[lbo-talk] Speaking of grad school

[andie_nachgeborenen]

Yes, I just got that book too. I have been working with Kahnemann-style behavioral cognitive psychology for decades. I had a class with with Robert Nisbett and Paul Thagard in grad school, and have incorporated this kind if work into much of my scholarly work whenever relevant. Anyway, this professor, for all of his authority, didn't impress me. Maybe that is why I haven't been a success in academia. As my dad used to say in circumstances like this, "Stop being reasonable." btw, he was the only professor in grad school to give me an A+, not because of this, it's  long story, tell you later if you like. He was a pretty good scholar, very well respected by conventional standards. A good teacher too. But he lowered himself in my estimate with that suggestion.

Sent from my iPad

On Aug 22, 2012, at 6:16 AM, Wojtek S <wsoko52 at gmail.com> wrote:


> Andie N: "senior Prof in political science tried to persuade me to
> write up my theory of Cold War military policy Into a dissertation,
> although I don't know Russian. I told him thought this was a problem,
> but he said it didn't!
>  matter"
> 
> [WS:] And apparently he was right.  9/10th of expertise (and for that
> matter academic teaching) is the ability to effectively project
> self-confidence and authority, the remaining 1/10th being the actual
> knowledge of the subject matter.
> 
> In other words, if you can effectively project self-confidence and
> authority, who is going to know whether you actually know what you are
> talking about, but if you cannot - most people will dismiss you
> without even paying much attention to what you are saying.
> 
> PS.  I am currently reading Daniel Kahneman's "Thinking, Fast and
> Slow"  - a good critique of the so-called expertise, especially in
> social and political sciences and economics.
> 
> Nice to see you back.
> -- 
> Wojtek
> 
> "An anarchist is a neoliberal without money."
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