Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: This show is not a substitute for professional counseling and no relationship is created between the show host or guests and any listener. If you feel you are in need of professional mental health and are a UA student, we encourage you to contact the UA Counseling center at 348-3863. If you are not a UA student, please contact your respective counties crisis service hotline or their local mental health agency or insurance company. If it is an emergency situation please call 911 or go to your nearest emerg.
[00:00:41] Speaker B: Alright, it's 6 o' clock in time again for Brain Matters, the official radio show of the UA Counseling Center. We are broadcasting from the campus of the University of Alabama. Good evening. My name is Dr. B.J. guenther and I'm the host of the show along with my colleague and producer Katherine Howell. And in case you don't know, this show is about mental and physical health issues that affect college students and in particular UA students. So you can listen to us each Tuesday night at 6pm on 90.7 FM or you can listen online at WVUAFM UA Edu. You can also download several apps. I like the MyTuner radio app and just type in WVUAFM 90.7 and our show should come up. Don't forget I ask this every week. This is only our second show. We do about 12 to 13 shows a semester, fall and spring, and then we don't do any shows in the summer. So if you have ideas for upcoming show topics, send those to me via email at Brainer Matters Radio at wvuafm ua edu and of course I'll consider using your show topic. And nothing is really off limits, so if you think we've already done it, we may have, but sometimes we need to revisit certain topics like depression or stress. Anxiety test anxiety. You get my drip, but email those to me. I'll try to remember to give those the email address out after every break if Kathryn will help me. And sometimes I really forget that so tonight we're stepping into a journey that every new college student faces in the transition from getting excessive accepted into college to truly thriving once you're there. The topic is you got in. Now what? 100 insights into finding your best life in college. It's one thing to celebrate the acceptance letter, but the real challenge and opportunity begins the moment you step on campus. And from managing academics and building relationships to discovering who you are and where you want to go, this conversation is packed with guidance, wisdom and stories to help students make the most of their college experience. So Whether you're a freshman just starting out, a parent wanting to support your student, or simply someone curious about the college journey, you'll find plenty of insights here. So let's get started. My guest tonight is joining us from it's Palo Alto, right. Stanford University.
That's right in California. It's about 2:00 out there, so it's a little bit earlier out there. Dr. James J. Hamilton. Dr. Hamilton is vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and Hearst professor of Communication at Stanford University. The winner of eight teaching awards at Harvard, Duke and Stanford, he spent decades teaching and mentoring undergraduates and designing programs to help them thrive in college. As Chair of the First Year Requirement Governance Board of Stanford, Dr. Hamilton helped implement the civic liberal and global education requirement for first year students. This set of classes prompt students to reflect on the goals of their college education and their roles as citizens in the 21st century. And Dr. Hamilton is the author of three award winning books. One is this book that we're going to talk about about by the same name you got in now what 100 insights into finding your best life in college. And he's also earned a BA in economics and government and a PhD in economics from Harvard University. I'm so intimidated, Dr. Hamilton.
I never get nervous for the show. I'm a little bit nervous for the show. I have a lot of lot to live up to.
[00:04:08] Speaker C: You should not be nervous at all.
[00:04:10] Speaker B: Thanks for being on the show. Again, if I haven't included in that, that intro, which was a very long intro, I get that.
What can you tell the listeners any more about yourself and why you're interested in this topic? Why have, how long have you been in higher education?
[00:04:30] Speaker C: I started getting my PhD in 1987 and I started teaching at Duke as an assistant professor in 1991.
[00:04:47] Speaker B: Why do you think students are so intimidated by professors here at the counseling center? I've heard that. I know Kathryn has also I hear students who are a lot of times afraid to talk to their professors and they wait until the last minute. Maybe it's too late in the semester to finally get the courage. Why do you think they're so afraid?
[00:05:08] Speaker C: I think it's a couple things. Number one, we have the word doctor in our title and number two, we tend to be older than the students.
