Ideology & Work

I'm pretty much an open book to everybody, so anything I say here should hardly be a surprise to anybody who ever came into contact with me. For those who don't know me yet and for whatever reason want to know something about me (why would you open that page, otherwise?), here's some info:

  • I'm quite a workaholic, but not because I don't find other ways of spending time not interesting (cause I do! primarily sports!), but because I always give 200% no matter what I do, and because I find it hard doing an extraordinary great job without sacrificing lots of private time. I'm particularly passionate about mentoring, supervision, and teaching. If you have contact to 500 to 1000 students every single year throughout your career, you can really change some lives! And what more important thing could exist other than making the next generation(s) believe in themselves and become hungry for knowledge and change the world for the better? I constantly get amazingly positive feedback by my students about my passion and how addictive it is. :)
  • Cause I'm also a bit nerdy (and a fan of statistics -- I also use a FitBit smart watch for step and sleep tracking etc.), here's a statistics on the number of (work-related) emails I sent throughout my career. (Note that I also use emails as a todo list, so many of these are tasks I need to complete.) Anyway:
    • 2009: 316 (193 conversations)
      • (start of my PhD in July, so just 1/2 year)
    • 2010: 489 (349 conversations)
    • 2011: 620 (394 conversations)
    • 2012: 905 (536 conversations)
    • 2013: 1,233 (827 conversations)
    • 2014: 1,606 (1,125 conversations)
    • 2015: 1,759 (1,041 conversations)
    • 2016: 1,917 (1,163 conversations)
    • 2017: 2,873 (1,614 conversations)
      • (defense of my PhD in November)
    • 2018: 4,368 (2,537 conversations)
      • (post-doc since November 2017)
    • 2019: 4,689 = 3,481 + 1,208 (2,465 = 1,961 + 504 conversations)
      • (left UUlm in October, started at the ANU in November as Lecturer)
    • 2020: 7,259 (3,021 conversations)
    • 2021: 9,268 (3,937 conversations)
    • 2022: 12,150 (4,033+ conversations)
      • (Senior Lecturer since January)
    • 2023: 10,168 (4,033+ conversations)

email plot

Note that I don't enjoy writing emails... It's simply an indicator of my workload.

Unsurprisingly, 2022 was the toughest year where I convened two courses each with 400 students each. 2023 was only slightly better, where I co-convened a large course (with roughly 200 students), and was the main convenor of a small course (60 students). Then we have 2021 where I convened only one single course (with 400 students), and 2020 I could just focus on research! Pretty well visible in the plot I think. :)

I am aware that it's 2026 now and so the plot is outdated. Unfortunately, I switched the email client at some point, and statistics are not accessible in the same way anymore... Looking at this is on my stack!