David Perlmutter has had some reasonably interesting posts for junior faculty recently, though I think they apply to graduate students just as well. The following in particular caught my eye:
Research is (A) studying something and then (B) publishing about it for the world to see and peers to evaluate. The two acts must occur in sequence for “research” to be completed.
A good deed that goes bad in the world of research is when we forget about B in our pursuit of A.
It’s interesting to me how one of the facets of the weborati’s “follow your passion and the money/people will follow you” is self-promotion. In some sense, other people have to be there to get you. I get that. And some academics are really good at self-promotion. (Most intellectuals I know really aren’t. Where the line is between academics and intellectuals is something I leave for another time.) Anyway, the times being what they are, as Rosencrantz and Gildenstern say, I have been thinking about the role of self-promotion in professional careers that happen to take place within the framework of the academy.