Dear Dennis,

You ask the follwing: From a point in your past say 10 years, could you in your career see yourself where you are today? Why or why not?

What follows is a short answer to your question.

My first answer is to say "NO". In fact, in the past 10 years of my academic and scientific career I was not able to imagine where I am today. Why is this so? There are several reasons. Chiefly among them are the followoing.

1) scientific progress in my area of expertise, developmental psychology. The role of neuroscience in this area was much less discussed and researched in the last 10 years than it is today.

2) Techonological progress. I have now access to technological procedures other than I have 10 years ago.

3) Changes in my social life. In the last 10 years, there were signifcant changes in my life social life. Because of this I have now more time to read, write and research.

Best regards,

Orlando

At a grander level, I think I am close to where I wanted to be, and where I seen myself when I was younger. My perspective has changed though, so you would have to ask my younger self. At a micro level, while I am somewhat where I seen myself being, I feel that what I envisaged academia to be when I was younger is not what it is now. Two possibilities for this in my opinion. It always appeared to be potentially more fulfilling that I thought it would be. 2. Various changes, such as The introduction of business models in academic settings, and the increase in micromanagement, has actually devalued what an academic was, compared to when I was younger.

Hello Dennis - I'm suspicious of five year plans (cf Soviet Union under Stalin) let alone 10 year plans. I would not have thought that I would have re-located from England to Australia 10 years ago in a teacher education academic or that I would be living in the rural Tasmanian countryside. I'm not sure how many people plan international career moves.

I think that it fair for academic performance managers to support colleagues to develop their personal, professional and research skills and to have a broad potential map of the future, but there needs to be space for flexibility and being open to unexpected opportunities when they arise.