I no longer like birthdays. 43 may be a prime number but that doesn't make me feel any better about it. While I think of myself as an Assistant Professor, the truth hurts. I think that my research is getting better over time. Some referees seem to disagree but I disagree with their disagreement. Some sociologist should build on the David Galenson work on productivity over the lifecycle by doing a detailed analysis of time allocation over the lifecycle for an academic. Larry Summers has clearly reallocated his time relative to what he was doing at Harvard circa 1985.
As academic economists get older, how many hours are they;
1. reading
2. teaching
3. private consulting
4. public consulting (i.e Obama stuff)
4'. attending conferences as the grand old man.
5. writing blog stuff
6. writing conference volume stuff
7. writing hard stuff for peer reviewed publication
8. writing popular books
9. writing textbooks
10. doing administrative stuff at their University
11. editing a leading journal
12. advising PHD students
These 12 dimensions may span the set of legal activities. For different people
at top 5, top 10, top 20 departments --- as we age how do we allocate our time across these activities?
I would like to see the minutes count for #7 ---- how many people stay in the game and try to convince themselves that they are just a lowly assistant professor who hasn't done anything yet?
While I know that my #7 minute count has fallen --- I would counter that my productivity per minute has gone up. Looking back to when I was an assistant professor at Columbia, I wasted a huge amount of time. Teaching used to exhaust me. Perhaps too much chalk inhalation in the pre-powerpoint slides days.
I seem to recall that 2/16 is also John Whitehead's birthday. It is also Brooke Shield's birthday. So, I'm not sure what point is but I do wish us all a good peaceful day.
I would like to turn back the clock. My son and I watched a Star Trek episode on time travel tonight where Kirk and the gang went back to 1968. Maybe this agenda would give our Physics Department something to do. I would be grateful.