The Academic Achievement Trap | Micah Green

The Academic Achievement Trap | Micah Green | TEDxTAMUSalon

Рет қаралды 69,662

4 жыл бұрын

The modern American scholastic system has been described as a “competitive achievement arms race,” and many students feel either (i) be crushed by expectations of success or (ii) become detached, demotivated, and cynical. In this talk, we will talk about a better way to approach your motivation for pursuing academic success. Micah J. Green received his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering at Texas Tech in 2002. He then entered the Chemical Engineering Ph.D. program at MIT. His Ph.D. focused on computational studies of phase behavior and rheology of rodlike liquid crystals; his studies also included a minor in early Christian history at Harvard. After finishing his Ph.D. in 2007, he developed nanotube-based liquid crystals and fibers as an Attwell-Welch Postdoctoral Fellow at Rice University.
After several years on the faculty at Texas Tech, he joined Texas A&M as an Associate Professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering in Summer 2014. He has received the NSF CAREER Award, the Young Investigator Award from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and the DuPont Young Faculty Award for his work in the area of nanomaterial dispersions and morphology dynamics, with applications to gels, composites, and additive manufacturing. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx

Пікірлер: 70

@XC-iy4il 2 жыл бұрын

"true humility is not thinking less of yourself it is thinking of yourself less"

@juliusdoylephd6472 2 жыл бұрын

"Don't use scholarly achievement primarily as a means to gain approval from other people" literally describes the problem with trying to get tenure. The only criteria that affords you the ability to gain tenure is scholarly achievement. This is the source of so much problem in academia. And yet, scientific contribution in the modern era is only truly meaningful when it gains the approval of others. Think about any paper that has to be published -- requires the approval of others (sometimes from people who don't actually grasp the paper and reject it -- even if it was good research). Getting a science research job is literally based on evaluating one's scientific achievements and either inviting them or rejecting them. Literally every aspect of science research in the modern world is built on this. Then there are people who KNOW they are gatekeepers to others' success, and it literally becomes a game of satisfying them, no matter how meritorious your research is.

@ariyanbista5837 2 жыл бұрын

Beautifully explained!

@dv_interval42 10 ай бұрын

Yep. No level of individual enlightenment can solve a problem embedded deeply in the structure of the system itself.

@ilbene7922 10 ай бұрын

Really interesting comments, thanks for sharing!

@megamaser 9 ай бұрын

This is actually the problem tenure is supposed to solve. Once you have tenure, your career is no longer contingent on publishing papers. You don't need to worry as much what other people think. It's interesting to consider... Does the benefit of tenure offset the harm of its pursuit?

@timothyelicada2630 10 ай бұрын

Science must be done for the sake of science, not for chasing achievements. The mere wonder and curiosity can be as good motivation.

@pranitmane 10 ай бұрын

I am feeling immensely grateful to all the scientists who have contributed to the growth of humanity and our collective knowledge about science..

@pourya1398 10 ай бұрын

This is a fantastic talk. Probably the best TED talk I have ever seen aimed at science and the scientific community. Thanks for this.

@gudetamak4420 10 ай бұрын

Thank you for guiding a lost student for the need to constantly remind ourselves of the sense of wonderment, gratitude and amazement of whatever field we study!!!

@DrRECM 10 ай бұрын

There are other traps in today’s academic world. Yes we do have these new beautiful tools that help us see further and into the detail, but the trap is that the system then asks for more and rapid results, favoring quantity (probably) over quality. We are measured by productivity instead of long term impact and reliability of our findings. Academics today have to fight between they want to research for, and giving constant results that take them far from their inner most important and deep questions of nature’s functioning.

@cheese-power 10 ай бұрын

Feeling extremely grateful for this talk ❤

@eoneom 10 ай бұрын

This was one amazing talk. Looking at the view count, not many people have got the chance to watch this. Although he didn't highlight the main theme explicitly, but he went in good depth explaining how we should look at studying things. Love it!

