David Bernstein rightly warns people on the law teaching market to take advice from their former professors at the very-top-ranked law schools with a grain of salt.
His advice reminds me of a story.
After I had been teaching for 5 years or so, I reached a stage where I had grown very frustrated with what I saw as the glacial pace of my career advancement. Looking back on it, it was all very silly and overwrought, but it was very serious to me at the time. I felt like nobody knew who I was, nobody was paying attention to what I was writing, nobody was inviting me to any conferences, blah blah blah, whine whine whine.
So I called up one of my old professors from Yale, someone with whom I had stayed in touch over the years, and shared my tale of woe.
The professor said this: "Eric, when I have hit patches like this, I have always found it helpful to publish an op/ed in the New York Times."
True story.
Hilarious.
Posted by: Michelle | September 11, 2011 at 09:26 PM
That's very good - I enjoyed that. I can even hear the completely earnest tone in his voice.
Posted by: Jeff Yates | September 12, 2011 at 08:27 AM
Eric, I love it-a great example of not knowing how the other 99% lives. We have an awful lot of that in our society.
Posted by: Bill Turnier | September 12, 2011 at 12:01 PM