Thread by @raulpacheco

I've been reflecting on the #BigHomieTips series that @RapPortraits created through an interview with the incomparably brilliant @tressiemcphd and this particular insight, Create An Experience, has been hovering in my head for so long that even though I'm past my bed time,...

https://twitter.com/tressiemcphd/status/1485302869234692101

... I wanted to write about it (and I suspect this thread will be come a blog post on my blog).

I think what I get from Tressie's insight is the following: I have finally figured out the EXPERIENCE that I want readers of my blog and followers of my Twitter account to have.

To that end, I needed to figure out how people who read my blog use it. And ask myself whether those readers were having the experience I wanted them to have.

My blog is not a repository of tips, per se.

It's a showcase. I show how *I* work. But I don't do it to set rules.

I write about the stuff I think MY own students will need, the methods, techniques, tactics, strategies that have carried me through my undergraduate degree, graduate school all the way to becoming a senior professor.

I show how I work not to preach that MY methods are better.

I think about the stuff that I want others to know, that I wish I had known, and I write about it in such detail that others can have the experience of learning to use my methods, not by following me, but but Doing The Work ALONGSIDE ME.

I showcase a method & then say, "now you go".

That's a very similar experience I offer whenever I teach a workshop or give a keynote talk: I walk people through the experience of being in my shoes, as I navigate the complexities of academic life on an everyday basis.

I offer templates, methods, techniques, strategies that have worked for me, and then tell readers: "here's how I work, what has worked, what hasn't, here is what I think I have learned from my own mistakes, so now you go and take this, ruminate it and do with it as you see fit".

Anyways, lots more to reflect upon, but it's way too late, I am sleep-deprived, but nevertheless I thank Tressie for sharing her own insights upon we can build and think about the world in a different light.

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