The Academic Achievement Trap | Micah Green | TEDxTAMUSalon

The modern American scholastic system has been described as a “competitive achievement arms race,” and many students feel either (i) be crushed by expectations of success or (ii) become detached, demotivated, and cynical. In this talk, we will talk about a better way to approach your motivation for pursuing academic success. Micah J. Green received his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering at Texas Tech in 2002. He then entered the Chemical Engineering Ph.D. program at MIT. His Ph.D. focused on computational studies of phase behavior and rheology of rodlike liquid crystals; his studies also included a minor in early Christian history at Harvard. After finishing his Ph.D. in 2007, he developed nanotube-based liquid crystals and fibers as an Attwell-Welch Postdoctoral Fellow at Rice University.
After several years on the faculty at Texas Tech, he joined Texas A&M as an Associate Professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering in Summer 2014. He has received the NSF CAREER Award, the Young Investigator Award from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and the DuPont Young Faculty Award for his work in the area of nanomaterial dispersions and morphology dynamics, with applications to gels, composites, and additive manufacturing. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx

Пікірлер: 70

  • @XC-iy4il
    @XC-iy4il2 жыл бұрын

    "true humility is not thinking less of yourself it is thinking of yourself less"

  • @juliusdoylephd6472
    @juliusdoylephd64722 жыл бұрын

    "Don't use scholarly achievement primarily as a means to gain approval from other people" literally describes the problem with trying to get tenure. The only criteria that affords you the ability to gain tenure is scholarly achievement. This is the source of so much problem in academia. And yet, scientific contribution in the modern era is only truly meaningful when it gains the approval of others. Think about any paper that has to be published -- requires the approval of others (sometimes from people who don't actually grasp the paper and reject it -- even if it was good research). Getting a science research job is literally based on evaluating one's scientific achievements and either inviting them or rejecting them. Literally every aspect of science research in the modern world is built on this. Then there are people who KNOW they are gatekeepers to others' success, and it literally becomes a game of satisfying them, no matter how meritorious your research is.

  • @ariyanbista5837

    @ariyanbista5837

    2 жыл бұрын

    Beautifully explained!

  • @dv_interval42

    @dv_interval42

    9 ай бұрын

    Yep. No level of individual enlightenment can solve a problem embedded deeply in the structure of the system itself.

  • @ilbene7922

    @ilbene7922

    9 ай бұрын

    Really interesting comments, thanks for sharing!

  • @megamaser

    @megamaser

    9 ай бұрын

    This is actually the problem tenure is supposed to solve. Once you have tenure, your career is no longer contingent on publishing papers. You don't need to worry as much what other people think. It's interesting to consider... Does the benefit of tenure offset the harm of its pursuit?

  • @timothyelicada2630
    @timothyelicada26309 ай бұрын

    Science must be done for the sake of science, not for chasing achievements. The mere wonder and curiosity can be as good motivation.

  • @pranitmane
    @pranitmane9 ай бұрын

    I am feeling immensely grateful to all the scientists who have contributed to the growth of humanity and our collective knowledge about science..

  • @pourya1398
    @pourya13989 ай бұрын

    This is a fantastic talk. Probably the best TED talk I have ever seen aimed at science and the scientific community. Thanks for this.

  • @gudetamak4420
    @gudetamak44209 ай бұрын

    Thank you for guiding a lost student for the need to constantly remind ourselves of the sense of wonderment, gratitude and amazement of whatever field we study!!!

  • @DrRECM
    @DrRECM9 ай бұрын

    There are other traps in today’s academic world. Yes we do have these new beautiful tools that help us see further and into the detail, but the trap is that the system then asks for more and rapid results, favoring quantity (probably) over quality. We are measured by productivity instead of long term impact and reliability of our findings. Academics today have to fight between they want to research for, and giving constant results that take them far from their inner most important and deep questions of nature’s functioning.

  • @cheese-power
    @cheese-power9 ай бұрын

    Feeling extremely grateful for this talk ❤

  • @n2nurulnadia
    @n2nurulnadia8 ай бұрын

    One of the best talks I've ever heard. Short, funny, inspiring, comforting.

  • @eoneom
    @eoneom9 ай бұрын

    This was one amazing talk. Looking at the view count, not many people have got the chance to watch this. Although he didn't highlight the main theme explicitly, but he went in good depth explaining how we should look at studying things. Love it!

  • @BDEvans
    @BDEvans9 ай бұрын

    This is a great talk!

  • @ennohermann6787
    @ennohermann67872 жыл бұрын

    I really liked this a lot - it shows great insight into why people buy into the the hierarchies often associated with producing new knowledge and how changing ones perspective can create a more open and creative mindset and motivation. It should always be about wonder and curiosity in ones chosen field. staying open to what you don't know rather than trying to prove you know everything - this requires some humility in the face of an awesome and complex world. Brava - I think Micha Green you nailed it!!!

