So the last couple of weeks, I used my Twitter Followers for some interesting polls. I tried to find interesting questions for academics and think I found some good ones. It is true, the sample is pretty low, but hey, this is just for fun! The interesting part is, that most of the people who follow me seem to have the same opinion. So here are some statistics about academics.

In front of your peers

The first poll I did was about how to behave in front of your peers. I personally always have the feeling, I am the only one in the room who doesn’t know what others are talking about. It seems to be quiet the opposite as it seems:

Please be honest, this poll is anonymous & the result will be very interesting: imagine standing in a group of scientists that you don't know & you are talking about a topic within your discipline, but not your specialty. How much do you fake knowing what they are talking about?

— Sebastian Hageneuer 🌻🇺🇦 (@ArchaeoBasti) June 13, 2022

Interesting, so it seems I am by far not the only one in the room who doesn’t know. But these are social events. How about when you are in a job interview?

Poll time: remember it is anonymous, so be honest: Have you ever lied in an interview and told you future employer that you know more then you actually do?

— Sebastian Hageneuer 🌻🇺🇦 (@ArchaeoBasti) June 27, 2022

Nearly half of the people lie sometimes during interviews. That’s interesting! Fake it until you make it. A quarter of people are total honest at least. That is good to know.

Studying

I also struggled reading papers that are not exactly my field of study (until I learned how). So what I do usually is to read an article multiple times until I understand it. It seems that 2-3 times is normal. Some people seem to be extra smart and read their papers just once and I get it time-wise, but can they really understand it?

I am curious: As a scientist, how many times (in average) do you need to read a scientific paper from your own field (in a journal e.g.) to really understand and remember it?

— Sebastian Hageneuer 🌻🇺🇦 (@ArchaeoBasti) June 3, 2022

So I love books and I want to read them all, but do I really? Having looked at my personal bookshelves I have to say, that there are a certain amount of books that I bought but never opened. It also seems that I am not the only one:

Looking at your private bookshelves: how many books are in there, that you bought, wanted to read, but never did? I have a couple…

— Sebastian Hageneuer 🌻🇺🇦 (@ArchaeoBasti) June 21, 2022

So only 8% of academics have read their books completely. Most of the people have about 20% in their shelves not read and a third even more then 50%. It is interesting to see and I wonder what the reasons are? Maybe they are more collectors than readers or they get a lot of stuff they are not interested in? For me it is more a time issue. I want to read the books in my shelves, but never find the time.

So that’s it for now. I will continue sampling my followers as this might lead to interesting results. If you have questions you would be interested in, just let me know!

• Statistics
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