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[Physltest] [Phys-L] Re: Concerned over costs (was Mac vs. PC )



At 7:27 -0800 1/27/05, Bernard Cleyet wrote:

Reminds me of a lecture wherein the speaker suggested teachers
should dress as the moneyed class do, i.e. suits, if they wished to
join it.

The psychology of appearance is complex, and I don't pretend to
understand it (on the other hand, I doubt that many people understand
it). I've head this said many times. There was even a rather popular
book out a few years back, called "Dress for Success." It may still
be in print.

Certainly having "successful-looking" surroundings gives one a
feeling of comfort and confidence. It also makes visitors to those
spaces feel more comfortable, and gives the impression of authority
to the occupant or user of them. On the other hand, I can imagine at
least two down-sides to such surroundings. First, the visitor may be
lulled into inattention, thinking that they have nothing to be
concerned about while in the presence of such clear authority, and
second, it could lead to conformity (who would want to upset such a
fine-looking apple cart with embarrassing questions?), and may lead
to the type of thinking that encourages people to "play the game" if
they, too, aspire to be ensconced in such pleasant surroundings.

I think that not all that much first-rate things are accomplished in
those surroundings. When you read about the people we most revere in
the world, they seldom occupied such spaces. More often they lived
and worked in "the field," in simpler or more primitive surroundings.
Does anyone want to work in a a lab that requires a stack of
approvals before any modification to the premises, for the purpose of
some experiment, can be made?

I did a summer internship at SRI, in Menlo Park, CA, one year while I
was in grad school. I remember the lab director commenting with some
envy about the fancy new building that some of his colleagues had
gotten moved to--his lab was located in a leftover WWII prefabbed
"hut." But then he brightened and noted that if his people needed to
punch a hole in the wall to connect a vacuum pump, or something, they
just did it, and no one gave a damn. Their lab put out some top-notch
work, too. I should also note that the fancy new building houses,
among others, Puthoff and Targ, whose work gave SRI a still-lingering
black eye.

So I don't find it too big a stretch to conclude that having fancy
surroundings is more often a con-game than an inducement to better
work--within limits, of course.

Hugh
--

Hugh Haskell
<mailto:haskell@ncssm.edu>
<mailto:hhaskell@mindspring.com>

(919) 467-7610

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