Have you ever imagined that academic work is also a work of art?

When you watch a good movie or series that moves you and your feelings, that gets into you and fills you with emotions and excitement, don’t you think a good academic paper should do that too? You, fellow academics, were moved first by your passion and then arrived here at this point because your curiosity has dragged you far into the journey. We’re different in how many years we have under our belt in this journey, but we’re the same in the passion and excitement that drives us forward.

Where did we find our excitement? Was it in a popular science article that we read in middle school? Was it in the game that we had fun playing until late at night? Was it in the story that your parents told you with excitement in their shimmering eyes? Don’t you think that the article, the game, and the story, is also a work of art made or told beautifully so it catches our attention and keeps us interested for years to come?

This is mainly a reminder to me, but for anyone who decided to invest some time, I’m more than happy to bring you along to reflect together.

Recently, I’ve been obsessed with being ‘productive’, not that I understand fully what it means. Subconsciously, I decided that it meant I must produce things in quick succession. Sure, quality is important, but quantity is where I put my effort. Good enough is enough, but it was never quick enough. ‘Slow Professor’ by Berg and Seeber said that it was because universities are corporatising, setting high expectations and setting out that quantity is the key performance indicator. Well, it’s their business. My business is that now I have forgotten how it feels to enjoy the craft and trade that I loved previously. It sucked the fun out of the research that I’ve been doing. It sucked out the meaning and the excitement that I had. I was proud of something that I had done. I believe it was the same pride a cook has looking at someone enjoying the dishes they made, the pride of artists looking at the tears of joy coming out of the eyes of their listeners.

I haven’t had long under my belt in the world of academia to share much, but I can tell you that I feel this much. I hope I don’t forget again later to just sit back and take my time to enjoy the progress of learning and making something beautiful that touches and instills the excitement in people who read my works.