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Why I am writing advice articles

Posted October 27, 2021

As a young scholar, I scrutinized academic processes. As a faculty member, student conversations provided mountains of topics of confusion or difficulty. I wrote informal notes to guide my advisees, and those were the seeds for my now-public articles.

In 2020, social unrest in the United States was shining a light on societal problems that produce unequal access to opportunity, around the same time Michael Lewis spoke persuasively about the value of coaching and the effects of unequal coaching access. Advising is a form of coaching, but I was only advising a select group of students. I wanted to work at a larger scale and share best practices so that academic success doesn’t require access to insider information.

Additionally, most scholars hide their detours, failures, and fears while highlighting their achievements. Competitive academic environments almost require this behavior. I have done it myself. But concealed shortcomings are corrosive for students who mistakenly perceive their role models to have led failure-free lives.  Now that I am more securely established professionally, I wanted to be more open and vulnerable about my own setbacks and challenges.

I hope to provide insights that help you reach your goals and be a little less anxious during your journey. I also want you to be efficient with your professional work. Our goal should be high-quality and impactful work, and there are are no bonus points for extra suffering en route to the same destination. 

I especially hope to contribute to greater access to education and research opportunities. These articles are available for all, but I suspect that they are most useful to those of you with the least access to other sources of advising and counseling. 

My writing comes with caveats. First, I hope my ideas are useful, but I know they are insufficient to put all students on a level playing field. Second, I try to stick to topics where I personally can provide value. Third, I will trust you to take what is personally valuable and exclude irrelevant ideas. You know what your constraints are, and are capable of finding other perspectives, so I won't water down my writing with caveats.

This is an ongoing experiment. I will continue releasing articles, gauging the reception, and learning. Your thoughtful feedback—positive or negative—is always welcome.