@n2nurulnadia 9 ай бұрын

One of the best talks I've ever heard. Short, funny, inspiring, comforting.

@BDEvans 10 ай бұрын

This is a great talk!

@przeciag 10 ай бұрын

I had a feeling my motivation has worn out some time ago, the reason wasn't enough and it didn't do well for me and my work. Excellence of a field can be a motivation, but so can be a vivid target or a dream, I think I would recommend the latter

@john.dough. 9 ай бұрын

this is a great talk!

@maxp3141 10 ай бұрын

Beautiful.

@ennohermann6787 2 жыл бұрын

I really liked this a lot - it shows great insight into why people buy into the the hierarchies often associated with producing new knowledge and how changing ones perspective can create a more open and creative mindset and motivation. It should always be about wonder and curiosity in ones chosen field. staying open to what you don't know rather than trying to prove you know everything - this requires some humility in the face of an awesome and complex world. Brava - I think Micha Green you nailed it!!!

@NoamLeon100 9 ай бұрын

Thank you!

@sunilsahani7093 11 ай бұрын

this is the best TEd talk I have come across... It is must be recommended for budding researchers

@cheekydean1503 10 ай бұрын

Now that was a good talk

@soksreymom3353 3 ай бұрын

Whatever motivation for pursuing your academic achievement should be to develop the best within you, not for the expectation from others

@Niglnws 9 ай бұрын

I recently watched a video about neurosis and why people are neurotic. The term is no longer used in DSM (wikipedia quote). The video focused on how conformity with society can develop neurosis. Maybe that is the same as the subject of this video. You want to achieve what people expect of you and which is expected of every other person so you have to be like every person and begin to stress yourself to be like everyone to have society acceptance. But when you achieve what they want you may be still have some problems with yourself and have some personal problems havent been solved and you evaded from. And end up with society acceptance but still not feeling well and have personal stresses. That doesnt mean to go against soceity in everything. It has nothing to do with society. You should have your own motivations and virtues. Who know maybe the society is wrong in some case. Just listen to yourself and talk in isolation from society for some moments. It is ok to think to benefit the society. It is the most important motivation beside benefiting yourself and your family in ethical way.

@tailnowag8753 2 жыл бұрын

I really liked this one! Not just the breaking bad reference, but the intresting story and straight to the point message. That book I'm definitely gonna try to read if I can, not to mention some great quotes (that I haven't heard of before). Cheers!

@rubytues4u 10 ай бұрын

The first half of this talk made me think he was gonna go all anit-science and "look at how corrupt science is". But then i saw where he was going. I for one think that adopting a scientific way of thinking is one of the most important thing you can ever do. Otherwise you're prone to believe anything.

@gregvoth45 10 ай бұрын

Some very good material here. However, I suspect it is too simplistic to hope we can switch motivation from pleasing others and demonstrating our own sense of worth and identity to some grand ideas about excellence of the field. People are social creatures with self-interests. A good scientific culture aligns social approval and personal advancement and therefore individual's sense of worth and identity with behaviors that actually strengthen the social community and advance excellence in the field. I would frame the problem differently. We need less individualism and more carefully mentored training so people like Schön are working closely with others who are checking their work and reinforcing good research ethics. These bad cases (including recent Gino at Harvard and Tessier-Lavigne at Stanford) are possible because of the star obsession of the research hiring and funding systems that discourage talented researchers from spending their time closely mentoring the next generation.

@babyfacebastard4379 2 жыл бұрын

Great video.

@philliparnold6762 10 ай бұрын

There are good things here, but the final message is the same high school guidance counselor talk that has put Millennials in a state of crisis. As someone with degrees in music, I can say that passion and curiosity do not pay the bills unless you are extremely good at what you do. The motivation section at 7:30 is true - these are common motivations. However, they are not bad motivations. If you are unsatisfactory to authority figures, thought unintelligent, mediocre at everything, and lacking in foundation for sense of worth (which admittedly does not necessarily come from your vocation or academia), you will have a very difficult time in life, unless you are independently wealthy. While this speech has nuggets of wisdom, it is important to remember Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Millennials are in a state of financial, mental, and emotional crisis partly because all anyone ever talked about was self-actualization. As a generation we became disillusioned - myself included - and many went broke when it was time to get pragmatic.