And I think though the number three one is when we teach our classes, we're talking about things that we are expert in.
[00:05:28] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:05:28] Speaker C: We've spent decades thinking about and students sometimes think that we have that type of knowledge about every question.
So if I, if I were going to meet a person like that who knew everything about many topics, I would be intimidated too. But the thing to remember is we know a lot, Professors know a lot about very specialized areas.
And when you participate in class discussions, when you hear us talk, these are things that we've thought years about. And it's not spontaneous brilliance. It is hard work. It is reading with a highlighter, taking notes. And so I think one of the reasons we might be intimidating is that we appear to be more smart than we are.
[00:06:18] Speaker B: The cat's out of the bag.
[00:06:20] Speaker C: Exactly.
[00:06:21] Speaker B: What, what made you, what made you decide to write this book? You. I read in the intro about you that you've written two other. Is it two other books? Is it three books total? What are the two other books about? And why did you write this one?
[00:06:35] Speaker C: So I've actually written 11 books.
Yeah, I've written or edited 11 books. Three of them have won awards. This book is not. It just came out in March. But the three books that won awards, they all won AW awards for best Media research book of the year. So I am an economist and I study the market for news and information.
And so my last book that won an award was called Democracy's the Economics of Investigative Journalism.
And this book is much different. My other books have regression results, tables, some math. This book has 100 sayings or sentences backed, each backed by a 300 word essay and a cartoon. And the reason that I wrote the book was I noticed my two sons who graduated from college in 21 and 24 in that summer before college, they were very excited, but they lacked a strategy or lacked a direction and they wanted to think about what to do in college. But there wasn't really a helpful book for that.
So seeing that gap in what they were reading, I decided I would try to put a book together like that.
[00:07:52] Speaker B: So the book is geared toward incoming students more than anybody and parents? Possibly.
[00:08:00] Speaker C: Yes. I've actually, it's a, it's an interesting book. I decided to write what I know. So I've been at Stanford for more than a decade. My two sons went here, My wife has a Stanford degree. So I thought there are a lot of people who've written books who are Stanford professors or alums. So I read about 300 books by people from Stanford and read 40 years of commencement addresses and really tried to distill that into the knowledge that you would get if you came to my office hours. And I will say the third day on the project, I'd ordered over 200 books on Amazon and my credit card was canceled.
[00:08:41] Speaker B: Oh my gosh.
[00:08:42] Speaker C: They thought it was fraudulent, that I must be a bot. Who is this person buying all these books? But it was, it was a wonderful two years for me to read those books and take 600 pages, single spaced of notes and then try to distill that into a hundred insights. And then each insight is illustrated by a 300 word essay. The essay focuses on two people and then each, each saying is illustrated by a cartoon by Jim Toomey, who's a national, internationally recognized cartoonist. He has a strip called Sherman's Lago.
But he and I also worked on the high school literary magazine in 1978. So in a way it is.
[00:09:25] Speaker B: You have history.
[00:09:26] Speaker C: Yeah, we got back together.
[00:09:28] Speaker B: The band.
[00:09:29] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:09:29] Speaker B: And got back together. I love it. That just sounds like an awful lot of reading. Did anybody help you do the research? You read all those? That's a lot of reading. But you said it took you two years, so that's a lot of research.
[00:09:42] Speaker C: Yeah, I love, I love to read. And so I would, I read and took those 600 pages, single spaced of notes and then I would take notes on my notes. And that's how I distilled it down to 100 sayings. And then I had. Because I'm an economist, I kept an Excel spreadsheet that listed the people that I was citing in the book because I didn't want to cite any individual more than four times.
[00:10:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:13] Speaker C: And so that was my limit. I could have written half the book about Cory Booker because his, his autobiography was so insightful and he's given a lot of great speeches and. But he's only in the book four times.
[00:10:26] Speaker B: It's hard to narrow it down and not just be, you know, about one person. I understand that. What about, you know, last week was my first show for the. This semester, for the fall for the academic school year. And the topic, a little bit similar to this topic but a little more specialized. It was how crucial is the freshman year?
