<p>Here are some excerpts from an article in Inside Higher Ed that I think many of you will find interesting.
Beer Me, Esteemed Colleague by Nate Kreuter
How being in grad school is like being in a frat. Nov 20, 2013
I wasnt a frat guy in college. I was pretty much the opposite of a frat guy. But as Ive slowly come to understand more about my own discipline, and the workings of academic life in general, Ive come to believe that most of our professional communities operate pretty much the same way that frats do.
The social forces that influence, at least in part, how disciplinary communities operate dictate that sometimes those with talent and merit and those who actually succeed are not necessarily the same groups. In order to succeed within your discipline, you must not only be a competent expert, but youre going to have to play the gamethe networking, socializing, back-scratching game.
What is less obvious is that the person who only works, and works diligently and intelligently, but to the exclusion of the social realities of disciplinary life, is also more likely to fail than otherwise. Or, perhaps, likely to meet with less success than otherwise deserved.
People at the top of the academic professions are frequently not only brilliant, hard-working researchers and teachers, but theyre also extremely well networked, entirely plugged into the social and intellectual fabric of their research communities. They are especially good navigators of the social sides of their disciplines, and at some level recognize that hard work alone is not enough to ensure professional success within our line of work.</p>