Wednesday, May 03, 2006
What to do with a bad review
In the spirit of all of the "make it yourself" stuff on the web, I've made a template for dealing with bad reviews.
In academia, where publishing is the ruler of our fate, we live and die (and get paid more or less) based upon the comments we get from reviewers who influence our ability to publish. Often, these reviews are less than what we expect. Some are downright nasty. Based partly on my recent experience with a professor, I've decided to develop an instrument for helping me ease my tension and bad mood (this one experience is not likely to be the last review I ever get where I totally disagree).
It is well known that target shooting can be very relaxing for some. To target shoot well, you must be relaxed and your breathing must be very smooth, stable, and predictable. Your heart rate has to be steady. Getting yourself into this state where you can control your breathing and feel your heart beat is very calming.
I developed the template below to help me combine the experience of removing my anger with a poor review and the calming effects of target shooting.
Take the staple out of the paper that received the bad review. Place the sheets of paper in your printer. I chose to make sure the printing and the reviewers almost unreadable scribbles were on the back side. Then print out thistarget template on each sheet. Then take the sheets to you local shooting range and blast away.
Note: I found an indoor shooting range very close to my apartment. They have a special offer of five sessions, one hour each, for only $40. Not too bad. Of course, this would be cheaper if I were still at home and could visit my dad's farm, but I guess that's life in the big city.
In academia, where publishing is the ruler of our fate, we live and die (and get paid more or less) based upon the comments we get from reviewers who influence our ability to publish. Often, these reviews are less than what we expect. Some are downright nasty. Based partly on my recent experience with a professor, I've decided to develop an instrument for helping me ease my tension and bad mood (this one experience is not likely to be the last review I ever get where I totally disagree).
It is well known that target shooting can be very relaxing for some. To target shoot well, you must be relaxed and your breathing must be very smooth, stable, and predictable. Your heart rate has to be steady. Getting yourself into this state where you can control your breathing and feel your heart beat is very calming.
I developed the template below to help me combine the experience of removing my anger with a poor review and the calming effects of target shooting.
Take the staple out of the paper that received the bad review. Place the sheets of paper in your printer. I chose to make sure the printing and the reviewers almost unreadable scribbles were on the back side. Then print out this
Note: I found an indoor shooting range very close to my apartment. They have a special offer of five sessions, one hour each, for only $40. Not too bad. Of course, this would be cheaper if I were still at home and could visit my dad's farm, but I guess that's life in the big city.
# posted by chilort @ 2:04 PM 
