"Every life is a profession of faith, and exercises an inevitable and silent influence."
I am sure there are a lot of puzzled expressions but just sit back and think about how much of our profession actually shows up in our life - in the way we dress, we talk, we think ! With a little observation and experience, one can actually try and predict people's occupations. And it could be quite a fun exercise.
Take for example the scientists - the clan that I happen to belong to !
We mostly have the rather disheveled and unconcerned appearance, quite unlike a management student who is forever seen in these carefully tailored outfits/ attires - shirts, suits, gowns, dresses. We walk into interviews and conferences and expect people to disregard our appearance and focus solely on our work and our brilliant ideas. We talk jargon all the time and we think everyone will understand it. Its almost second nature for us to think that everyone on the street understands what a gene is or what cancer is or what DNA is !!
We have a weirdly nerdy and geeky sense of humor as a lot of our jokes will involve names of proteins, experiments and results etc etc.
How nerdy can one be, right ?
And academic life was the only life we had when on a residential campus like IISc. When on a residential campus, in a PhD program, your life usually moves from one experiment to another than from one day to another. You friends are all geeks and nerds and everyone is going through the same phase and our conversations would reflect that.
Imagine these conversations at some of the dinners that we would have at friend's homes (actual homes, where non-scientists lead their normal lives... and in our "off-times"... ;))
"Hey, Let's cook in situ today na ? Let's not pick up something from somewhere! Its been soo long since we've had a home cooked meal !" (Instead of saying "let's just cook at home na")
"Hey, what is the volume of that thing? How much stuff can it carry ?" (Volume ? Seriously... i ve rarely heard any of the normal people use the word at a suitcase shop... nothing wrong, it perfectly conveys the point but perfectly occupational too!
"Hey, I made that completely de novo - no precooked ingredients in that !" (I made it from the start/ scratch ! - how difficult is that but no that's we end up doing)
"Hey ! Can you please aliquot the dessert for everyone ?" (Aliquot ?? Seriously)
"Don't give me the abstract of the story. Give me the full version of the article !!"
"She talks like a Nature article while I go on and on like a Cell article"
"How much do you think this will shrink - 10%, 20% ?"
"Come for a run, the endorphin release will do you good !"
"Listen, we'll put this at 4 degrees and this at -20. We can heat it tomorrow." (Fridge and freezer... but no, we use 4 and -20 degrees Celsius)
And so for a long time, our work life invaded our life and took over it completely. And that was a life in faith. In faith and in hope.
All through those years, closeted in the close confines of the academia, I didn't realize that all the professions leave an imprint. From history, to management to psychology to photography, they all invade our life... we use words from there in our everyday life... and no one but an outsider would find them odd. Software guys routinely use bug, chip and code everywhere; Business guys use proposal, data, balance, turnover, policy and presentation; and accountants and finance guys use debit and credit, deficit, fiscal and budget everywhere.
Every professional does seem to have a lingo, a personality, an attitude. What is cause and what is effect is of course difficult to speculate ! Do all nerds become scientists or does science make one a nerd ? Who knows ... ? And at this point someone might tell, we need an experiment but the right controls are difficult to get... ;)
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