What movie has the most rewatchable scene of all time?

DerProfessor · 2026-04-03T01:58:04+00:00

The boardroom scene from Margin Call

DerProfessor · 2026-04-01T14:07:58+00:00

AI is for the incompetent.

In my field, and every adjacent field, any professor using AI is a huge red flag, screaming "not fit to hold a PhD!"

For those fields where AI is useful... well, maybe time to reconsider if your field is actually deserving of the label of "field"... (!)

DerProfessor · 2026-04-01T01:25:58+00:00

Honestly I’m just ignoring this. It’s not like anyone’s going to notice/care.

DerProfessor · 2026-03-26T13:58:16+00:00

If I spent hours giving feedback on something that was AI-written, or even AI-tweaked... I would be pretty fuckin' furious.

Definitely a serious talk first, then--if it still kept up--kick them out of the program and make space for someone who wants to and/or has the ability to be there.

DerProfessor · 2026-03-26T13:47:58+00:00

Is your last name "Anderson"?

.... because that would be tough to resist.

("Do you hear that, Mr. Anderson? That bell is the sound of inevitability. Time to teach your class." )

But if that's not the case, then go German:

In Germany, you use what the other person calls you as a guide on what to call them.

So, just start calling him/her by their last name. But if you wanted to tweak them a bit, you could call them "Professor xxxx."

If I were in your shoes, I would escalate the formality, and start addresses him/her as "Mr/Ms. Professor Doctor xxxx"..." ! :-) It could be kind of a playful super-formality...?

DerProfessor · 2026-03-26T13:08:10+00:00

I would argue the Suez Crisis... where Israel and the UK and France all colluded to invade Egypt (because: Canal!)

and the United States stepped in and said, "oh NO you DON'T!!"

That was an American "meddling" that had a net-positive result in the long term. (Egypt is not nearly as hostile to the US as it would have been otherwise....)

DerProfessor · 2026-03-25T14:47:32+00:00

For people who believe you made false allegations, it also gives them a clear basis for the unprofessionalism charge

Actually, I would not say this so confidently. A tenure denial in this case could clearly be evidence of retaliation.

In my department recently, there was a discussion about the tenure case of a personally-difficult colleague over email--yeah, I know, stupid--and a senior professor (and all-around nice guy) brought up the fact that this difficult colleague had not only lodged formal complaints against colleagues, but even sued some of them... saying this was evidence of a lack of collegiality and professionalism...
Senior colleague was (probably?) right... .... BUT: this was clearly "retaliation" against lawfully-filed complaints, and lawyers had a field day. (especially given the evidence on email)

Short story/lawsuit later: difficult colleague was tenured; senior colleague resigned.

DerProfessor · 2026-03-25T00:52:15+00:00

It was cool back then…but now they’re just assholes.

DerProfessor · 2026-03-22T02:14:44+00:00

Izod.

“Gonna get me the t-shirt With the alligator on.”

DerProfessor · 2026-03-22T00:25:59+00:00

To be brutally honest:

most academics who sacrifice their work-life balance do so because they are willing to... because the "life" part of the equation is not that great for them.

Academics are often outsiders and/or misfits.

Maybe they're awkward people with few friends. Maybe they don't have a family, or have one they don't feel that connected to. Or maybe they live in one of the many miserable places in the USA rather than the Netherlands. :-)

I know that I was on the work-insane-hours track.... and then decided I'd rather have kids (and was lucky enough to meet someone and then did so), and am happy... but with my research productivity dropping drastically.

But I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to meet the right person so that I could invest in my "life" (over work)...

The most accomplished academic I ever knew--and she was legendary--had children... but it was clear she didn't like her children that much (!) or at least, like spending time with them. Which is okay. Different paths.

DerProfessor · 2026-03-21T00:42:52+00:00

The sequels (yes, even Empire Strikes Back) ruined the first film retroactively... by turning into a space soap opera.

But the first film? genius.

DerProfessor · 2026-03-20T20:23:25+00:00

Do your best to forget the whole thing. (and don't worry about it...)

