Knowing target to kick ball to and kicking it well

LOTS of people with nothing better to do on a Wednesday morning do me the honour of reading what I write. You may have picked up the fact that I’ve been in hospital – in fact I’ve been lying in a St Vinnie’s Hospital bed again in recent days.

I had been diagnosed with Fournier’s gangrene. It’s a funny old thing. I don’t understand it but unless it is treated very rapidly, it can kill you. So far, so good. I am on the mend and I hope to soon be able to return to writing columns in the peace of my home.

Lying in bed with nothing better to do than recover gives you a great chance to study how people from other professions go about their tasks. Some of you will know that I trained as a civil engineer but spent 40 years of my working life in universities here and in the UK.

Although it may surprise the more cynical of my readers, uni academics do have well-established ways of going about their tasks.

Those of us who care about our work (and most of us do) spend a long time learning how to be reasonable teachers, good researchers and among the intellectual leaders of our discipline. That sounds far too grand but that’s what it’s all about.

A university academic who ceases to care about the quality of his thinking or the intellectual leadership required of him should get out of the profession before he becomes dangerously cynical.

There are at least two aspects to becoming a competent career academic.

One is always to be concerned about the intellectual content of what is coming out of your mouth or what you write in that supposedly learned publication designed to help others to understand why the discipline is worthy of detailed attention.

The second matter of importance is the communication of the love of the discipline and why its content is of such importance.

Knowing enough to identify what you DON’T know is an essential part of a proper communication of important ideas while teaching or researching.

Your own thoughts have to be worthy of being counted among the store of knowledge available within your discipline.

At the same time those on who you impose yourself have to be valued for their interest and their trust in you.

Put simply, your own pool of knowledge means nothing unless it accords with your readers’ needs.

When somebody listens to you and tries to understand the way you think, they are paying you a huge and sometimes undeserved compliment.

If you don’t know what you’re talking about then at least be honest enough to admit that.

If you do that, then an exploration of your joint ignorance can produce surprisingly important outcomes.

I learned very early in my life that one doesn’t understand most things that come into being when you sit thoughtfully with a fellow worker. It’s really no different from being a world-class footballer. For reasons unknown to themselves some people find they can be hugely skilful. The tragedy would be if that skill was not explored, just because you don’t know why you got it.

The best thing would be to relish the fact that you can regularly kick the ball to just where it has to finish up. It’s even better, if you can do that under pressure and better than your opponent. That’s when the fun really starts.

So, in a nutshell, as I lie in my hospital bed, I rely on the fact that my doctors and nurses are not only good at kicking the ball accurately, but also know where the best target is.

So, “cheers” to all those working at St Vinnies. Thank you for your care.