Tuesday, October 21, 2008

an imp0ster, exp0sed.

a colleague of mine was giving a ta1k for the undergraduate math club tonight and invited me in advance. it sounded interesting enough, so i attended.

as it happened, my cover was blown. later in the talk, during the question period, the speaker exposed me as a postdoc. it wasn't malicious or anything; i just didn't expect it.

admittedly, i was curious how long i could blend in before someone would notice that this guy was using all this highfalutin mathematical language with the equally-out-of-place guy next to him.

(as it happened, i wasn't the only postdoc in the room,
and he brought with him a more interesting preprint to read than i did.
)


odd. the imp0ster syndr0me is when a grad student feels out of place and undeserving of the "high academic status" (s)he has, in academia. i think, tonight, i felt the opposite feeling.

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