A note on Peter Drucker’s “Adventures of a Bystander”

The last couple of days, I have been reading a magnificent book, namely “Adventures of a bystander” by Peter F. Drucker (amazon) (publisher). The fame of Mr. Drucker is by no means unknown in the realm of management science but what is interesting in this work of art ,as I see it, is the meaning it brings to a quote from another scholar, Soren Kierkegaard.

Kierkegaard said “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”

The problem with that sentence is that it is often too late to live when you finally understand life. Being an optimist I think most people understand what life “means” much sooner than their days of old but even then the lost time is lost forever. Let’s face it you are never 19 twice.

That is exactly my rationale in designating Drucker’s book as magnificent. Drucker was an influential man and much of his “influentiality”, he owed to knowing many many key figures from government officials to university professors to SS officers. Reading his book gives insight in how choosing one path in life over another affects the fate of that person. How it makes some thrive and others fail. That, in my opinion, is a must have but expensive knowledge.

I am going to be a professor someday.

I never even imagined that one day I follow a career to become a teacher, let alone it becoming my dream in life.

Yes, I want to be a university professor. That does not exactly mean teaching but teaching is an inseparable part of being an academic.

When I was little, I always liked to be a commercial pilot. For some reason, in my naivety as a child, I thought a pilot was superior to all other professionals.

That belief probably originated because pilots were the boss of the sky. They are not, but kids don not understand the many complexities in the society. That is probably why we call them both naive and creative.

Now that I think of it, I am choosing the Academic track because of the very same reasons that the then kiddo selected Aviation. University professors have no evident boss. They are the boss of the classroom and hold a very powerful tool, namely the final exam.

But I am not going to be that kind of professor. I am choosing academia because there are possibilities to be explored. Discoveries to be made. And beliefs in the conventional wisdom that call to be refuted.

In that, I lay my heart.

Ahmadinejad the blogger

He has a weblog in 4 languages!!! and you can post comments too! give it a try:

 Ahmadinejad Weblog in English

The Persian (Farsi) version has less contraversial comments. Comments are mostly from 12 year old kids who ,if real, must have heard about it from their teachers whom ,I can imagine, had orders to popularize it. The website is filled with puffery and empty comments about “Government”, “freedom” and other things. I doubt if he ever even reads the stuff.

I won’t comment on this one more. I still prefer to keep my head on those shoulders.

Teaching Graduates

A few days ago, I had my first experience teaching a class of graduate students. It was a turning point in my life in the way that I thought ” this is what I enjoy to do”. I am not sure for how long I will enjoy it but, the experience was so wonderful and the feedback so strong that I felt the impact on my personality almost immediately. Teaching has always been a boring exercise to me. Before this I had taught English as a second language and many undergraduate courses, but working with graduates is a differenet, fulfilling and wonderful experience.

… So I will be a teacher!