The Lip Flapper : Volume 33 - Otohiko

[Melanchthon]

Yup. I know for a fact that this happens.

That's a shame. An idea that sounds bad to others (or maybe is just plain bad) doesn't mean that it'll make a bad video.

[lloyd9988]

A tl;dr summary for everyone:
-I’m Oto and I like the community
-moderating forums is not that hard
-judging contests is not that hard
-disregard “standards”, acquire ability to put yourself in other people’s shoes
-being a PhD student is hard
-editing as much or as little as you want is not that hard
-getting attention for even niche videos is not that hard
-not being serious about videos is not that hard
-going from AMVs to other creative endeavours is not that hard
-disregard practical concerns, acquire trust in creative impulses
-stop devil worship
-BAM.

For those who don't wish to read the lesser version of a master thesis, but, rather, just the summary

Also...

Haha, well… I might not be the best person to ask, since actually my experience in academia has been sort of difficult over the last few years, and still often I wonder if this whole thing’s been worth it. I got into academia because I’ve always loved teaching. My degree is in English, but not literature or anything like that – I specialize in linguistics, writing studies and rhetoric – all of which I’m into because they are very directly related to my interest in helping people become more effective communicators, critical thinkers, problem-solvers. But to my surprise discovered that academia is actually something that’s very much about publications, politics and money – and while I’m a pretty good researcher, I have been very disillusioned by how universities today operate as money-and-reputation-making businesses, more interested in churning out massive numbers of student diplomas and academic articles, than making a real social difference. I still hope to find a place for myself eventually. Technically speaking, I’m not a student at all anymore – I will never again have to take any courses or do exams, so I’m a PhD candidate who “only” needs to write a dissertation to finish. That may take me a bit of time.

But well, let’s put it this way: grad studies ain’t easy. Even a Master’s degree requires a bit of a mental adjustment, and PhD is a whole world of its own. That said, if you’re a college graduate and ever find yourself thinking “maybe I should do a Masters…”, that means you should just go in and do it. The sooner, the better. It’s a bit of work, sure, but it’s something that anyone can do with effort, and usually pays off in terms of knowledge and credentials gained. It certainly varies from discipline to discipline, but what I’ve heard from grad students in the sciences, engineering, and even business has been very similar. A PhD, though, is something to think long and hard about. It is a massive commitment of time and energy, and you have to be ready for it to become the most important thing in your life for 4, 5, 6 or more years. You really need to be sure of what you’re getting into. I wasn’t, and that made things very difficult. The worst thing about it is the social isolation it can lead to – when you’re so immersed in something, especially when it doesn’t fit with what other students and professors are working on, you often become trapped in your own head. No matter how hard you try, your family and friends will not actually understand what the hell you’re doing, even if they’re extremely smart and sympathetic towards you. And you always risk either becoming jaded, or suddenly realizing that you actually know absolutely nothing, or just going a little crazy. I have to say that my friends from the AMV community have actually been a huge help in keeping me mostly sane over the years! Heck, it even says so in the acknowledgements to my Master’s thesis…

On the good side, the opportunity to teach – which I’ve had for the last 6 years as a grad student – has always been incredibly rewarding. It’s always weird to have students who aren’t that much younger calling you “professor”, but that moment when you realize “wait a second… I actually legitimately can be called that!” is kinda cool. “Trolling” my students with references they would recognize, especially internet memes, is always incredibly hilarious. And on the research side, I’ve also had some really awesome experiences – when, as a communications researcher, I actually helped create something that doctors and patients could make use of in a real clinic, I was very proud. Or when I went to an AI (that is, Artificial Intelligence) conference, and had top computer science experts from places like Microsoft and Google come up to talk to me about my work in studying language, and actually get what I’m doing and immediately recognize the practical value in it – man, that was also just really cool.

Lastly, if you want to know more about life as a PhD student, go read PhD Comics. They are the most truthful thing you will ever read about this subject. I’m not kidding. So hilariously true that I’ve actually cried reading them a few times!

*v* This has always been the most interesting thing to read about. :3 Mainly cause I'm curious what the hell is going on inside the mind of each student usually (I'm a curious little beaver, sue me) But I'm kinda curious what you mean by this:

And you always risk either becoming jaded, or suddenly realizing that you actually know absolutely nothing, or just going a little crazy

Do you mean like your solving problems that not even professors in the university can help you with??

[lloyd9988]

Double post xP Sorry

Lastly, if you want to know more about life as a PhD student, go read PhD Comics. They are the most truthful thing you will ever read about this subject. I’m not kidding. So hilariously true that I’ve actually cried reading them a few times!

This is hilarious xD This one just makes me laugh out loud

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive/phd082012s.gif

[Moonlight Soldier]

Great stuff George~

[DriftRoot]

Great interview, great interviewee. Very thorough, too. I particularly liked your commentary on judging and AMV standards and can relate to your the compliments to Godix as a judge of AMVs. He was a rough edge on the forums, yes, but he was also all the things you mentioned when it came to critiquing videos and someone I always trusted to give me helpful feedback.

Thank you for all the years of great videos, discussion and moderation, Otohiko. It's good to know you're here.

[Otohiko]

And you always risk either becoming jaded, or suddenly realizing that you actually know absolutely nothing, or just going a little crazy

Do you mean like your solving problems that not even professors in the university can help you with??

There is a PhD comic for that too: http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1056

Basically, it's a side effect of having to specialize really narrowly and having to directly confront problems of epistemology (i.e. philosophy of knowledge - how do you know what you know?). If you keep asking yourself that question long enough, you will almost inevitably hit a wall and panic at one point or another. Closely related to it is also the feeling of being a fake/fraud. Pretty much every PhD student, especially in humanities/social sciences, will at one point dig deep enough into "do I really know this? does my work really matter?" and have to confront the answers being "no", because any proper critical philosophy of knowledge will force you to seriously consider thatt possibility. At which point you feel like the dumbest, fakest, most inarticulate and socially useless person ever.

That good news is that people normally recover from that pretty quick


And thanks for the replies guys! And yeah, writing that made me miss godix. That's one Lip Flapper interview that I would've loved to have read if it were possible...

[ZephyrStar]

Great stuff man. I love the insight into academics...makes me think twice about the possibility of leaving my current job to take a teaching job...and makes me respect you PhD types even more. I will eagerly await updates to your VN project :3