If you've ever seen a roomful of scholars being lectured at by one of their own, there is a fairly good chance that:
1/3 of them are asleep 1/3 of them are surreptitiously reading something unrelated to the talk 1/6 are totally lost, but bravely struggling to follow what the speaker is saying so as to extract tiny bits of info to be tracked down later in papers 1/6 actually have enough of an idea of what the speaker is talking about to ask a significant question at the end.
Note that I made up the numbers, but not the categories. It is important for all would-be scholars to attend every seminar they can, so that they can learn to appear as if they are in the last category, but too shy to say anything on account of their lowly position. Senior scholars can eventually learn to bluff, so as to actually be in the second last category while seeming to be in the last one.
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If you've ever seen a roomful of scholars being lectured at by one of their own, there is a fairly good chance that:
1/3 of them are asleep
1/3 of them are surreptitiously reading something unrelated to the talk
1/6 are totally lost, but bravely struggling to follow what the speaker is saying so as to extract tiny bits of info to be tracked down later in papers
1/6 actually have enough of an idea of what the speaker is talking about to ask a significant question at the end.
Note that I made up the numbers, but not the categories. It is important for all would-be scholars to attend every seminar they can, so that they can learn to appear as if they are in the last category, but too shy to say anything on account of their lowly position. Senior scholars can eventually learn to bluff, so as to actually be in the second last category while seeming to be in the last one.