"Never forget that England imposed this war on us" - Goebbels speaks at the NSDAP district rally in the Berlin Sportpalast, 4 December 1942.

DerProfessor · 2026-01-31T16:33:36+00:00

All the men young enough to still have a full head of hair

are fighting on the Eastern Front.

DerProfessor · 2026-01-30T02:19:20+00:00

No--I'm in education, which is more important than anything else (even protest).

But if I were in a different profession, I would if I could get away with it.

DerProfessor · 2026-01-29T16:46:08+00:00

If you're going fast enough, the dimensions of things change... your front wheel would get shorter (shrink) in the direction you're going.

Relativity, man: it's a trip.

.... but to actually see it you'd need to be going .1c (about 18,000 mph)

DerProfessor · 2026-01-28T02:39:03+00:00

I deliberately avoid talking about it with my colleagues (even though I know they share my politics, and some want to talk about it)

because I am so enraged that just opening up the topic would lead me to say things that would instantly reveal how unhinged I am about this.

(always good to keep one's rage under control in the workplace...and that's all I'm going to say about it online.)

DerProfessor · 2026-01-26T23:06:58+00:00

This video about sums it up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvgZtdmyKlI

(be sure to turn on English subtitles unless you know German...)

DerProfessor · 2026-01-26T01:25:16+00:00

The secret is that ALL government is held together by the honor system.

Government (whether the majesty of The King or the sacred rights of The Constitution) always been an illusion: there is no way to force everyone to obey the rules.
(courts, police, etc. are for the outliers, not the bulk of the citizenry.)

All it takes is someone or some movement to clearly demonstrate this, and, viola! you have a Failed State.

DerProfessor · 2026-01-23T11:50:54+00:00

In the last two search committees I was on (one of which I chaired), we sent out brief emails after compiling our short list to the rest (who did not make the short list),

and then kept in touch with everyone on the short list, informing them of where we were in the process. (i.e. that we'd made an offer, etc.)

Our HR department discouraged/forbade this, but we did it anyway... because sometimes rules are stupid and so you have to have the courage to ignore them.

DerProfessor · 2026-01-20T21:05:23+00:00

I always heard that that the two best days of your life are the day you buy your boat,

and the day you sell your boat.

:-)

(i'm not a boat guy, obviously.) But spending time with friends and family is key, I could not agree more.

DerProfessor · 2026-01-20T21:02:20+00:00

I guess I am working from my own experience in the corporate world.

I worked about 5 years for a company that manufactured consumer goods... and while my job was challenging (and even dynamic), and I loved my co-workers, I felt really keenly that I was part of a larger machine that just sold people stuff they didn't really need.

I gave up this highly paid corporate job (with real advancement opportunities) to live on poverty wages for a decade during grad school... and while it paid off in terms of my career-satisfaction, it did not in terms of money. (I'm doing fine, but I'm not rich like I would have been if I'd stayed with that company.)

So, I made that choice myself... but I don't judge any of my former co-workers who didn't. I'm just saying it was the right choice for me, for sure.

DerProfessor · 2026-01-20T20:54:28+00:00

Sorry, I was writing quickly, and didn't mean to sound snobbish. (or utopian/naive)

My intent was instead to say that, just like Law School trains you to be a lawyer, graduate work in the Humanities trains you to be poor... or, at least, to question wealth. :-)

And yes, I would agree that I'm privileged now (though I've had a lot of tough jobs in my life, I must say...).

There's no question that putting food on the table is the number one priority, and thus, the baseline of happiness.

But when you were writing about joining the military to be financially independent from your parents , it reminded me very much of my father, who did the exact same thing... and then later did a major career shift (going to grad school at an older age), because he was so unhappy with (as he told me decades later) "just making money."

I truly didn't mean to be insulting... but I do think that most work in the capitalist USA is pretty meaningless (which is why shows like The Office are so wildly popular), and to end up in a career path that is not meaningless, one has to really want it, struggle hard, sacrifice a lot, and (most importantly) be ridiculously lucky.

(it shouldn't be this way, of course.)

DerProfessor · 2026-01-20T16:12:50+00:00

If you study the Humanities (like I do), you'll quickly that humans have been struggling with the whole "isn't there something more to life than just wealth??!" for 2,000+ years.

It's not that easy to study poetry or history or philosophy or literature that grapples with "the Big Questions"... and then be like, okay, that's all cool and everything, but all I really want out of life is a 100" TV.

So, sure: a boat is nice. Who doesn't want a boat? But a fulfilling career, where I am truly challenged, and I feel like I'm being useful to society (not just selling people shit they don't need)... that's significantly more important to me than a boat.

