Tag Archives: authority

Social anxiety in high school

Posted on April 22, 2014 by zinemin

Teaching teenagers and getting to know them is fascinating, and often makes me think about my own teenage years, and how defining they were for me. When I was a teenager, I was extremely performance-oriented. I felt that I had … Continue reading →

Posted in Anxiety, Psychology, Teaching | Tagged , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Too easy explanations

Posted on January 12, 2014 by zinemin

I spent a lot of my final years in academia being really angry about how ridiculously uncritical many of my fellow scientists are, and how little they actually care about the truth. Here is why: The goal of my subfield … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Physics | Tagged , , , , , , | 10 Comments

My unconscious motivations for doing natural sciences

Posted on May 5, 2012 by zinemin

I have often wondered what the deeper, unconscious motivations are for doing natural sciences — the true motivations, not the ones that we like to believe in, like ‘advancing human knowledge’ or ‘curiosity’ (although those are of course also important). … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Physics | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

The imposter syndrome

Posted on April 21, 2012 by zinemin

Apparently, many scientists agonize over ‘being found out’. They feel like they probably made some terrible mistakes along the way or that they probably totally misunderstood some important concepts. This is called the ‘imposter syndrome’ and, according to many recent … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Women in science | Tagged , , | 3 Comments