on the other hand, having left the united states, i've been spared the usual frustration of applying for an NSF grant ..
you can't believe how happy i am, not to have to do this until i return to the U.S. of A.several days ago, however, i was told that applications for postdoctoral positions at the acadεmy of fιnland are due at the end of september ..
some of you have told me before that writing a grant is a good thing: if anything, it gives one focus and makes clear one's future research goals .. even if you didn't know beforehand what those goals were. (in short, it's a trek of self-discovery.)
i'll agree to that, in the same way that i believe that adversity tempers us and makes us more effective, well-rounded people. that doesn't mean that those adversities are in any way enjoyable!
so as a compromise, once the NSF decides to fund me,
then i'll stop complaining about it.
until then .. (-:
.. wait: isn't september this month?
[sighs]
to be fair, the academy accepts applications from non-finns and they have funded non-finns and even non-europeans. this is a fine thing: i imagine, for most nations, that this would be an excuse to practise nationalism.
but .. [sighs] .. it's just the timing. i really wanted a huge chunk of uninterrupted time to finish writing these metric "geometry" papers, and then switch gears to learn new topics and see what i can do in them.
instead, my september will be its usual rush. this next preprint must be finished quickly, preferably before september, if only to be used as "evidence" that my research plan (to be written) shows enough promise that i can do more ..
.. and then there is the actual application to write ..
oh well: it's still a year off from teaching, so who am i to complain?
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