@Niglnws 9 ай бұрын

You are right. You may try to make achievements to gain acceptance but in yourself dont think that this is what you worth or your identity. You are a lot od things, your worth is from your morals, virtues, principles. I think the subject is all about mentality it is not about behaviours. You may do the same behaviours, work hard but take care of your mental health. If you didnt gain acceptance dont feel sad in a destructive way. Unfortunately, economies are about increasing profits instead of fulfilling people desires or give them jobs of what they like to do. They make optimization about profit only. This maybe right in some way but how then profits benefit people equally is always the problem. Also high profits sometimes mean that some people will suffer as they dont have much to share in the profit. They will face problem in education, employment or in markets.

@herbertschulz5910 2 жыл бұрын

Love it.

@ursogreatniloveu 3 жыл бұрын

This is really beautiful. Thanks for the talk!

@igelkissen9912 10 ай бұрын

What a legend 🫶

@pranitmane 10 ай бұрын

❤❤❤

@zaidabuffkins6149 3 жыл бұрын

Amazing that someone with his achievements is focussed an being more whole as a person! Well done!

@studyaccount9662 10 ай бұрын

i am so grateful i am getting to watch this before getting my masters degree in theoretical physics

@RecordBreakerRush 4 жыл бұрын

Well-spoken Micah!

@sch-eit5880 8 ай бұрын

true humility is not even looking at yourself, why? you re just too engrossed in your work to even think of yourself

@inaythankyou761 10 ай бұрын

When the artist decided to paint Kepler in the middle of his Chinese takeout meal.... 😂

@aysegocer3308 10 ай бұрын

😍

@SAINTxSZN 9 ай бұрын

This dude has my whole name. First and Last

@CourageToLiveTrue Жыл бұрын

Actually, the title is perfect

@CourageToLiveTrue Жыл бұрын

Expectations by authority

@inuhundchien6041 10 ай бұрын

That's why best scientists are attached to corporations. You need real results to be employed.

@tzatzikiv812 Жыл бұрын

Jan Hendrik's surname is truly beautiful. 😜 (German speakers will get what I mean).

@psikeyhackr6914 9 ай бұрын

My grammar school gave out colored stars, gold, silver, green, yellow and red.

@soccersprint 9 ай бұрын

The guy from Bell labs was an unethical super villan. Dont make excuses for him. Also other peoples motivation and reasons for doing certain types of reseach or taking certain academic paths cannot be generalized and lumped together in that one weak category of wanting people to think you are smart and just trying to make yourself look good.

@ThisBook01 10 ай бұрын

Ans is to get certified as a passout with good grades so that campanies will hire me easily

@blondieeee7114 3 жыл бұрын

i cried a little.

@vivienf26 2 жыл бұрын

me too

@doctorofpharmacologytoxico9556 Жыл бұрын

Good

@charumohonbagchi1146 3 жыл бұрын

That's the best video on Earth...👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

@EastBurningRed 10 ай бұрын

the talk has a good start and middle but the ending is pretty weak, since science isn’t simply finding amazing things to discover but really a lot of trial and error that almost always ends in failure. The failures are just as important as the successes but unfortunately the academic works rarely cares which is the major problem.

@milanvukic6449 10 ай бұрын

No, Bell Labs didn't invent laser

@zola9535 9 ай бұрын

It would be much nicer to listen to these ted talks when presenters wouldn't trip they are stand up comedians

@yakubumshelia1668 9 ай бұрын

The job market demand and HR hoops for applications will never let us stop taking the temperature of our intellectual ability through our CV. Imagine working on your CV to the point that you have to jump the AI employment tracker tool, then the HR hoop, then the interview hoop then the office politics hoop.🤣🤗