This month I’m turning 22.

To celebrate, here are the 22 best threads I’ve found on Twitter this year.

Mostly about:

•Life/purpose
•Startups
•Entrepreneurs
•Writing
•Clarity of thought

If I see more interesting threads, I will add to this list.

Enjoy!

Ok, as promised, here's a thread of my top 15 non-verbal gestures for effective behaviour management:

1. A much neglected oldie, best used when only one or two pupils are still talking:

2. Wiggle that earlobe when you see a rogue off-tasker:

3. A gentle side to side headshake, which says "don't even think about doing what you're thinking of doing":

4. This is more forceful and vigorous than no. 3. It says immediately desist:

I’ve put together my list of top 10 tips for early career researchers and I’m going to share it here as promised. But first a disclaimer...I don’t know everything. This list is based on my experience in academia. I would love for others to add and augment. With that in mind....🧵

1: Decide what you want your LIFE to be. This career could consume you completely if you let it, but it won’t always love you. Focus on the other things in your life that bring you joy and fulfillment and cultivate those just as much as you cultivate your research career.

2: Decide what you want your CAREER to be. What are your values? What are you in this for? There will be hard times. But knowing your values and what success means to you can help guide you through them.

3: Decide whose opinions really matter to you. Mastery requires feedback and you will get a lot of it, some useful some less so. Identify the small circle of people you can really trust to give it to you straight. This includes forming a no committee.

4: People are people are people. Don’t be afraid to email someone about a postdoc or job or grant idea. We’ve all been there. Some people are not generous people. This is good information to have. Move on to other colleagues and mentors if you encounter these people.

I want to tell you a story. It illustrates the low level, but unpleasant hassle faced by academics holding views deemed unacceptable by self-appointed defenders of public safety. I'm not going to name names. I'm not interested in facilitating a pile on. The abused is>>

robust and capable of looking after themself. I was sent a screenshot of the abuser's protected twitter narration of the incident. I've also seen it tweeted on here. I've no idea how it was leaked. I've not seen its authenticity challenged. >>

So to the tale. Dr X organizes a seminar with a symposium panel under the auspices of a Faculty in a large well known UK university. Dr Y who is a member of the university with a legitimate interest in the subject matter of the panel registers to >

attend. Y is known to hold what for sake of succinctness I'll call Gender Critical views. X notices shortly before the seminar is to begin that Y will be in attendance and goes into meltdown. Y is deemed an "anti-trans campaigner" which in the commonly accepted >>

rather than Pickwickian sense of these words is false. X contemplates a last minute cancellation of the event. Hurried discussions are held with senior faculty and eventually with the VC who insists the event must take place and Y must be allowed to attend. The event takes place>

I suspected this country would one day kill me but I am not ready to go yet. Last night, a good non-Northern doctor helped to give me a new lease of life when I could have been on my way out. Throughout much of the North, our primary concern is like the people of every other...

...region: having a good life and ensuring our children have opportunities to prosper. Being free to live without terror, build assets, practice our faith and celebrate our culture. Like all tribes, every tribe in the North has a heritage to be proud of and teach their young in..

...Most of our leaders, like leaders of all regions, have betrayed and deceived us. They have been selfish and cunning. They have left us at the mercy of terrorists and thugs. In most areas, we are on our own to survive while they wine and dine with evil-doers. We take up the...

...work others cannot or will not do... for money just like others do what they do for money. Yet when the masses are merely trying to survive, others blame the innocent poor among us for somehow causing all the country’s woes. What blinds us from knowing who are real enemies...

...and who are innocent masses caught up in the countless systemic injustices that those in power have constructed and maintained for their personal (not tribal) benefit? What manner of colonial education and...