As these layoffs roll through, we can defend NASA without lionizing it. I'm not a unique genius. I'm not the best at what I do! I work really hard and so do a lot of other folks at NASA, and we deserve to be treated with respect as workers, not because what we do is uniquely brilliant or important. - ThreadSky

spacewhalerider.com • 6 days ago

As these layoffs roll through, we can defend NASA without lionizing it. I'm not a unique genius. I'm not the best at what I do! I work really hard and so do a lot of other folks at NASA, and we deserve to be treated with respect as workers, not because what we do is uniquely brilliant or important.

Comments

mngrrrl.bsky.social•5 days ago

This - we need this kind of humility. Thank you!

irenebaldwinbronx.bsky.social•5 days ago

You guys are also pretty brilliant too.

skoooma.bsky.social•5 days ago

Not the best, but very good, and someone who should certainly be allowed to continue her work.

spacewhalerider.com•5 days ago

Aw, thanks for saying so! I'm doing my best over here

charliehorsephotos.bsky.social•5 days ago

NASA is the org I've got a massive concern about due to the lust that Musk has to decimate it to sell SpaceX at 50%+ the cost of NASA projects right now.

Ketamine Kevin is a threat, and yes, NASA does great works, I have family there, but no greater than any other federal department.

spacewhalerider.com•6 days ago

Obviously my view here is affected by a) being a marxist and assessing NASA's successes and failures through the lens of labor, and b) being consistently told I don't have what it takes throughout my career, and thus being extremely aware of how unexceptional I am!

spacewhalerider.com•6 days ago

But I do think it's important to consider ALL workers as valuable - even the ones who aren't stereotypical genius rocket scientists! Even the ones who are mid, like me 😂 I shouldn't need to be a genius innovator to have my labor valued

spacewhalerider.com•6 days ago

Making this my new business card or something if my postdoc isn't dissolved

securitycatnip.bsky.social•6 days ago

My thoughts are certainly with you. By the way, I share your Darth Vader / Grad School essay with my students every semester.

spacewhalerider.com•6 days ago

Omg!! What an honor, thank you for saying that. It means a lot to know that my writing reaches people.

securitycatnip.bsky.social•6 days ago

You're most welcome. It's fantastic essay, equally valuable to grad students and those of us (slowly) trying to make grad school less of an psychological exercise in the heights of student stress.

overworkedretiree.bsky.social•5 days ago

Enough with the secret handshake. Where can this epic read be found?

divyampersaud.com•6 days ago

It’s so good. I was thinking about it just today.

spacewhalerider.com•6 days ago

💗💗💗

mrkhagol.bsky.social•6 days ago

no..u count..it's just this is all too infuriating

sondy.com•5 days ago

dude, you are incredibly exceptional, in a land of very exceptional people

rsimmon.bsky.social•5 days ago

If you made it through a PhD program you have what it takes, by definition!

lunalori.bsky.social•5 days ago

Thanks for putting that in words! I keep seeing the "don't fire the people at NASA because they're our best" posts and thinking about the rest of us losing our jobs because I guess we're not good enough? They don't care about performance, they're destroying all of us.

spacewhalerider.com•5 days ago

Exactly!! This kind of argument is harmful in the long term imo. Planetary scientists need to develop a community consciousness about our work as WORK, rather than doing weird morality stuff. I'm not a hero mode famous scientist, and there should still be a place in science for folks like me!

spacewhalerider.com•5 days ago

(also hi! missed you from twitter 🙂)

lunalori.bsky.social•5 days ago

Haha, hi! I've been here a while, just *lurking* 🤭

caligreg.bsky.social•4 days ago

Musk’s Cosmic Cash Grab

NASA worked for all mankind,
But Musk had dollar signs in mind.
He cut their staff, he steals their pay.
SpaceX profits — big Musk pay day!

amycoplan.bsky.social•5 days ago

How wonderful that you took the time and energy to articulate this extraordinarily important point so eloquently. It’s always marvelous to find existence proofs of integrity.

jupforjupiter.bsky.social•5 days ago

Thanks for putting it so well. Another perspective on this—many internationals in the U.S. aren’t even able to be considered for these types of jobs, let alone be recognized as 'the best.' At least in other institutions and universities, there are fewer restrictions (for now).

jupforjupiter.bsky.social•5 days ago

And there are many internationals I know who are deeply affected by the current situation but have no votes or say in it.

kevtalk.bsky.social•5 days ago

I love me some class solidarity

schmemela.bsky.social•5 days ago

I feel so bad for all the (mostly) EC folks getting swept up in this but I was also disgusted by the posts of "every NASA employee is the best person in the world at that job". Please. This isn't the 1960s where NASA was the only game in town. Skilled, yes. Good at their job? Probably. But please.

spacewhalerider.com•5 days ago

Yeah, that's what inspired these posts. As a NASA postdoc I am literally just some guy, and so are many of the other people that work at NASA. It's extremely weird to bring back the 1960s-era "we're collecting geniuses to do the impossible" rhetoric and (in my opinion) not productive.

spacewhalerider.com•5 days ago

This is basically me when people say this.

schmemela.bsky.social•5 days ago

Not that they aren't valuable employees working hard at jobs that are, yes, hard to get. But I just... can't with that particular hyperbole.

charliehorsephotos.bsky.social•5 days ago

Yeah, this is "we clapped for the leopards when they ate the faces at the IRS, but now they're in our offices! We support leopards eating faces, but not OUR faces!!"

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply