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.