Updated Disclaimer…and a Word of Warning
I want to bring everyone’s attention to the updated disclaimer in the footer of this blog:
This blog represents my views and my views alone. It is not reflective of the views or activities of any organization I am affiliated with.
To say it another way, stop making assumptions about where I get my blog topics. Typically I don’t care if people understand the backstory of where my inspiration comes from for my blog but now these assumptions are starting to impact my life. Thus, at a time when I barely get four hours of sleep a night because of all the projects I have on my plate, I have to spend time writing this post instead. If I could shout at the lot of you, I would right now.
Let me be clear: If you have questions about where the inspiration for my posts are coming from, don’t run off and gossip like you’re part of an old lady knitting circle - use the email address I clearly have listed on every page of this site and ask the question. I answer all email I get within a day or so, so there’s no excuse. Now, if you know me in real life, chances are that you know where my office is or have access to my phone number. Use it. Stop making assumptions and open a dialogue.
I understand that gossip is sexy and brings drama to a boring day, but it’s hurtful to the people that you’re getting riled up for no good reason. You guys love to create stories about why I’m “really” writing what I’m writing…and you know who you are. Unfortunately, I don’t. If I did, I would act like an adult, come to your office and say all this to you personally. I don’t spend dozens of hours a week working on all of my blogs to hurt people.
My apologies to the vast majority of my readers that haven’t been making assumptions and take what I write at face value. I promise, we’ll get back to our regularly scheduled programming next week.
March 20th, 2009
There’s a reason why I don’t blog much about my worklife. Humans use assumptions as a way to reduce the overwhelming data stream of their lives. It happens at a sensory level and a conceptual level. At the risk of being sarcastic: Protip: People don’t have time to check in with you and open a dialogue on the source of every post. They are just going to talk about what you wrote, like they do with everything else they read. Maybe you could be more specific about the sourcing in each post?
March 20th, 2009
The thing is that *I* don’t blog much about my worklife either. People, primarily those in Hanover who represent a grand total of 0.02% of the readers of my blog, make assumptions that when I make statements they are directly related to my worklife. Therefore, me catering to this audience by elaborating on the source of each post is roughly equivalent to me designing my website based on the number of users who still use IE5! If people don’t like to check in with me when they have questions, then they should damn well keep their mouths shut when they feel an urge to talk ABOUT ME.
March 20th, 2009
I take great comfort in knowing I’m not the only one working long hours to pursue projects that are important. The work you do is great; the contributions you make online are extremely valuable. I’ve held back from posting about projects at work, and I actually regret not sharing more. If there’s occasional backlash or confusion about a post it’s worth it. I’ve seen that so often with this great community I’m honored to be a part of. I hope to contribute more, and you are an inspiration for that.
March 20th, 2009
Hi Megg,
Thanks for your kind words
Inspiration for posts don’t just need to come from a work environment - for me they come from conversations with colleagues online, blog posts I’ve read, coursework I did for my MBA, books I’m reading…I actually take great pains NOT to write about work to avoid the very problems I’m facing now. But people always make correlations even if it wasn’t the original intention of the writing. I hope to hear more from you…’cause the Vassar site kicks ass and I’d like to hear more about your ideas!
K
March 20th, 2009
It can be as simple as, “I remember when I was doing this project for my MBA…,” or “I was reading this book called…”
I guess my point is this post - which will scroll off the main page in a few days/weeks anyway - will not change the biology of consciousness. So either you’ll figure out how to address it or you’ll continue to have this issue. People simply are not going to validate their assumptions with you, case by case, ever.
I like your contribution to the Intertubes, so hopefully it will all work out.
March 20th, 2009
No Mike, I’ll continue to have this issue if people keep gossiping like old ladies in a knitting circle. If people start acting like adults, the problems will cease. I get what you’re saying, but the vast majority of my readers are not having the same problems with what I’m writing that the folks in Hanover have.
March 20th, 2009
I’m not trying to be combative, but you must realize you’re not the first person to have this problem in the history of the Internet.
Let’s say, for example, you move to Berkeley. Readers in Berkeley will have the same problem, but now readers in Hanover won’t. Or, perhaps, readers close to your department at Berkeley will have the same problem, but people far from your personal sphere of influence won’t. It has nothing to do with acting like adults, it’s biology. Maturana’s “The Tree of Knowledge” doesn’t address this problem directly, but you can deduce from it the operating principle.
Old-lady ageism gets you nowhere with mature readers.
March 20th, 2009
I disagree - it is acting like adults. I have way too much going on in my life to worry about crap like this. If other people don’t, then maybe they should get involved in more stuff that actually matters. That has nothing to do with biology. If people can talk ABOUT ME BEHIND MY BACK then they can just as well talk TO ME. If people elect not to talk TO ME, then they clearly aren’t interested in the truth - only in making up stories to create drama to improve their obviously boring lives. If they had other stuff going on, they wouldn’t have time to worry about it. A hint of perspective helps too - knowing that Hanover is not the center of everyone’s universe.
