yakalskovich | Something to remind myself of...

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Something to remind myself of...

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on.”

Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement address delivered on June 12, 2005.

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Reading this, I feel great respect for the man. These are words to live by.

Yes. Words to search for a new job by, to. I will no longer settle for the slavery in the Miserable Village.

And when I finally do give notice, having found something else, I will quote those words. 'I did it in honour of Steve Jobs' will skyrocket my geek cred...

*dying*

Yeah, it's great to be idealist and defy the real world ("NO! I will not capitulate! I will live on the streets eating from trash bins and find fulfillment in my freedom!") but in practice it doesn't always pan out.

I don't know what I want to be when I grow up. LOL

I LOVE teaching -- but only those who share my passion. The riders I have who really want to excel, go all the way -- the time I spend with them is pure joy. (I actually wanted to be a gymnast but got too tall, switched to ballet and got burnt out and meandered back to horses. But if I could do it all over again, I think I'd be a gymnastics coach -- it's really my favorite sport.)

I love competition and being part of a team.

But alas the majority of my students -- my bread and butter (the die-hards are all on scholarship *headdesk*) -- don't want to work. And it's like pulling teeth to get them to participate.

My very favorite prof of all time (who is a playwright as well as an economist) turned down a position at Stanford in econometrics because he wanted to teach 3rd grade.

If I hadn't had the responsibility of providing for two little ones, I would totally have followed in his footsteps.

If I want to see a really passionate teacher, I need look no further than my mother -- and I need look no further than her to know it's not for me. I don't have the patience.

What I love is working with a team, setting deadlines and getting things done, celebrating the success and then move on. I tame data bases and mediate between suits and geeks. I have studied cultural sciences and can talk culture-shocked people off their trees. I'm a 'hunter' type worker that can hyperfocus for a short time and then slack off for ages; steady 'farmer' type productivity is not really for me. There are definitely jobs out there that want somebody of exactly that ability, and I will find one -- if only in honour of Steve Jobs!

I have patience for students who apply themselves. Everyone learns differently and one cannot expect one individual to learn at another one's rate.

I would much MUCH rather teach a person with 95% work ethic and 5% talent than the other way around. I have no problem with someone not grasping a concept -- not being able to do something -- but I loathe laziness. I can have the most brilliant kid in the world in my class and if they are lazy, I want nothing to do with them.

Which isn't to say that I don't do my share of shirking and have fun doing it. LOL In fact, after a hard competition, we usually slack off for a day or so before hitting the course again. But being around people who are fundamentally lazy maddens me -- I almost feel as if they are sucking all of my energy out of me.

Edited 2011-10-06 16:02 (UTC)

**hides**

I have always tended to be the brilliant lazy one...

It's good that we are friends and not in a student/teacher relationship then. :D

Actually most of my friends are both brilliant and completely unambitious and I prefer it that way. Their even-keel approach to life complements my instatiable drive.

My friend tells me I am "fire". LOL

This is a great and inspiring quote. There are great things out there for both of us.

Actually, I am sure that many of my actual teachers (a long logn time ago when Big Ben was a little watch) despaired of me...

Exactly. I was thinking of you (and all the other chatlings looking for jobs and hoping for their dream job) when I read that quote as well, and that is why I put it up here.

Jobs about jobs. It's a pun, but something to remember the man by.-

OMG LJ is working *klunk*

I think it is frustrating because as educators we see kids with nothing to work with giving it all they have (and then some) and the person who could go all the way just doesn't care.

That sort of attitude in that environment in infuriating.

But with my friends -- for whom I have no responsibility and no ambition -- it doesn't matter what they do with their time and talent. :)

I respect that sort of dedication, yes. I simply seem unable to apply it myself for a longer stretch of time.

I know that in areas where I have had to work really, really hard to do well, it is aggravating to me to see someone with so much talent just jack off. That said, one of my closest friends in Helsinki is a brilliant girl (fluent in 7 languages) who chooses to be a lowly secretary in London. She simply wants to go out to clubs and have fun. Between you and me, she could be running the institute, but she has no desire.

I still adore her. :)

I wouldn't want to run anything, either. I just want to poke and meddle a bit...

Yeah but she could at least have been a professor!

To be a grunt laborer? ugh

I never felt the urge to be a professor, either. Academia is a snake pit that I want nothing to do with.-

Agreed but can you imagine being the person who makes the photocopies for the academics???

Nope -- which is why I am the person to tame the databases far away from anything I studied.-

Yes and that is why I train horses and children and left Academia.

But my point about being baffled by my friend's choices stands. It can't be fun for her placating those egos.

No, the placating egos part is something I regularly despair of, too. In my case, it's mostly explaining to suits that only think themselves tech-savvy what will and will not work.

On the other hand, as I said before, this has involved into something of a core competency.

It's weird. I have never had to have my ego placated. When I don't understand something, I just want someone who does! In translation, this means I find myself very frustrated with people who need to have their egos stroked. I feel like they need to take a pill or some such so that we can dispense with the bullshit and get down to work.

Which is why I love animals and small children. :D

okay, so adorable!

Little putty tat got on the table with big feral tom cat and curled up beside him to sleep!

I haven't the faintest idea how he managed to get up on the table. He's way too little.

The things that cats get up on and up to know no bounds. They are cats!

http://lj-scribe.livejournal.com/306502.html

lulz

Cats!!

I discovered my aged cat (he's 17) likes cream! I poured some into a bowl this morning whilst preparing my own coffee and he drank it all.

Five years ago, he wouldn't touch the stuff.

Cats are entitled to randomly change their minds whenever they want. That's what they are like.-

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Something to remind myself of...

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