A thought on grad advising. When I was a second year, an announcement went out to our dept. with the abstract for a talk I was giving in the area talk series. A senior faculty member wrote back with a scathing critique (cc'd to my advisor, @LanguageMIT). /1
The part that made the biggest impression on me: they said that the first line of my abstract was *so embarrassing that they thought my graduate training had failed*! Actual quote: "You look naive at best, many other things at worst." And on from there. /2
My advisor wrote back immediately: "Hi [critic], I wrote that line." /3
Now I don't remember if he wrote that line or not. I don't think so? But maybe he did. It didn't really matter to me at the time. What mattered was that it felt like he supported me completely. /4
He took an insulting, vitriolic screed from a senior member of the department and redirected it to himself. Then he and I went on to discuss the actual issue this person was upset about - *after* he had pointed the attack away from me. /5
This kind of support is what I aspire to as an advisor, so that my students can carry on doing the work they want to do, and have some measure of insulation from the (occasionally) ugly territoriality of professional life. /6
I found myself telling this story at a conference the other day as an example of awesome advising and wanted to share it more broadly because I think about it a lot. Thanks, @LanguageMIT! /end
