Job Market Paper

I hate the term "Job Market Paper".  It is somewhat unique to the  discipline of economics and finance and refers to the working or published paper that graduate students put up for assessment while applying for jobs in academia. I don't understand what so special about the JMP. What about other papers that the student may have written during his PhD? Are they inferior to the JMP? Yes, it turns out.'The JMP is an original piece of research by the applicant that constitutes their best research to date. It is meant to serve as a signal of the candidate's potential for becoming a good researcher.'  I am sure every researcher likes some of her work more than others, but such opinions are necessarily subjective. Someone else might consider another piece of her work as being better than her JMP. The idea that you can have an unambiguously best piece of research, just like a sprinter has a best time, sounds bizarre to me. Another example of blind positivism in economics--the idea that brilliance doesn't lie in the eyes of the beholder but is an objective characteristic of  the work or the person being judged. Call me idealistic but isn't one supposed to do her best at every research project one undertakes? Or is one allowed, even expected, to do sub-standard research for non-JMPs?

Feedback

Two sobering incidents in the past two days. Firstly, I sent my paper to a former journo colleague who had been after me about it, after which there was radio silence from her end. Which means she either couldn't make head or tail of it or thought it was rubbish, because she strikes me as an enthu cutlet who doesn't just let papers she is keen on reading sit in her inbox. And, today I got the feedback on my prize-winning paper from the jury. I had been warned that the feedback was mixed because the decision wasn't unanimous--I had to share the prize with another person. The critical feedback didn't pull any punches. Some of the points it raised were off the mark but some were spot on. And, it latched on to the Achilles Heel of paper--a recent development that weakens the central argument of my paper. The reviewer was obviously sharp as nails, and the fact that they found my paper "ultimately unsatisfying" will rankle for a while, I suppose.
Well, for someone who is prone to overconfidence, it is good to have my bubble pricked from time to time. Also, as my colleague Mandy was saying, if you are doing something different and taking chances, it is unlikely that everyone will approve. If everyone thinks your work is great you are not pushing the envelope, and I really think I am with this paper. Which is not to say that I should dismiss criticism, only that I should acknowledge that I can't please everybody. 
And, I think I am getting better at dealing with criticism. The first time I faced heavy criticism, which was during my progression exam, I sulked for days afterwards. It literally ruined my holiday with my sister and her family. And, the examiners came away from it having enjoyed what they thought was a vigorous debate.
It is natural to hope to be praised for one's work. Being praised for something is a reaffirmation that you are good at it. But, of course, one doesn't do something just for praise. There could be a million other reasons for doing something. One could be that because you enjoy it. I am really enjoying my PhD and have never worked so hard in my life. I believe I have found my calling.

Stick In The Mud

Another painful break from my routine today. It was pelting down all  day, so I decided to leave my bike behind and take the bus home. I stood at the bus stand for five minutes, rediscovered that I really hate taking the bus and decided to walk home instead. When I was mid-way, the rain stopped and I kicked myself for not waiting for a bit before leaving, so that I could have rode home.
The issue is  not that I love to cycle. It is just that now I won't be able to ride to uni tomorrow, which is always a good workout because it sits on top of a hill. And I don't like missing workouts, even though I go for a pretty intensive yoga class on Wednesday evenings. The ride sometimes leaves me quite winded, especially when there is a stiff headwind. So, its probably good to take a break from it from time to time. But, I am very much a type-A personality when it comes to fitness. I have gotten better over the years at figuring out when my body needs to take a break, but that doesn't make it easier. I always take breaks grudgingly. Some people need to push themselves to work out. For me, the problem, is the opposite. I need to push myself not to workout when I am either injured or under the weather. I can count on the fingers of one hand the times I have missed a workout in the past year because I was feeling lazy.

