Reblog> “How to get rid of your academic fake-self?”

• Substitute a politics of competition with an ethics of care (for yourself and others). Science is about collaborative knowledge and not a massacre.
• Acknowledge that you haven’t read everything and that you cannot debate all topics. Learn to say “I don’t really know anything about [theorist]. Maybe, one day, I will read [her/him, but not at the moment]”.
• [If you’re not able to research, exhausted, between jobs or any of the other many other reasons we sometimes cannot do research then t]rain yourself to say publicly: “I am not researching anything new at the moment, [I am not actively] writing” (“I am teaching and that already takes a considerable amount of time”).
• When a colleague asks you “what are you working on?”, [don’t make things up but maybe find ways of being honest, such as:] “I don’t know. [I’ve been focussing on other parts of my life] [a]nd I have nothing to publish right now”.
• Always have a BIG (critical) laugh at metrics and other tricks of [competitive] evaluation (that will painfully reopen your narcissistic wounds).
• Try to avoid – as much as possible – toxic colleagues who never ask you how you are, but [focus on lauding] their [own] academic achievements [or attempt to instruct you what you should be doing].
• [Find allies with whom you can laugh, talk things through and commiserate].

If it doesn’t work, double the dose and try again.