{"id":604,"date":"2012-07-06T22:15:27","date_gmt":"2012-07-06T22:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/notranting\/?p=604"},"modified":"2012-07-06T22:15:27","modified_gmt":"2012-07-06T22:15:27","slug":"no-passion-please-were-scientists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/notranting\/2012\/07\/06\/no-passion-please-were-scientists\/","title":{"rendered":"No passion please, we’re scientists"},"content":{"rendered":"

In which I put a damper on all this over-invoked passion<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Regular readers of this blog (you know who you are, you two – stop giggling at the back), or of others in the OT stable where I can be found grumbling in the comments<\/a>, will know that I have an abiding loathing – you might even call it a *cough* passionate<\/em> *cough* hatred – for PR bullshit, promotional-speak, and the misuse of language in things like job adverts.<\/p>\n

This came up just yesterday in a conversation after Sylvia Mclain’s latest interesting blogpost<\/a> on ‘The Life Scientific’<\/a>. As we discussed over there, most scientists are committed to their work, and to the idea of science as a way to try and discern as much of the truth about the natural world as we can. Let’s face it, you would have to be pretty seriously committed to it to put up with stuff like this<\/a>. Or this<\/a>. Or this<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But\u2026.<\/p>\n

…WHY THE **!* does that commitment mean that people always have to reach for that over-used, and abused, word, ‘passionate’<\/em>?<\/p>\n

A few years back, job adverts in science<\/a>\u00a0always asked for people who were ‘enthusiastic’.<\/p>\n

No longer, though. The bar has been raised. Now you have to be, not dreary run-of-the-mill enthusiastic, but passionate<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I was reminded of this again today when the British Pharmacological Society<\/a> tweeted this:<\/p>\n

\n

We're recruiting an Education & Outreach Officer – great post for anyone with a passion 4 #pharmacology<\/a> or #bioscience<\/a> http:\/\/t.co\/GWesp4CV<\/a><\/p>\n

— British Pharmacological Society (@BritPharmSoc) July 6, 2012<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n