I think Ruud's proposition comes from the manager & administrator's
world where it may good advice. Managers always have a dearth of
really new conceptual ideas because the general goal, keep the machine
going, does not change with time. Really new input in this game comes
only very rarely; all too often the same old messages are merely given
in new wording.
John Dewey's reply is probably better for scientific meetings if
knowledge of rather individualistic character is to be conveyed, such
as the particularities of a given field area.
But I have listened to a fair number of talks where some geologist
tried to concentrate on some general principles, and it took some life
experience to separate the show from the content. The show, I admit,
was rarely bad, but were there really new ideas? Not that many times.
When I was a student at UC Davis, and GSA season came, we would give
our talks a pre-run; someone mimicked the session chairman, the
delinquent would give his talk, the rest of us would sit with the feet
on the desk and a sixpack in the lap, and once the talk was over there
would be a completely unflattering, to-the-point critique. I remember
very well the occasion when I gave my first pre-run, after having been
very generous with critique to others before. Boy, I had wished to
vanish into the ground. Except that, from the voice of my fellow
students, it was clear that they did not try to destroy me, but they
were merely frank. So I walked back to my place, opened another can,
and concentrated on the next talk.
That may well have been the most important lesson I got in California
- that it is absolutely necessary for all of us that we need critique,
desperately, and that it is a friend's service to give it. Later in
life I found out that finding that fair, but critical audience is more
difficult to find if you are older. The more one should listen if it
comes. Don't be offended, be grateful.
Falk Koenemann
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| Dr. Falk H. Koenemann Aachen, Germany |
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| Email: [log in to unmask] Phone: *49-241-75885 |
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| stress elasticity deformation of solids plasticity strain |
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| Success is a consequence. It must never become a goal. |
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| Gustave Flaubert |
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