seafood

Another take on research

While reading "Reflections of a Formal Semantacist" by Barbara Partee, I can across a section in which she mused on her greatest contributions. Oh how I would love to see more of this. Entering academia has not been an easy path for me. More words of wisdom such as the following would be helpful.

"I think my other most valuable contribution has been in teaching, advising, working with students, especially graduate students. I'm very gratified when students writing evaluations say that I'm good at making complicated or difficult things clear, and that I'm simultaneously demanding and supportive. I am at least as proud of the students whose dissertations I have chaired and those I have worked with in other capacities as I am of any of my publications. And I am grateful to them too; they have been as interesting and stimulating and rewarding to work with as anyone could possibly wish for. I think my strengths in teaching and in research are probably related. They say that I’m a good listener and good at suggesting connections to be drawn between one thing and another. I suppose that's at the heart of my teaching and also at the heart of my work. I like looking at things from various points of view, spotting connections, and trying to figure out what different ideas may have in common as well as where the crucial obstacles are to putting them together. For quite a few years I felt a slight inferiority complex because I wasn't gifted at inventing new theories that I could put my own name on, but rather worked at analyzing strengths and weaknesses of various theories, and putting together other people's theories, and solving problems. I contented myself with the idea that if everyone was always coming up with their own theory, it would be hard to make any collective progress. Gradually I learned to value synthesis more and to value my work. I'm grateful to all the teachers and students, friends and colleagues, who have touched my life and my work and helped to make it such an exciting, rewarding and joyful adventure."