New Year, New Career
My move to semi-retirement
Hi everyone and best wishes for whatever you celebrate in this season.
Lots of us are winding down for the year, but I’m winding down more permanently. I’ve agreed with the University of Queensland to move to a half-time position starting on 1 January, with no teaching or admin requirements. And now I’m beginning to take some of the steps implied by that.
I just emailed my Head of School to say that I’m giving up my large professorial office, and giving away most of my books. That’s an overdue adjustment in any case. I stopped going in to the office when Covid first hit us, and have never really gone back. I’m still trying to avoid indoor spaces with lots of people. And I’ve almost completely stopped buying and reading physical books. Others can make better use of the books and the space.
I’m also trying to wrap up my research agenda in decision theory and game theory. That will be a slow process, but I’ve said most of what I want to say on both topics. I haven’t published it all, though: the peer review process in economics is pretty painful with rejection rates of 90 per cent or more at most good journals. So, a fair bit of revision will be required.
The other side of not going to the office so much is that I can spend more time in places I love, including Far North Queensland and the Sunshine Coast. Nancy and I had enjoyable few days farmsitting at our family farm: it was Nancy’s father and we now have another family member running it, but we were glad to step in so she could take a break.
As far as my sporting activities are concerned, it’s taken me a long time to recover fully from the 70.3 Ironman in September. I’m planning my first 20k run since then for tomorrow, so wish me luck. Those interested in such things can find and follow me on Strava.
Feel free to share this with anyone you think might be interested. You can leave a public comment or email me at john.quiggin@icloud.com
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