Clearing My Plate

All my tasks for the semester are done, save for one. I had a bunch of things hanging over my head for the past few months and all of them are out of the way now. The one that remains is probably the  most important and its not something I can get out of the way in the short-term.
Finishing all the other tasks should have brought a sense of relief, but I don't feel any. I was nervous about finishing those tasks, but when I finished them it was an anti-climax. There was one essay that I spent an inordinate amount of time over, time which could have been better spent on my PhD research. Its not that I realized this mistake in hindsight. I was fully aware that I was giving it too much time even as I  was doing it. But, I got swept up in it and found it difficult to extricate myself. I really enjoyed writing the essay for the most part, although the  end was a bit of a slog. I was not entirely happy with the end-result but wasn't prepared to spend more time over it. Being engaged in research entails striking a continuous balance between passion and pragmatism and sometimes one prevails over the other. And, its more fun to err on the side of passion rather than pragmatism. 
Now, my plate is clear to focus on the crucial task before me--preparing for my interviews. I am going to try  to take it easy and enjoy the process as much as possible. I have discovered that the workload doesn't really ease up that much at any stage of a three-year PhD so its best to pace oneself and enjoy the ride. There is no use in trying to  get ahead of the workload by throwing yourself in it because there will always be something else to do after you finish. 

Northern Correspondent

It is  impossible to overstate how central London is to the United Kingdom and how peripheral every other place is--especially Northern England--in the cultural imagination of the country. This will be an enduring topic for blogging so today I am going to only talk about one manifestation of this: the existence of a Northern Correspondent, not just in business newspapers like the  Financial Times but also in dailies such as The Guardian. The idea that one correspondent can cover the entire swathe of land stretching from Nottingham to Scotland seems a little bizarre to me. Maybe they have more reporters writing about Northern England and the designation of Northern England Correspondent is a mark of distinction. But they could have called them Northern Bureau Chief or Northern Editor or some such term that would imply the presence of a bureau or at least more than one person in the North. 

Having Kids

At the conference in Edinburgh last week, I was chatting with two women when the conversation turned to their children. Since I don't have any children, I was silent. Possibly in an effort to involve me, one of them asked if I had any kids. When I replied in the negative, she remarked that I still had plenty of time.

I was surprised by her remark since she was white British. She had assumed that I had wanted kids, which was odd because English manners dictate that you don't assume anything about anyone. I wasn't offended because I am from India and I am used to people I haven't talked to in years open conversations by asking if I am married.

But staying on the topic of children, there is still the widespread belief, much more so in India but also in the West, that having children is the milestone which marks stability and a sense of purpose in a person's life. This is a little curious given the grave dangers facing our planet. You don't need to be a genius to figure out that the most eco-friendly thing that one can do is not have children, especially in the developed world. No matter how green one's lifestyle, one won't be able to achieve the same resource savings as if one didn't have kids. It is mind-boggling to imagine how many resources a single person consumes during their lifespan. 

This is not to say at all that people who have kids are selfish and don't care about the environment. All I am saying that whether one wants kids or not is an emotional preference that stems from the deep recesses of one's personhood. It not a decision that is reached through rational analysis, although one can deploy innumerable reasons for  or against it. 

But, given the planetary crisis we face, the onus should be on the people who have kids to justify their preference, not those who don't want kids. If everyone stopped procreating it would be a disaster for mankind, but we are already in the middle of a man-made disaster. How about we leave procreation to those who want kids, rather than having it as a norm. Maybe social norms have yet to catch up. On the other hand, me and all my other friends who are single and childless are still quite close to our families. In the future, will the family cease to be the primary stabilization unit in the lives of individuals. That is a topic for another day.

Christmas Dinner

I had a Christmas dinner with the PhD Society at my uni today. I didn't have high expectations of the food or the conversation so I wasn't disappointed. Ours is a small community and most of our research topics are widely disparate, so the common ground is restricted to small talk and gripes about the uni. I had a couple of decent conversations, but nothing scintillating.
Sometimes, I wonder why we voluntarily sign up for experiences that we know we won't particularly enjoy. Maybe not every experience, or even most experiences, are not meant to be enjoyed. Maybe most of our actions are ritualistic--we do something out of habit or because we assume we are supposed to do it. Maybe because we are open to the possibility of enjoyment, however unlikely. Maybe because it reinforces our sense of self. Or maybe because we are lonely and are mostly fine being so but like whales in the ocean we have to surface from time to time to fill our lungs with air before descending back into the comfortable embrace of solitude. Mediocre company makes loneliness more bearable and reminds us that one need not be alone to be feel lonely.