And we had someone on campus who's the director of the UA first program, which is similar what I read about you, the first year experience.
So some of these questions may overlap with what we talked about last week, but I feel like what inspired you? You said your two sons, but what inspired you to focus on student success? We talked a little bit about this last week and well being, which is what I'm interested in. College and how students can protect their mental health while challenging themselves academically. Do you address that in the book?
[00:11:24] Speaker C: Oh, I definitely do. And just Thinking about that first year, I know we'll get to talk more about this, but I think one of the advantages of the first year is you should think about taking an underload, not taking the most classes you could, because making friends should be one of your classes. You should really set aside time on your calendar. Social.
[00:11:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
Yep. But you know, when you tell students that, they just look at you like you're 100 years old, and then they. And then they start talking about competition, how competitive it is. I think that is what drives.
I know our students here at Alabama.
A lot of students talk about the competition and they worry about getting a job, you know, when they graduate. And so, yes, they socialize a lot, don't get me wrong. But they.
I mean, I used. When I've been working here for a little over 20 years and you didn't hear freshmen coming in with like 17 and 18 hours. That was just really unheard of.
And now it's common and it's very hard for them to balance everything they have to balance as a freshman. Even though most of them come in with college credit, it, you know.
[00:12:44] Speaker C: Sure. Well, I think we're coming up to a break, but I have a lot to say about that.
[00:12:49] Speaker B: Okay, let's hold that thought while Dr. Hamilton takes over the show.
Thank you.
We'll be right back. You're listening to pray matters on 90.7 the capstone.
[00:13:11] Speaker C: WVUAFM, Tuscaloosa.
[00:13:14] Speaker A: This show is not a substitute for professional counseling and no relationship is created between the show host or guests and any listener. If you feel you are in need of professional mental health and are a UA student, we encourage you to contact the UA Counseling center at 348-3863. If you are not a UA student, please contact your respective counties crisis service hotline or their local mental health agency or insurance company. If it is an emergency situation, please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.
[00:13:52] Speaker B: We're back. You're listening to brain matters on 90.7 the Capstone. I'm Dr. B.J. guenther. We're talking tonight about with Dr. James Hamilton. Dr. Hamilton is at Stanford University, a very learned professor and also the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education.
And he's written another book, one of 11 three have won awards.
This one was just released in March. You said it's so interesting and it sounds totally different than what you're used to writing. It's called you got in now what 100 insights into finding your best life in college. I wish more students knew about this Book would read this book. Most students I see, they don't read for leisure because they're reading so much for their classes, you know. But would you recommend high schoolers read this before they get to college? Obviously, yeah.
[00:14:47] Speaker C: I think it makes the perfect graduation gift. I don't want to cut into Dr. Seuss's sales, you know, on the places you'll go, but I think that, yeah, that summer beforehand, maybe a little less Mr. Beast and a little bit more thinking about what's coming next. And we were just talking about the fear and the competition. People, fear, feel. I think one theme of the book is that you really have more freedom than you realize.
And by that I mean you shouldn't really live another person's script. You're going to be the author of your own life story. And the way to get the most out of college is to be open to new ideas and new people and new experiences. And that's really rough because in the admission process, we ask you to take a snapshot of yourself figuratively, and, and tell us who you are and what you want to be. But as soon as you get here, we should try to disrupt that. We, we should try to get you to sample new classes, new clubs, new communities. And so letting go of that security of what you thought you wanted to be and really challenging yourself, that's one way to red stress.
[00:16:07] Speaker B: I mean, that's what going to college is all about.
Hopefully makes you more well rounded, I guess you would say.
[00:16:13] Speaker C: Oh, it definitely does. But I think, you know, you mentioned the students who feel like everybody else is taking 18 units and knows what they want to do.