  • @przeciag
    @przeciag9 ай бұрын

    I had a feeling my motivation has worn out some time ago, the reason wasn't enough and it didn't do well for me and my work. Excellence of a field can be a motivation, but so can be a vivid target or a dream, I think I would recommend the latter

  • @sunilsahani7093
    @sunilsahani709310 ай бұрын

    this is the best TEd talk I have come across... It is must be recommended for budding researchers

  • @john.dough.
    @john.dough.9 ай бұрын

    this is a great talk!

  • @Niglnws
    @Niglnws9 ай бұрын

    I recently watched a video about neurosis and why people are neurotic. The term is no longer used in DSM (wikipedia quote). The video focused on how conformity with society can develop neurosis. Maybe that is the same as the subject of this video. You want to achieve what people expect of you and which is expected of every other person so you have to be like every person and begin to stress yourself to be like everyone to have society acceptance. But when you achieve what they want you may be still have some problems with yourself and have some personal problems havent been solved and you evaded from. And end up with society acceptance but still not feeling well and have personal stresses. That doesnt mean to go against soceity in everything. It has nothing to do with society. You should have your own motivations and virtues. Who know maybe the society is wrong in some case. Just listen to yourself and talk in isolation from society for some moments. It is ok to think to benefit the society. It is the most important motivation beside benefiting yourself and your family in ethical way.

  • @NoamLeon100
    @NoamLeon1009 ай бұрын

    Thank you!

  • @maxp3141
    @maxp31419 ай бұрын

    Beautiful.

  • @cheekydean1503
    @cheekydean15039 ай бұрын

    Now that was a good talk

  • @tailnowag8753
    @tailnowag87532 жыл бұрын

    I really liked this one! Not just the breaking bad reference, but the intresting story and straight to the point message. That book I'm definitely gonna try to read if I can, not to mention some great quotes (that I haven't heard of before). Cheers!

  • @ursogreatniloveu
    @ursogreatniloveu3 жыл бұрын

    This is really beautiful. Thanks for the talk!

  • @rubytues4u
    @rubytues4u9 ай бұрын

    The first half of this talk made me think he was gonna go all anit-science and "look at how corrupt science is". But then i saw where he was going. I for one think that adopting a scientific way of thinking is one of the most important thing you can ever do. Otherwise you're prone to believe anything.

  • @soksreymom3353
    @soksreymom33532 ай бұрын

    Whatever motivation for pursuing your academic achievement should be to develop the best within you, not for the expectation from others

  • @igelkissen9912
    @igelkissen99129 ай бұрын

    What a legend 🫶

  • @gregvoth45
    @gregvoth459 ай бұрын

    Some very good material here. However, I suspect it is too simplistic to hope we can switch motivation from pleasing others and demonstrating our own sense of worth and identity to some grand ideas about excellence of the field. People are social creatures with self-interests. A good scientific culture aligns social approval and personal advancement and therefore individual's sense of worth and identity with behaviors that actually strengthen the social community and advance excellence in the field. I would frame the problem differently. We need less individualism and more carefully mentored training so people like Schön are working closely with others who are checking their work and reinforcing good research ethics. These bad cases (including recent Gino at Harvard and Tessier-Lavigne at Stanford) are possible because of the star obsession of the research hiring and funding systems that discourage talented researchers from spending their time closely mentoring the next generation.

  • @philliparnold6762
    @philliparnold67629 ай бұрын

    There are good things here, but the final message is the same high school guidance counselor talk that has put Millennials in a state of crisis. As someone with degrees in music, I can say that passion and curiosity do not pay the bills unless you are extremely good at what you do. The motivation section at 7:30 is true - these are common motivations. However, they are not bad motivations. If you are unsatisfactory to authority figures, thought unintelligent, mediocre at everything, and lacking in foundation for sense of worth (which admittedly does not necessarily come from your vocation or academia), you will have a very difficult time in life, unless you are independently wealthy. While this speech has nuggets of wisdom, it is important to remember Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Millennials are in a state of financial, mental, and emotional crisis partly because all anyone ever talked about was self-actualization. As a generation we became disillusioned - myself included - and many went broke when it was time to get pragmatic.

  • @Niglnws

    @Niglnws

    9 ай бұрын

    You are right. You may try to make achievements to gain acceptance but in yourself dont think that this is what you worth or your identity. You are a lot od things, your worth is from your morals, virtues, principles. I think the subject is all about mentality it is not about behaviours. You may do the same behaviours, work hard but take care of your mental health. If you didnt gain acceptance dont feel sad in a destructive way. Unfortunately, economies are about increasing profits instead of fulfilling people desires or give them jobs of what they like to do. They make optimization about profit only. This maybe right in some way but how then profits benefit people equally is always the problem. Also high profits sometimes mean that some people will suffer as they dont have much to share in the profit. They will face problem in education, employment or in markets.

