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The Wall of Overcommitment
One issue with jobs in what some call the “knowledge work” side of the house is that in knowledge work the jobs tend to give you more agency, especially as you accumulate more career capital. For example, as a faculty member especially in an R1 research university, other than broad goals there is almost no structure given to you by your department in terms of what tasks you should be doing. This is great if you enjoy being more self-directed in terms of what you want to work on. However, the downside is that there are very few guardrails around you accepting or yourself placing too many commitments onto your plate. Also, there are cultural expectations fueled by capitalism, especially in the US, that everyone should just be doing more work. Why? Because. And, if there is any sort of outside force or event that intrudes onto your schedule – pandemic, family emergency/issue, etc – all those plates you had been rushing around just to keep spinning soon come crashing down.
All that is just to say: I’ve hit the wall of overcommitment, which, among other impacts, means I’ve not had the chance to create new Technoslipstream podcasts or write Pseudodragon newsletters. In fact, I haven’t sent out this newsletter since January — sorry for the delay. Worse, the overcommitment end of the tunnel is not near, but I did just want to check in today and say hello.
On the job side of things, this summer I’m teaching a cybersecurity graduate course at Virginia Tech and studying for my Science, Technology, and Society PhD program preliminary exam. However, as kind of a pressure release valve, for fun I did recently make a YouTube video of a visit to a winery in Virginia:
The Social Disaster and Possible Savior?
I wrote previously about how badly Elon Musk was running Twitter (now called X?!), but I had not imagined how bad it would get. So it is no surprise I was happy to start using Threads when that came out. That app set a record for the number of initial signups — more than 100 million new users in less than five days — which is an indicator of just how horrid Musk has made the Twitter/X experience. There are more features needed in Threads, and who knows if over time Threads will last, but for now it is at least a night and day difference in terms of the user experience. If you already have an Instagram account it is trivial to get started on Threads, so I hope to see you there. Here’s a link to my Threads account: https://www.threads.net/@kendall_giles.
Until Next Time
That’s all for now. I hope you are doing well and are better able to maintain the work/life balance than I am!
Kendall
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About
Just joining us? Or maybe you’ve forgotten why you signed up? I’m Kendall Giles, a writer, researcher, and drinker of much coffee. Currently I work at Virginia Tech in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the College of Engineering in Falls Church, Virginia. I also teach in the Master of Information Technology Program, teach in the ECE Master of Engineering Program, and am a PhD student in the Department of Science, Technology, and Society in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. I write and speak at the intersection of science, technology, and society, including the TechnoSlipstream podcast and the Pseudodragon Newsletter.