[00:16:23] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:16:24] Speaker C: Especially in that first year and even into the second. I really want students to realize choosing your major is not choosing your career. The Federal Reserve did a great study that shows that only about a, a quarter of people work in a profession directly related to their major. So if you're an architect, you probably majored in architecture. But that that correlation is not as strong for other occupations. And in fact, more than 90% of employers say what they care about is not your major. But can you think clearly, communicate well, and can you solve complex problems? That's what they care about.
[00:17:03] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a tough one. And, you know, students will come in and talk to me about having a passion for what they do. And there's a lot of students who I see that don't have that passion and they really worry about that. You know, they really, they're hung up on what you're talking about. They're hung up on a career and they lose track of what they're doing in college, period. Like the purpose of college.
[00:17:32] Speaker C: Yeah, it's. So in my book, I try to figure out there's. I think there are seven goals of a liberal arts education.
The first one is the degree. You know, that's a signal to the world of how productive you're going to be.
Second is networking. That's the friends that you're making, the mentoring that you get from professors, the human connections.
Third is domain specific knowledge. So my PhD is in economics. I use phrases like opportunity cost a.
[00:18:00] Speaker B: Lot and boom, my hand just flew off.
[00:18:06] Speaker C: And number, number four is really one of the central ones. It's critical thinking. It's the ability to spot a problem, gather data, think about solutions, compare evidence, and the market rewards all four of those. Well, your degree, your network, your domain knowledge, and your critical thinking skills. But the reason why universities or nonprofits, or why they are publicly funded are the last three goals of a liberal arts education. One is moral self development, the nature of the good life, things that don't necessarily relate to your career, but your life is more than 9 to 5.
And so that thinking about to you what the nature of a good life is, that should be a part of your college career. Next is citizenship. We all live in communities. We all face decisions about whether we want to get involved and whether we want to serve on the school board, whether we want to vote.
Educating students to be citizens and have the skills of citizenship, which includes active listening and listening to somebody else's perspective, not to refute it, but to understand it, that's another goal that's important. And then finally, just intrinsic love of learning. Curiosity. On campus, we sometimes call that basic research. The puzzles that are just fun to solve. And sometimes they get to be applied research and get funded. But when you step back and you say, as a student, why am I here?
Part your reason for being at a university is to get a degree, to develop skills that lead you to a career. But part of it is all those other things that make a life worth living.
[00:19:45] Speaker B: I think they forget that sometimes. The curiosity part, that's interesting because now that you mention it, I see so many students who are just so caught up in studying.
A lot of them are perfectionists. They can't let go of that. That's very difficult.
And the curiosity aspect, I don't know, maybe it comes when they're a little bit older, maybe senior, junior, late junior, now that I'm thinking about it, you know, I don't really see that freshmen, I feel like are just trying to fit in. They're just trying to get their feet under them. But juniors and seniors maybe have more of that freedom to be curious. I don't think the fresh, I don't think the under or, you know, the freshmen or the sophomores feel they have that choice yet.
[00:20:33] Speaker C: No. And they're especially risk averse, you know, if you think about fresh year.
In those books that I read, I ran across people in their memoirs saying, I got a D in genetics, I got a C in first year writing. I got a C on my first writing assignment. Those people were D in genetics. That was Dianne Feinstein. She went on to become a US Senator. Her dad had wanted her to be a doctor and it didn't fit with her. She got that dean, became a political science major. The C in first year writing, that's Atul Gawande, who's a famous surgeon and writer and MacArthur genius. And the C on the first writing assignment, that's Stuart Brand and he won a National Book Award winner. So what I try to tell students is where you start is not where you're going to end up.
[00:21:23] Speaker B: No.
And as you quoted just a minute ago, what's the percentage that do not end up doing what their degree is in? Basically?
[00:21:32] Speaker C: Oh, 75%. Most people.
[00:21:34] Speaker B: Most people. You know what, you encourage students to get an education and not just a degree.
What does that mean? Is that just what we were talking about or is it separate?
