I’ve been thinking more about Farrell’s Chronicle article on academic blogging. I say yes, yes, yes to everything he wrote, particularly his idea that blogging is an act of subversion undermining traditional hierarchies that define university life. I just want to add one more thought.

A friend of mine with a PhD in Renaissance Literature went on the job market last year. He was at an interview at a top ranked university. The academic interview process is just hell on wheels – a day long ordeal of job talks and lunch chitchat. Anyway, the interview was going just fine. He was getting a lot of encouraging smiles and winks from the faculty and he knew his talk went well. Then, during dinner, he started a conversation about Medieval literature. Gasp. It was a major gaff to talk about a subject outside of his expertise and he didn’t get the job.

With the stakes so high in academia, everybody is afraid of making errors. Ideas are turned around so slowly in academia with lengthy review processes and multiple cross checks. There is something very brave about putting out half baked ideas on a blog, some of which might turn into something more baked and some of which will turn into nothing. It’s just part of the creative process, that has been lost in the university.

Today, I sing the praises of the half baked idea.