15 Mar A Theory of Interesting

I can speak now. We’ve had our job talks, had our rounds of negotiations and have landed on a future professor for our department.

What i don’t understand is how, in a job talk, when speaking about something (which will remain anonymous for the speaker’s sake) that the most that  a person can theorize is that “It’s so interesting!”

I’ve banned the word form my vocabulary. We academics should all ban it from our vocabulary. If all you can say is that “it’s interesting” then you really haven’t got much to say, have you? That goes for me, most of all. I’m a sucker for “Interestingly enough, blah-blah-blah” – right. I wouldn’t be writing about it if it weren’t. “I found this article sooooo interesting!” I wouldn’t be talking about it if i hadn’t.

So, i’ve decided to write a Theory of Interesting in the hopes that  i will – through utter over-use of the term, squeeze the life out of it and it out of my life. And at the very least, i should get an interesting paper out of it.