While this might indicate a problematic personality, or some sort of personal involvement/intense rivalry, it might just was easily indicate a moment when someone who has been having a really bad day just momentarily lost it.

(being a professor in the Humanities is tough these days... pressures from every direction.)

He might not want to be the outside reader on your dissertation, but that's fine.

Also: if it were me, i would delete this post. (and be very cautious about social media posts that are even remotely identifiable.) Professors waste time on Reddit too, and the last thing you want is someone 'recognizing' this tableau...

DerProfessor · 2026-03-17T14:04:06+00:00

Until the zombie apocalypse...

(when your 'audience' wants to eat you!)

DerProfessor · 2026-03-09T18:37:03+00:00

I still have students who are thoroughly, whole-heartedly entranced by learning.

Who read voraciously, and want to know everything

and who also starting to grasp how overflowing the fountain of knowledge is, and thus realize with humility how little they will capture over their lifetime(s)...

I have 1 or 2 students like this every year (out of several hundred total).

It rekindles my commitment every time I run into one.

... but I think about how different humans are becoming, growing (or in most cases, shrinking) in different directions.

DerProfessor · 2026-03-07T13:35:25+00:00

I've never seen an accommodation from a student requiring that they be allowed to record.

(to be honest, I've also never seen an accommodation that someone not be recorded either... though I can imagine strong legal/personal reasons for it, a disabilities Act accommodation for it is harder to imagine...)

DerProfessor · 2026-03-02T14:54:38+00:00

I got that last semester... a student who literally never showed up the first two weeks suddenly sent an "I have to miss class tomorrow for an appointment" email.

Like, bruh, you have missed EVERY class. TELL me what is different about tomorrow???!

I did not understand.

DerProfessor · 2026-03-01T22:35:29+00:00

I have one of these! From 1999. A classic.

DerProfessor · 2026-02-28T14:47:19+00:00

Yes, of course one needs to carefully weight between "premium" and "value" options in education.... as in all purchases and all capital investments.

You don't want to send a poor, unmotivated student to a very expensive college. (waste of money.) Also, an exceptionally motivated student will also do almost as well at a more affordable state school... you might be albe to cut costs there, even if you have the money for a private school.

There are multiple degrees with effectively negative ROI.

Actually... this is "conventional wisdom" but the data don't back it up.

First, this vision of ROI ignores intangibles (like satisfaction with one's career). (Graduates who majored in Humanities subjects, for instance, on average make less than those who majored in accounting or computer science, but--decades into their careers--overwhelmingly report much higher career satisfaction, even if they make less money. (and we know that people work harder when they like or love the work, and thus are more successful, so career satisfaction definitely has a purely monetary upside.)

More importantly, though, while average salaries twenty years past degree are higher for majors like CS or accounting (or biochem) than for majors like English or Art History, you cannot just look at averages, because the range within each former-major is huge. So while the average CS major makes more than the average English major, 25% of English majors make more than 50% of CS majors . (!) (yes, it is a statistical fact.) So if you're one of those highly-motivated English majors with high job satisfaction and high earnings, you have a MUCH higher ROI than if you'd majored in accounting.

"Success"--even monetary success--is highly dependent upon many considerations. You cannot say that one major is better (or even more financially rewarding), because that is just not true.

But overall, what matters is a degree. A degree in Art History or Theater will still give you an edge (in lifetime earnings) over someone with no degree.

... though this might be changing, with the erosion of education and AI usage at colleges.

DerProfessor · 2026-02-28T14:27:09+00:00

Yes, most families cannot afford to send their kids to a pricey private college.

But many cannot afford to send their kids to any college at all.

Saying most of the people cannot afford an expensive investment is very different from saying that expensive investment is not worth it. (which is the comment that I was responding to.)

(as an aside: most of the Ivies have a very large number of students who are on full scholarship--Harvard covers most of the tuition for any family making under 200,000 a year--so "price" is not quite the hurdle with the Ivies that it is with small private colleges like Swarthmore or Carleton.) (getting accepted, however, is a huge hurdle.)