  • @zaidabuffkins6149
    @zaidabuffkins61493 жыл бұрын

    Amazing that someone with his achievements is focussed an being more whole as a person! Well done!

  • @studyaccount9662
    @studyaccount96629 ай бұрын

    i am so grateful i am getting to watch this before getting my masters degree in theoretical physics

  • @pranitmane
    @pranitmane9 ай бұрын

    ❤❤❤

  • @herbertschulz5910
    @herbertschulz59102 жыл бұрын

    Love it.

  • @babyfacebastard4379
    @babyfacebastard43792 жыл бұрын

    Great video.

  • @RecordBreakerRush
    @RecordBreakerRush4 жыл бұрын

    Well-spoken Micah!

  • @inaythankyou761
    @inaythankyou7619 ай бұрын

    When the artist decided to paint Kepler in the middle of his Chinese takeout meal.... 😂

  • @inuhundchien6041
    @inuhundchien60419 ай бұрын

    That's why best scientists are attached to corporations. You need real results to be employed.

  • @soccersprint
    @soccersprint8 ай бұрын

    The guy from Bell labs was an unethical super villan. Dont make excuses for him. Also other peoples motivation and reasons for doing certain types of reseach or taking certain academic paths cannot be generalized and lumped together in that one weak category of wanting people to think you are smart and just trying to make yourself look good.

  • @CourageToLiveTrue
    @CourageToLiveTrue Жыл бұрын

    Actually, the title is perfect

  • @CourageToLiveTrue

    @CourageToLiveTrue

    Жыл бұрын

    Expectations by authority

  • @aysegocer3308
    @aysegocer33089 ай бұрын

    😍

  • @sch-eit5880
    @sch-eit58807 ай бұрын

    true humility is not even looking at yourself, why? you re just too engrossed in your work to even think of yourself

  • @SAINTxSZN
    @SAINTxSZN8 ай бұрын

    This dude has my whole name. First and Last

  • @ThisBook01
    @ThisBook019 ай бұрын

    Ans is to get certified as a passout with good grades so that campanies will hire me easily

  • @charumohonbagchi1146
    @charumohonbagchi11463 жыл бұрын

    That's the best video on Earth...👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

  • @psikeyhackr6914
    @psikeyhackr69149 ай бұрын

    My grammar school gave out colored stars, gold, silver, green, yellow and red.

  • @blondieeee7114
    @blondieeee71143 жыл бұрын

    i cried a little.

  • @vivienf26

    @vivienf26

    2 жыл бұрын

    me too

  • @tzatzikiv812
    @tzatzikiv812 Жыл бұрын

    Jan Hendrik's surname is truly beautiful. 😜 (German speakers will get what I mean).

  • @EastBurningRed
    @EastBurningRed9 ай бұрын

    the talk has a good start and middle but the ending is pretty weak, since science isn’t simply finding amazing things to discover but really a lot of trial and error that almost always ends in failure. The failures are just as important as the successes but unfortunately the academic works rarely cares which is the major problem.

  • @milanvukic6449
    @milanvukic64499 ай бұрын

    No, Bell Labs didn't invent laser

  • @yakubumshelia1668
    @yakubumshelia16689 ай бұрын

    The job market demand and HR hoops for applications will never let us stop taking the temperature of our intellectual ability through our CV. Imagine working on your CV to the point that you have to jump the AI employment tracker tool, then the HR hoop, then the interview hoop then the office politics hoop.🤣🤗

  • @doctorofpharmacologytoxico9556
    @doctorofpharmacologytoxico9556 Жыл бұрын

    Good

  • @zola9535
    @zola95358 ай бұрын

    It would be much nicer to listen to these ted talks when presenters wouldn't trip they are stand up comedians

  • @TheGreenTaco999
    @TheGreenTaco9999 ай бұрын

    8:50 "it's N-word focused" 😳

  • @justdoit2521

    @justdoit2521

    9 ай бұрын

    On the off-chance you're not joking; "inward."

  • @kgmail7364

    @kgmail7364

    9 ай бұрын

    Pinhead

  • @monicak4845
    @monicak4845 Жыл бұрын

    xD

  • @maulanaariefhidayat4369
    @maulanaariefhidayat43693 жыл бұрын

    Bruh, only two people comment this video

  • @mpc7440
    @mpc74409 ай бұрын

    9:04 Who in the world thinks humility means self-degradation lol