Over the years, I've told colleagues and friends about things I have seen or experienced. Many times, people have said that I should write them down so that they won't be lost and forgotten, since some of them might be useful parts of our history. I've been writing them down, without being sure what I would do with them. I decided to gradually post them on this website, and see what reactions I get. I suggest reading from the bottom up (starting with the August 2017 post "The Meritocracy"). Thoughtful and kind feedback would be useful for me, and would help me to revise the exposition to make it as useful as possible. I hope that while you read my stories you will ask yourself "What can I learn from this?" I'm particularly interested in knowing what you see as the point of the story, or what you take away from it. Please send feedback to asilverb@gmail.com. Thanks for taking the time to read and hopefully reflect on them!

I often run the stories past the people I mention, even when they are anonymized, to get their feedback and give them a chance to correct the record or ask for changes. When they tell me they're happy to be named, I sometimes do so. When I give letters as pseudonyms, there is no correlation between those letters and the names of the real people.

Wednesday, July 25, 2018

A mountain of unwashed coffee cups

 I visited a mathematics research institute in Bonn, Germany sometime in the 1990s. In addition to offices, each floor had a small kitchen with ceramic coffee cups, coffee-making equipment, and a prominent sign stating that everyone was responsible for washing their cups after use. So I was surprised to find a mountain of unwashed coffee cups piled in the sink.

The mountain grew higher each day, and eventually teetered precariously. I was afraid to go near it, lest my breathing set off a cup avalanche and topple them onto the floor.

I asked around, and learned that the culprit was one person.

One day, I saw the culprit in the kitchen, adding to his monument. I pointed out the sign about washing one's own cups, and said I was curious as to why he didn't.

He politely explained that he was from Poland, where (he claimed that) washing dishes was women's work. He said that he expected the female staff or the female mathematicians to wash his cups.

Since I hadn't yet spent any time in a Buddhist monastery, I most likely gave a response that isn't printable.