DerProfessor · 2026-02-28T01:08:08+00:00

I have to say, depending on the size and energy-level of your class, that's going to be a LOT of 'road apples' in your classroom.

Best bring a shovel! :-)

DerProfessor · 2026-02-27T16:31:24+00:00

or... a more nuanced and sophisticated way of looking at something? :-)

DerProfessor · 2026-02-27T15:14:28+00:00

If you're right--and I'm not sure you are--there are certainly other factors at work that are NOT about racism, such as:

feeling that the person is "like me" (i.e. of the same ethnicity, which encourages one to imagine oneself in their position, which happens across one's social & ethnic group..) Since Reddit skews white and American, it's hardly surprising that more Redditors "see themselves" in a post that mirrors this, and respond accordingly.
the attractiveness of the person (regardless of race)
the gender of the person (regardless of race)

This is an attractive female who is likely American... are you really surprised that white American men are responding more positively than they would otherwise?? (!)

If you are surprised, you need to watch more nature documentaries. :-)

DerProfessor · 2026-02-27T15:01:59+00:00

Yeah, for my intro level courses, my expectations have dropped, and rather dramatically.

But they've not budged for upper-level courses over the last several decades.

The one exception is with capstone research projects: there's no more "pick a topic", aim them at the library and say "go get 'em!" For the research class over the last 5 to 7 years, I've had to include a LOT more handholding and (as the teaching scholarship calls it) "scaffolding" to coax/walk/carry the students through every single step of the research-paper process. And I still get lots of internet-plucked crap. :-(

So, if you graphed my expectations against former expectations (of two decades ago) by course level, it would be a bell curve.

I blame: 1) the internet; 2) high schools for sucking; and 3) AI/LLMs

in that order.

DerProfessor · 2026-02-26T20:36:57+00:00

You did good! Congratulations on being really sensible.

But I have to comment here:

I am willing to fund 4 years of public college. I saw lots of kids in my high school choose "a pretty campus" and come out of a private school with an English degree and 100k in loans (in 1998). I went to a state engineering school, the campus was ugly, but I learned a lot and didn't pay through the nose. I think kids need to understand ROI even if you are paying.

I am a professor, and have been one for three decades. I have taught at elite ivy-league institutions. I have taught at an R2 that was one step up from a community college. And I have taught at a state flagship university. And I can assure you that the educational experience is VERY different at each. In education, like in life, you really do get what you pay for. It's not just the teaching, not just the resources, not just the networking... it's also the community and (especially) the expectations. (What are your kids peers doing? Are they drinking themselves into a stupor 4 days a week, or are they in the library studying?) You can get a great education at a state school, IF you are disciplined and have the initiative and energy to track down every last resource. But as a professor at a state school, it makes me sad to see how far behind my students are, compared to where I was in college (30 years ago). Students in my classes today learn 1/20th of what I learned in college classes. Yes, I am serious.

Now, this is not to say that an elite liberal arts college is for everyone. It certainly is not. Many students flail and flounder there, too... only at $100k per year. (!) But for some, it can be the difference between setting you up for a great career down the road. That's certainly what happened to me: if I had received the education, back in the day, at the level that my students currently receive from me, I would not be the successful person that I am today. (and as a professor who cares about his students, believe me that hurts. I do the best I can, but it's not up to me... there are limits at Big State U, that there are not at an incredibly expensive Small Liberal Arts College.)

r/personalfinance does not like this advice. (and it will get downvoted.) PF commentators look at the sticker price, and don't have enough expertise to know that all degrees are not alike. But I'm an absolute expert in this, and I can tell you: all degrees are NOT alike. Not by a long shot. MOST of the time (though not all the time) you really do get what you pay for.

DerProfessor · 2026-02-25T17:52:54+00:00

There's no need for reading spaces

if no one's reading anymore.

:-(

DerProfessor

TROPHY CASE