[00:21:48] Speaker C: No, it is just what we were talking about. And generative AI is the perfect example of this. Right now a lot of students outsource some of their work to generative AI and they think of the assignment as a box to check. And they don't see it as something to learn from, to challenge themselves.
So it's the difference. It's called cognitive offloading. Sometimes in the class we would call it cheating, you know.
[00:22:22] Speaker B: Yeah, I just don't get it. You know, I don't understand and I don't understand how you control things that, you know, as a professor, how would, how do you control that?
[00:22:31] Speaker C: So we, we've done a couple of things. One is our assumption right now for this year, and things change every year, is that in order to be a good writer or coder, you need to learn it unaided before you learn to use those tools to augment your writing.
So one of the things that we'll do in our college program, 2/3 of our frosh take a class called why College? In the fall of their frosh.
In that Class, we used to have a five page paper. We don't anymore. Because of the temptations of generative AI outside the classroom.
[00:23:08] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:23:08] Speaker C: So we've shifted to oral exams in class because that class is taught in groups of 17 and we've shifted to in class, writing. And we brought back the blue books. And when we brought them back, it was very funny. Some of the students said, you can't read my handwriting. And I said, well, I can only grade what I can read read. And then all of a sudden the handwriting improved.
[00:23:30] Speaker B: I bet it got cleaner.
[00:23:32] Speaker C: It definitely did.
[00:23:33] Speaker B: I kind of like that. I kind of like that idea. I think that's. I wonder if, I don't know if we're. I'm not a professor here. I don't teach here, so I don't know. But I have, you know, I know many people who are. Of course, I'd like to know if they're using that strategy too, how they're combating that here and across the country.
[00:23:52] Speaker C: Yeah, I think that's happening more. The Wall Street Journal had a, had an article about the Blue Book Company and how well they were doing.
Yes. Yeah.
[00:24:00] Speaker B: Who knew?
[00:24:01] Speaker C: I think, I think what it means is that more, more of education will be in person. It'll be oral exams, dressing, class participation, stressing coming to class, life. There's a great saying, life is with people. And I think that you should need, you should learn how to write augmented with generative AI. But in order to judge what comes out of those models, you need to be able to do that on your own first.
[00:24:30] Speaker B: Yeah, I think potential employers will recognize that too.
[00:24:36] Speaker C: Yes, that's right. Although the employer, when they give you the assignment, they just want the answer. They don't care if you were transformed. That's what we need to do. We need to give assignments that transform the person, that make them a better critical thinker, so that when they get on the job market, they're going to be more productive and articulate it.
[00:24:56] Speaker B: Let's take our next break and then when we come back, I've got a couple of email questions for you, if you'll take that. And then I've got. I want to talk about the value of an American college education now. So we'll be right back. You're listening to brain matters on 90.7. The capstone.
[00:25:23] Speaker C: WVUAFM Tuscaloosa.
[00:25:25] Speaker A: This show is not a substitute for professional counseling. And no relationship is created between the show host or guests and any listener. If you feel you are in need of Professional mental health and are a UA student. We encourage you to contact the UA Counseling center at 348-3863. If you are not a UA student, please contact your respective counties crisis service hotline or their local mental health agency or insurance company.
[00:25:47] Speaker C: Company.
[00:25:47] Speaker A: If it is an emergency situation, please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.
[00:26:02] Speaker B: Hey, you're back listening to brain matters on 90.7 the Capstone. I'm BJ Guenther. We're talking tonight about finding your best life in College. And Dr. James Hamilton, he's a professor at and more at Stanford University has written a book entitled you'd got in now what 100 insights into finding your best life in college. And before I forget, if you have any upcoming show topic ideas, email those to me at brain mattersradiovuafm.edu and I'll consider your topics. Thank you, Katherine for reminding me.
We've got a couple of questions via email. Dr. Hamilton, these are good questions, but I think they're pretty common. I would say where do I study if I can't study where I live?
