My friend and former fellow student Susan Jane Murray was struck by inexplicable illness and chose to opt for a change in career plans.
With much dedication and energy she is about to make it as a professional foodie focussing on intolerances and how to lead a rich life in the face of such limitations.
Before Christmas we went for a walk in Oxford and snapped a few pictures.
The other day, I went for a walk down Memory Lane in my old neighbourhood, Paddington.
At one point, an aggressive homeless person started shouting at me, demanding money. When he returned for a second round, still shouting, I asked him to ease off a bit; I always found it a little unpleasant when random strangers start yelling in my face.
Furious with anger, what he said next, coming from a mouth with only a couple of brown teeth left, subsequently left me with a tiny smile on my face:
Look at you; you need a haircut and a shave, you f****** c***!
See, coming from a poor soul in the street, that is a pretty innovative line of attack.
The science and technology research group at SBS, which I form part of, recently hosted a group of EMBA students from the Technical University of Denmark for a one-day seminar on innovation.
The aim was not to deliver Porter-esque three-step-models-to-universal-success-forever.com, but rather to provide a set of disruptive tools and empirical tales for thinking differently about ‘normal’ practices and things.
It is always tricky to work around conventions, but it is a rewarding task, nevertheless. (more…)
Having successfully transferred on to the final stage of the doctorate, for the first time I am in a position to see the dim light at the end of the tunnel, and what a wonderful journey it has been.
The curious thing about doctoral work, at least in the social sciences, is that you are bound to go down all the wrong alleys and end up in a place that you had never before envisaged. This has nothing to do with bad planning, on the contrary, it is about coming to grips with complexity and a great deal of luck; meeting the right people in the right place, stumbling upon informative books and articles in places no-one thought possible, and, of course, trying to keep up spirits in what inevitably will turn out to be a very lonely endeavour.
People have asked me why I would ever want to waste 3+ years doing a DPhil when I am not even sure I want an academic career. Admittedly, I envy those of my friends who are now two years up the corporate/start-up ladder and ‘worry’ about such things as real estate and the next promotion. On the other hand, no matter how ‘poor’ I may be at present and in the foreseeable future, let there be no doubt; I have been laughing all the way, and I will continue to do so.
Broadly speaking, with ‘ethics’ popping up everywhere and a severe lack of expertise in many fields*, there are three professional avenues opening up: a) research/lecturing in academia, b) working in industry in a CSR postion, or c) becoming a start-up guy. Each option comes with its own merits and risks, but an ideal solution might be found in combining a) with either b) or c), so that is what I am pursuing.
*I will write a separate post on this in a not too distant future.