At bare minimum, the default assumption should not be “Karlyn uses her blog to attack people.” Can we at least agree on that?
March 20th, 2009
Sure, although your tone often verges toward attack, which is somewhat near ‘rant’ in the continuum of discourse. I never take it personally, but then, it’s never about me.
Other than that I disagree with everything else in the last post, but it’s not my life to live. One of the assumptions that helps me live my life is that people are not broken; that when they do things they do them for a valid reason, even if I can’t see it or understand it. So if someone get results they don’t like, and keep doing the stimulus behavior anyway, I figure they like it.
People like to talk. You’re giving them something to talk about. Appears to be a win-win from the non-broken perspective.
March 20th, 2009
In fact sometimes I label them as rants. But its my blog and therefore my prerogative to do so. Show me a time when I have ever singled any one person, or even one institution out in post like that and you might have an argument.
Mike, have you ever noticed that my strongly-worded posts tend to be the ones that get lots of good comments, get retweeted and bring more subscribers to my blog? As a blogger, and as someone that’s getting business because of her blog, the more subscribers I have, the better. I also LIKE it when people actually like what I’m saying, and often they will call, email me or comment to tell me so. I can’t control that those same posts that people enjoy are causing stress for a small minority of my users who are making assumptions about where the subject matter came from when I have repeatedly told them otherwise.
March 20th, 2009
Karlyn, I love your posts, that’s why I’m taking time to comment (occasionally). But this situation just Will. Not. Change. without you changing. You might not like it, I might not like it, but it’s just the way it is. That’s why I’m referencing biology. It just IS.
It’s possible that “getting business because of her blog” and salaried work are incompatible. But even after 15 years of self-employment I still have the same issues as you. I just stopped trying to change human nature. Mostly. I still wish a lot for changes. And it will happen, if the timescale is eons, not years.
March 20th, 2009
Mike, I have no doubt that the situation will not change and that people will always talk behind my back about me instead of having the courage to say it to my face. But I’m not going to change my writing style or my topics because of a small minority of my readers, who might be best to stay clear of my blog if they can’t accept that I have ideas and thoughts that have nothing to do with my office! That’s crazy. I’ve built up a huge readership on this blog because they like my writing style and occasionally get something out of it (at least that’s what they tell me). Modifying a successful formula for a few people who make inaccurate assumptions is insane.
Now, I hope you know I appreciate you, particularly that you’re having this conversation and that you understand why I’m really pissed off about this whole thing and hope that you won’t take it personally - my intention is certainly not to attack you.
Lastly, I don’t think that having a salaried position and running a business outside of it is incompatible…you just need to be very careful, strategic and (frankly) a bit batshit insane.
March 20th, 2009
We’re totally good personally. If anything I’m provoking you so I appreciate the engagement.
March 20th, 2009
1) I have to agree that your writing style does keep us coming back for more. And we do get something from your blog (at least that’s what you tell me). I’ve told you before how appropriate your posts are to the situations I find myself in (even if they are usually a day late).
2) I sure hope that salaried jobs and side jobs aren’t mutually exclusive because I work in higher ed. Side jobs aren’t necessarily just a luxury for the higher ed web professional (yes, that’s my way of saying that schools don’t know how to pay web people what we’re worth).
3) People are going to gossip and people aren’t going to be grown-up about things. Life is one big high school and we’re still the weird kids (thank god I didn’t grow up to be a jock!).
With that said…keep writing, Karlyn. To the rest of us, myself included, let’s stick to learning what we can from these posts. Like the universe, it doesn’t matter where it came from, just be glad it’s here.
March 20th, 2009
Meander through the political minefield to the degree that you have to, but definitely keep the good discussion-generating topics going
Maybe move that footer text to the header and/or preface (or end) every post with those two sentences in italics…
People are people, though. I watched Leno last night, and when Obama mentioned Special Olympics (in relation to his own bowling skills) I figured the pundits would have a field day, not mentioning anything else he said during the entire conversation/interview: http://news.google.com/news?pz=1&ned=us&hl=en&q=obama+special+olympics
In many cases the criticisms were partisan. In higher ed they are “partisan” as in between departments or rival schools.
*Somewhat* related, Dilbert from yesterday: http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/2009-03-19/
March 22nd, 2009
I worried about this A LOT when I started blogging about my career extensively. Rather than try to begin writing about anything directly related to my everyday life — which I almost never do — I try to find themes within the subjects that might come up through the day, that can inform other experiences I’ve had and lead to some really good information worth sharing with readers.
That said, I think I would’ve had a hard time if people I’ve worked with past or present started to take my blog personally. I had a total of one incident the whole time I did it and it was from a vendor and I should’ve known better than to blog about it, but…I was frustrated. And naturally the person talked to a coworker about it, not me.
But short of that situation a while ago, I feel pretty comfortable with what I say and know that anyone and everyone might read it and always welcome them to come talk to me about it, if they want to create a teaching moment.
That said, I know it’s annoying and not the first time you’ve had to deal with it. Good to nip it in the bud or at least, re-state it for the peanut gallery.