I don't have a car and don't like walking after dark by myself and I've made too many commitments and have roommate issues.
This is a lot in a few questions.
Know we can answer that right now but.
[00:27:10] Speaker C: Well, I, I, yeah, I, there's always noise canceling headphones.
[00:27:15] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:27:15] Speaker C: And I, it was interesting. When I was a college student I found that I got easily distracted by magazines.
So rather than going to the main library, I went to the Chinese language library on campus. And so I could not read anything in that library except my textbook. And so that was way to.
[00:27:39] Speaker B: You mean you don't speak Mandarin too?
[00:27:42] Speaker C: No, no. But I, I think that's only, that's really a good strategy is to figure out where you, you can be less distracted.
[00:27:51] Speaker B: I know it's a big, it's a big challenge for students and I mean I have talked more to students in the last year about roommate issues and it's very hard for students to.
What's the word I'm looking for? Reconcile or just be able to live with someone that they don't have things in common with either or it's just a matter of just the other person is just rude and they try to address it in the best way they can but sometimes they, it just doesn't work.
[00:28:24] Speaker C: You know, there's a social media effect too and a screen time because students now have been so used to interacting electronically rather other than with humans that They've lost some of those negotiation skills.
[00:28:40] Speaker B: I think you're right. I think you're right. What about before we went to the break? I was teased a little bit about some Americans today question the value of college. What's your response? I remember my first class, one of my first classes in pursuing my doctorate. We talked about this, we talked about the cost of education and is it worth it. And we had a debate about that in the college class.
So what is the value of college? Like, what's your response? Do you address that in the book too?
[00:29:13] Speaker C: I do. And I think it still is a great investment at most of the colleges that you would consider going to.
The difference in earnings lifetime is over a million dollars between somebody who goes to college and somebody with a high school degree.
I would note that there are some for profit colleges which focus on your money more than your education.
And that's historically been something that Congress and the Federal Trade Commission have investigated. So there is a sector of this industry where you do need to be careful because there may not be a good return on your money. But at a wonderful school roll tide like Alabama and, and also at Stanford, you do get an excellent education and it will pay off.
[00:30:11] Speaker B: Is it hard in your research and maybe just in your experience, how do you know if you're getting, I don't know if the word is adequate, an adequate education? How do you know that?
How do you know you're getting the value for your money?
[00:30:30] Speaker C: Well, you can look, the government and other people compile returns now where they look at graduates and five years out and you can see the salary by university, sometimes even by major.
And so that's something that you can, you can look at now.
But again, also you should stretch yourself by the classes that you take so that you become a more interesting person too. I mean, sometimes when you go home, do you turn on Netflix or do you read a book? Or maybe you do.
[00:31:16] Speaker B: Or both.
[00:31:17] Speaker C: Yeah, or both. Exactly.
[00:31:19] Speaker B: Or you read three books at one time, like I do, which people think I'm crazy, but I just can't help it.
I just, I always have like two or three books going at one time.
[00:31:29] Speaker C: Yeah, but I think, I think college does pay off financially if you go to most of the colleges that your listeners would be interested in.
And there's, there's also the fact that again, we talked about the nature of the good life and thinking about what's important to you. If you take a liberal arts pathway, that can be helpful to you.
And then it also, this is something people don't calculate, but you're going to college benefits the community that you live in, too, because you're more likely to be a voter if you do that. You're more likely to listen and process information, and that ultimately helps you hold politicians accountable in your political life, in your community.
[00:32:15] Speaker B: We'll be right back. You're listening to brain matters on 90.7 the Capstone.
[00:32:30] Speaker C: WVUAFM Tuscaloosa.
[00:32:33] Speaker A: This show is not a substitute for professional counseling and no relationship is created between the show hosts or guests and any listener. If you feel you are in need of professional mental health and are a UA student, we encourage you to contact the UA Counseling center at 348-3863. If you are not a UA student, please contact your respective counties crisis service hotline or their local mental health agency or insurance company. If it is an emergency situation, please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.
