More on 'jumping the shark'

So, I was at the welcoming reception talking to a collaborator and some of his friends from grad school (one of whom I met previously who is speaking in one of our sessions), and one person poses the questions, "What are the signs this conference has jumped the shark?"

In an earlier blog entry, I discussed one possible use of the term 'jumping the shark' in science.

So, the following were considered as possibly sufficient conditions (maybe each is sufficient?):

(a) Certain specific people (including some I like to rag on) are invited as plenary speakers.

(b) You're only allowed to give one talk every two occurrences of the conference.

(c) Hmmm... I'm pretty sure others were mentioned.


I then talked about how academic careers could jump the shark, and I mentioned Brian Josephson and my advisor as an example. (In the case of my advisor, he was trained as a theoretical physicist, yet he tries to prove Goldbach's conjecture, which has been unsolved for over 300 years, using elementary methods. He also used to show me his supposed "proofs," which I refuted easily. He also shows up at people's doors unanounced and tries to get instant gratification in answering his questions no matter what they're doing. I could expan on this description with mounds and mounds of detail, but it's quite clear that he jumped the shark.)

We also talked what would entail academic journals and departments jumping the shark.



I saw a lot of old friends, collaborators, and colleagues today. I'll write more about that later. I'll also write more about my recent credit card adventures and the stupidity tax I'm paying as a result. Some people really went leaps and bounds above the call of duty to help me out here. It means a lot to me.