The perverse incentives of academia
6 years ago
April 17, 2009
New minion
In a partial admission of the unrealistic timeline for one of my projects, Advisor has assigned a new minion to yours truly. Said minion is supposed to do the more mechanical portion of the project which I should be able to "easily" train the minion to do. Advisor's law superceeds Brooks's law.
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7 comments:
It can be nice to have a minion though...if they're competent. Hope they are!
I try to explain this to Advisor all the time. Throwing other people on a project does not necessarily help. Now, I've got a wikipedia link! ;-)
Good luck with the minion!
I wish you the best! This week, every single grad student complained to me about my minion. We get to have 'a talk' on Monday. She is worthless....I hope you have better luck!!
Phizzle - I have had quite a few minions in the past, up to 4(!) at a time. Only one of them has been more help than work for me, possibly because he was already a Master's student. The new minion is only a sophomore (which means I will need to figure out how to explain some pretty advanced concepts in a simple way), but I am told he is supposed to be smart and disciplined, so I am keeping my fingers crossed.
Amanda - always glad to provide the sources :)
UnReaction - thanks!
Albatross - sorry your minion is giving you trouble. I am yet to meet mine, but I was told that he had potential.
Hooray for minions!
Cath - I have met him already, actually. He seems eager to works, but I don't yet have a clear picture of how competent he is. Fingers crossed!
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