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This morning, on the way to work, I realized that I am the number one expert of all time in the entire world on how course relations at my institution affect that institution's degree audit system. In only five years of working here, I have surpassed everyone else who ever lived.
For some reason this is not exciting to me.
It was also not exciting to me about a decade ago when I realized that I had become an expert typist.
These things come in handy, but the fact that I am an expert on these things (and that becoming an expert is time-consuming) instead of things I enjoy makes me feel like a loser. Maybe a small-time loser, but still.
Today I was selected to join a team of three people to help people in one department proofread the work done in another department. The three of us were selected because of our known skills in grammar, attending to detail, and understanding the course inventory system.
Most of those are not exciting to me. But the attention to detail reputation is very odd. I am not a detail person at all; to me, details are only useful as stepping stones to the big picture. And sometimes they are interesting. But after fifteen years of the kind of administrative work where a simple mistake can lead to overly huge consequences (did I tell you about that time I changed everyone into an Astronomy major?), even I have been able to learn that skill.
I do have a few things I'm expert on that I actually enjoy. I'm not the leading expert of all time or anything, but I'm probably in the top one percent in ballroom dancing and embroidery. So, if you have any questions about those things ... Well, perhaps not.
For some reason this is not exciting to me.
It was also not exciting to me about a decade ago when I realized that I had become an expert typist.
These things come in handy, but the fact that I am an expert on these things (and that becoming an expert is time-consuming) instead of things I enjoy makes me feel like a loser. Maybe a small-time loser, but still.
Today I was selected to join a team of three people to help people in one department proofread the work done in another department. The three of us were selected because of our known skills in grammar, attending to detail, and understanding the course inventory system.
Most of those are not exciting to me. But the attention to detail reputation is very odd. I am not a detail person at all; to me, details are only useful as stepping stones to the big picture. And sometimes they are interesting. But after fifteen years of the kind of administrative work where a simple mistake can lead to overly huge consequences (did I tell you about that time I changed everyone into an Astronomy major?), even I have been able to learn that skill.
I do have a few things I'm expert on that I actually enjoy. I'm not the leading expert of all time or anything, but I'm probably in the top one percent in ballroom dancing and embroidery. So, if you have any questions about those things ... Well, perhaps not.