Tell me again, what is it that you do?

Holidays should as much as practicable not be allowed, for they allow the worker the leisure it takes to consider their lot in life.

danah boyd considers the state of mind, of soul, of workaholic academics. I am put in mind of five young faculty members in our department, one of whom is tenured. In the firmament of instructors, they teach the lion’s share of introductory classes. Is this because they’re new, and shit runs downhill? Is it because they’re a new generation of enthusiastic and driven pedagogues, who relish the thought of getting that one last bit of optimization theory into the heads of the young prospective protégés?

I have not had one single conversation with any of these five young folks in which time-pressure didn’t feature—typically as an explicit topic. This life of the mind seems more like life in a small, isolated village.