I wasn’t very productive — if you believe the numbers game

Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all. — Peter Drucker

“It’s impossible to escape academic performance measurement” commented two close colleagues when I…

Prologue

Ten years ago, on November 25, 2013, I flew from Münster, Germany, to Santa Barbara, California, to start work at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) as a professor in the Geography Department and as the director of the Center for Spatial Studies. So excited was I about my late-career move —…

My research is not for sale

And I would be an awful poker player

My research was not for sale – and I would be an awful poker player

Money often costs too much. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

I had no idea — until I got one

Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds discuss people. [Attributed to Socrates]

“Nice work…” said my mentor Andrew Frank after I proudly showed him my achievements during the first few months of doctoral studies, “…but…

I delayed AGILE’s research agenda: Was this good or bad?

Sei besser als die Anderen oder anders als die Besseren.
(Be better than the others, or other than the better ones.)
[a smart fellow undergraduate student, ca. 1980]