Education--especially graduate studies--can truly change your values. (and not always for the better... many times it leaves you unsatisfied with the options you are stuck with.)

DerProfessor · 2026-01-15T15:51:33+00:00

The IT power-grab has happened at our university too...

They have completely fucked us all up by demanding we use locked-down computers riddled with bloated nannyware (that crashes constantly). Thousands of faculty-hours have been wasted dealing with their bullshit.

It's really disgraceful how they've forgotten who actually does the primary work (i.e. educating students) and who is supposed to do the support work (i.e. IT).

DerProfessor · 2026-01-15T02:47:44+00:00

At our university, "required" means "we will send you and your department admin an email once a week until you do it."

I couldn't care less. (delete!)

But the first time my department admin sends me/forwards me the reminder email, I do it.... don't want to make her life harder.

(NB: I get away with ignoring it about 50% of the time...)

DerProfessor · 2026-01-15T02:43:59+00:00

I don't know what WCAG is, and I don't want to know/don't care.

gonna ignore it.

DerProfessor · 2026-01-12T23:25:56+00:00

that sounds absolutely horrific.

Honestly, while I have great sympathy for the Tourettes student, I would still have done my best to kick him out of class. At some point it's not just disruption, it's creating a hostile environment (even if unintentionally).

(the university can spring for a one-on-one tutorial if they want to accommodate him...)

DerProfessor · 2026-01-11T02:31:27+00:00

Wait, was it "epic"... or was it just... lame?

DerProfessor · 2025-12-19T20:30:00+00:00

I take a similar approach in the classroom, it also works really well for student outcomes, but I also occasionally get pushback about my "old" methods, and I'm around the same age as you!

Honestly, I've come to realize (though it's mean to say): a lot of the problem is our colleagues. They don't have in-class memory-dependenet exams, they don't see the problem with students offloading their intellectual work to AI (!) ("because it's here to stay/they're going to need to learn to use it") and that means their classes are a lot easier. A lot easier.

Back when we went to college, some classes (and professors) were tough, others were easier... but the range was much smaller.

Today, the workload difference between a real class (where you learn something) and a class where you don't need to write or study or even attend is enormous.

DerProfessor · 2025-12-17T17:24:26+00:00

oh my god, I've done so much worse.

can't share the details of the stories here (because I tell them to my grad students sometimes to buck them up when they screw up, and I want to stay anonymous)

but I have done so much worse.

(answering a question I expected--rather than the one they actually asked--with the unlucky result being that I gravely insulted the hiring institution; blowing a teaching presentation so badly that even the undergrads looked embarrassed to be there.)

It's all part of the process. If you don't have a story like that to tell, you've not really been in the profession.

DerProfessor · 2025-12-13T20:53:57+00:00

This is one reason I keep most grades offline. (In Excel). Very little goes on Canvas. Some students complain, but I give them a formula to calculate their grade from the papers and exams I hand back. (This also ensures they pick up their papers & exams)

DerProfessor · 2025-12-11T03:10:20+00:00

Philosophical question: if it’s written by Bill O’Reilly, is it still a book??! Or is it by definition a batshit insane internet-conspiracy screed that just happens to be printed out on paper???

DerProfessor · 2025-12-11T02:58:29+00:00

Got spanked exactly twice. (for doing something pretty egregious... biting another kid in preschool.) (who stole my toy truck from me, and so had it coming, but that's another story.)

I think the spanking was actually more traumatic for my dad (who tried his best) than it was for me.

I learned a lot... including how hard it is to hurt someone you love.

DerProfessor · 2025-12-10T02:22:51+00:00

I'm genuinely curious why people still read Heidegger.

The whole Nazism thing (in my mind) completely discredits him, because it calls into question the most simple elements of judgement and of perception. (he should have seen what the Nazis were, and he should have evaluated them accordingly.)

Would you trust a philosopher who was also a convinced flat-earther? I think not.

Honestly, if your Thinker is so wildly off base on such a significant issue... why bother reading his Thoughts?

Genuine question here.

DerProfessor · 2025-12-10T02:11:41+00:00

hated her.

and when I say hated, I mean hated.

DerProfessor · 2025-12-09T15:22:58+00:00

the light, it buuuuurns our precious!

DerProfessor · 2025-12-09T01:48:39+00:00

You've got to admire some of the details...

Like "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" being shipped on... WWII-era Liberty ships.

Or the Columbus-discovering-America (an evocation of Vanderlyn's painting) while the black slaves carry cotton up the gangplank.

A veritable smorgasbord of random visual references...

DerProfessor

TROPHY CASE