#NFT 3

The 'security of the institution' very much depends on where you're based. In the USA, that security is eroding day by day. Most college teachers are now what we call adjuncts (part-time teachers) and the number of tenure-track positions is diminishing year by year, especially in the humanities. There is also diminishing public support for universities, which forces them to raise tuition and seek more money from mega-donors. These mega-donors are increasingly assertive about imprinting their views on the units they fund, which creates a lot of tension and threats to academic freedom. Finally, the right wing is turning education into a political punching bag. I don't know what it's like in Australia (from what I've heard it's better), but it's not a good time for academics in the US.

That’s a really beautiful and scary time-slippage poem. Thankyou!

Someone just sent me this poem. I thought of your new baby and of your last show. This "Time" by Benny Andersen We have twelve clocks in the house still it strikes me there's not enough time You go out to the kitchen get chocolate milk for your spindly son but when you get back he has grown too old for chocolate milk demands beer girls revolution You have to make the most of your time while you have it Your daughter comes home from school goes out to play hopscotch comes in a little later and asks if you'll mind the baby while she and her husband go to the theater and while they're in the theater the child with some difficulty is promoted to 10th grade....(it goes on from here)

J. Schuberth

Thankyou for sharing these, it's a privilege to be welcomed in to such private moments. I liked the line of "security of the institution" as a reason to go in to academia. I wouldn't say that was top of my list (I would say I was always more motivated by a heady mix of trying to advance the sum of human knowledge, discover things of use to mankind, doing a thing I enjoy) but a few months ago (and after ~5 years of trying) I managed to secure a faculty position. There are lots of feelings around leaving one job and starting another, but I wasn't quite ready for the sense of relief of finally having a "permanent" job for the first time in my life following a PhD and several years as a postdoc. Now I feel like I'm at a sweet spot where I have breadth and depth of impact. Breadth because I have classes of undergrads who HAVE to listen to me (or fail the course), and if I do it right I can hopefully provide positive direction and supervision to shape their futures in a positive way (or at least, put them in a position where they have their choice of good options).

I’m going to go buy it now

The little book is wonderful--they're her "pandemic essays." They open with this: Early on in the crisis, I picked up Marcus Aurelius and for the first time in my life read his Meditations not as an academic exercise, nor in pursuit of pleasure, but with the same attitude I bring to the instructions for a flat-pack table—I was in need of practical assistance. (That the assistance Aurelius offers is for the spirit makes it no less practical in my view.) And my favorite lines: There is no great difference between novels and banana bread. They are both just something to do. They are no substitute for love.

J. Schuberth

This is a lovely piece!

Contingency is something I think about a lot as a parent and human. From Zadie Smith's Intimations: Six Essays. Would love to hear your NFTs on the concept. 26 . Contingency That I was born when I was born, where I was born—a case of relative historical luck. That I grew up in a moment of social, religious and national transition. That my school still sang the Anglican hymns, at least for a little while, so that the ancient diction of my country came to me while very young, and fruitfully mixed with the sounds of my heritage. That the tail end of one thing and the beginning of another were both visible and equally interesting to me. Milton and Monie Love. Hill and gully rider, hill and gully! Keats and Monty Python. And did those feet in ancient time? Kafka and Prince. Yellow bird, up high in banana tree. Twelfth Night and Desmond’s. Malcolm X and Aneurin Bevan. Oscar Wilde and James Baldwin. “Pump Up the Jam.” Peter Cook and Tupac. Queen Latifah and Vita Sackville-West. That there were so many voices in the streets. That such complex convergences were my earliest knowledge of the world. That no one interfered with me, sexually, as a child. That my father was dull and steady and did not drink, due to a weak kidney. That my own love of alcohol and all forms of mood transformers and enhancers for some reason never became excessive. That my mother had no hatred for her own skin, hair, nose, backside, nor any part of her. That my family was essentially matriarchal. That I was considered “ugly” young and “beautiful” later. That by the time the external opinion changed it was too late to create any real change in me. That the kinds of women I admired in childhood were all from what Toni Cade Bambara called the championship tradition: Neneh, George Eliot, Madonna, Katharine Hepburn, Grace Jones, Salt, Pepa, Lil’ Kim, Joan Armatrading, Angela Davis, Elizabeth I. That my fear is stronger than my desire—including my desire to self-harm. That my grandfathers—one a violent alcoholic, the other a destroyer of women—were both unknown to me. That my brothers were a delight to me, from the first. That I was an oldest child, with all the shameful obliviousness that implies. That I met a human whose love has allowed me not to apply for love too often through my work—even when we’ve hurt each other desperately. That my children know the truth about me but still tolerate me, so far. That my physical and moral cowardice have never really been tested, until now.

J. Schuberth

Now that more has sunk in, this reminds me of my wish that academia was actually doable part-time and could realistically be combined with something less highbrow or soul-crushing/more fun. Alas, people (including me in my First Thoughts) barely even respect academics when they try and write for a general audience, sigh.

The word bits haven't quite made it through my brain yet (short audio is not my most efficient way to process information) but the baby ASMR is so good as someone who loves babies but doesn't really spend much time with them (although they are coming back I can smile at kids when I wave extremely enthusiastically at them in the street again now!!!!!).

Agree with Mike that impact is very nonlinear. Had two cases, one where I had chatted with someone professionally. I had assumed it had been a courtesy but of limited significance, but a third party mentioned how impactful it had been. The stranger case was where I gave away a couple of books when I was cleaning out my office about being a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to a person who was in a CTO organization but not a CTO. She took this as an endorsement and a challenge, and sure enough became a CTO in another company a few years later. I wouldn’t have necessarily encouraged her to take the steps she took, but it seemed to have an impact — intended or otherwise.

Listening to NFT 2 and 3 I've been intensely aware of the baby noises in the the background. I keep thinking of the beginning of a Tea With Alice podcast where an early question is Who are you and what are you drinking? A stray thought I has about Impact was that the intensity and duration of an interaction might not be in direct proportion to its impact.

Mike Machin