31/01 -0400, joanna wrote:
> >
> >Maybe it has to do with the fact that engineers are making things, whereas
> >lit-critters so obviously are not (and suffer from a kind of neurosis of
> >futility), but I always thought the shameless ass licking, bullshitting and
> >back stabbing prevalent in lit departments resulted mainly from the size of
> >the financial pool available for humanities salaries relative to the size
> >of the pool of applicants for humanities jobs.  The ratio is better for IT
> >workers.  Makes for better human beings, overall.  Erst das Brot, dann die
> >Moral.
> 
> 
> 
> You are absolutely correct. The nonprobablity sample of engineers I met
> tend to be pretty authoritarian, especially on social issues and when the
> "u" word is mentioned, but these tend to be older, industrial types. I can
> easily imagine that the newer IT models are more laid back, at least on
> social issues. 

I invite you to spend some time reading the discussions on
www.slashdot.org, and then come back and tell me that the 'IT models'
are more laid back, etc. I recall seeing a whole pile of Republican
and similar stickers on the doors of offices in the San Diego 
Supercomputer Centre when I was there.

Of course, all IT engineers don't fit the same mould - but the vast
majority of them that I know define themselves as some kind of
special, more intelligent life-form, in contrast to the stupid
'sheeple' majority. Pretty much like any profession, where it is
lit-critters or physicists.

Peter
--
Peter van Heusden <pvh at egenetics.com>
NOTE: I do not speak for my employer, Electric Genetics
"Criticism has torn up the imaginary flowers from the chain not so that man 
shall wear the unadorned, bleak chain but so that he will shake off the chain 
and pluck the living flower." - Karl Marx, 1844                 k*256^2+2083
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