If you're new to this blog (which you are because this blog is new), and you don't know me, you might be asking yourself: what makes you a professional nerd? How dare you?
Well, I dare because I study an extremely obscure subject, with no real practical value, and I plan to make a living doing so*, even though this is looking pretty grim. This obscure subject can be succinctly termed Evolutionary Linguistics, although in reality it involves a lot more cognitive science and psychology than the moniker would have you believe.
Why, you say? Well, because I feel like it, and because I can. I'm not going to be curing any diseases or saving any babies from fire**, but I find it interesting. I like to read. I like to think. I love language. I'm enamoured with Darwinian evolution the way most Americans are with Jesus. And I really like the idea of getting paid to think and read, even if I'll never get paid very much.
However, as the title of this post would suggest, I'm absolutely screwed. Stanley Fish just wrote an excellent blog today titled The Last Professor. It's basically an obituary for the pursuit of knowledge for knowledge sake (which, unfortunately, is pretty much what I do). It reinforces the decision I made to come to the UK to study, where I believe the epidemic of Universities as utilitarian money makers hasn't quite hit - but as Fish points out (through his former student Frank Donoghue), it's only a matter of time.
Well, during that time, I'm going to keep sinking money into my final higher degree, and hope I can slip into the obscure academic workforce just before it implodes.
It's a good thing have a plan B: I applied to go on Masterchef. I've got it covered.
*I also have a borderline unhealthy appreciation for Battlestar Galactica, among other nerdy things.
**Maybe if it were my baby.
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