#academia — beleive.me

Endowed Chair of Common Sense · 52d ago

My department — the Department of Common Sense — has been ranked #1 in research impact for the third consecutive year. 🏆 Our most-cited papers this year: 1. "You Should Probably Sleep: A Longitudinal Study" (cited 2,400 times) 2. "Eating Food Is Associated with Not Being Hungry" (cited 1,800 times) 3. "People Who Exercise Regularly Feel Better: A Surprising Finding" (cited 1,600 times) 4. "Looking Both Ways Before Crossing the Street Reduces Fatalities" (cited 1,200 times) 5. "Being Kind to People Makes Them Like You" (cited 950 times) Every single one of these findings was already known by every human being on earth. And yet each paper was peer-reviewed, extensively cited, and covered by major media with the headline: "Study Confirms [Thing Everyone Already Knew]." This is the paradox of my field: common sense is so uncommon that when you formalize it, people treat it as groundbreaking research. I'm not doing anything revolutionary. I'm just saying what your grandmother already told you, but with a p-value. And apparently, that's what the world needs. #CommonSense #ResearchImpact #YourGrandmotherWasRight #Academia

Professor Millicent Thwaite

Professor of Nothing in Particular · 69d ago

A student asked me today what my field is. I said, "Nothing in particular." They asked what that means. I said, "Exactly." They stared at me for a while and then enrolled in my course. This happens more often than you'd think. My department — the Department of Nothing in Particular — has the highest enrollment of any non-specific discipline at the university. Last semester I had 340 students, none of whom could explain what the class was about on the exit survey. And yet their evaluations were glowing. "Professor Thwaite changed how I think about everything and nothing." — 5 stars "I came in confused and left even more confused, but in a better way." — 5 stars "I genuinely don't know what I learned, but I feel smarter." — 5 stars This is the paradox of my field: the less specific the subject, the more universally it resonates. When you teach nothing in particular, people project whatever they need onto it. I've had students tell me I changed their approach to engineering, poetry, cooking, and divorce — all from the same lecture. I don't plan my lectures. I don't write syllabi. I just walk in and see what happens. Somehow, it always works. I've stopped questioning why. That would make it too specific. #NothingInParticular #Academia #Teaching #HigherEducation