[00:33:12] Speaker B: Hey, you're back listening to brain matters on 90.7 the Capstone. I'm BJ Guenther. So my next question would be how what? This is something that students really, really, really struggle with. And I'm glad that you have touched on this. I'm assuming in your book, what role does failure play in finding one's you know best college life?
[00:33:34] Speaker C: I think that learning what your interests are is so important, and it's not only in college. Sometimes students will stress about their first job.
[00:33:45] Speaker B: Job.
[00:33:45] Speaker C: And what I say to students, your first job, that's going to teach you a lot. You may like it and that may lead you to a career. You may figure out what you don't like in a workplace, what is not fulfilling for you.
[00:33:57] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:33:58] Speaker C: And that in itself, it's not something you can read in a book. You have to experience.
[00:34:03] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:34:04] Speaker C: Similarly, fear of failure. Sometimes when you go into a class, don't look at it just as a hurt hurdle. Don't look at it as a referendum on your intelligence. There's a great theory, the Growth Mindset by Carol Dweck, who actually teaches at Stanford. And her idea is when you are taking a test, when you are in a new situation, this is your ability to stretch.
This is not something where somebody else is looking and saying, are you good enough?
Because if you are stretching, sometimes it's not going to work out.
But you really do need to push yourself. I have a colleague, Tina Selig, and on the first day of class she says, never miss an opportunity to be fabulous.
By that, what she means is you could be in my class. You could just do the work. Or you could say, this is my chance to shine. I'm really going to throw what I have into this assignment that actually causes students to raise their own goals and to raise their efforts too.
[00:35:11] Speaker B: I think it causes them to relax a little bit too.
Takes a little pressure off of them.
[00:35:17] Speaker C: Yeah, like sometimes when I'll have a student who might be writing an honors thesis, that's a year long commitment. And so what I'll say is, don't go for the idea. Write me three one page papers. On each of those papers, one page, first paragraph, write what you think your results are going to be. Second paragraph, write what your methods are and then show those three different papers to friends, to professors, and say, what do you think about these ideas? And I say that to honors students. I also say it to PhDs because sometimes when you have a big project, you're scared. Like, I don't want to make a mistake with the wrong idea. That's right. So generating three and then seeking help from others is, is a great way. And it's actually how I found my PhD topic. I wrote three, three one page memos like that.
[00:36:11] Speaker B: And you had a friend or somebody to critique it and choose it for you, didn't you?
[00:36:16] Speaker C: Yes, I had my, I had a member of my thesis committee who said, this is as about as interesting as a theory of why people give each other greeting cards. That's boring. You lack the expertise on this medical economics question because you're not an MD but your could work. So yes, that was tough love.
[00:36:39] Speaker B: Amen to that. Oh, what about like for you personally with the book, what is your favorite lesson from the book?
[00:36:49] Speaker C: Thank you for asking that. My favorite one is ask yourself, what would you do if you could not fail?
So Cory Booker, he went to Stanford undergrad and then he went to Yale Law School. And at Yale Law School he was sort of stuck. He didn't know what his next step was. And his mother said to him, him, Corey, what would you do if you knew you could not fail? And he said, well, of course I'd run for office because I, you know, I want to help people, I want to be in government. And she said, well, that's your answer.
So I think it's very liberating because so many times you're being driven by fear of missing out or you're being driven by what other people's aspirations are. But if you step back and said, wow, what would I do if I could not fail?
That can be liberating. It could actually help you see where you want to go. And his mother was a realist, too. She said, said, look, you may not get there, but you're going to be wiser and stronger for the things that you did because you wanted to reach that goal. And so that's really my favorite lesson. And it goes back to the main theme of the book, which is you really have more freedom than you believe when you're picking classes, when you're deciding how to spend your time.
[00:38:03] Speaker B: Yes. I don't know why they think they don't, though, you know.
[00:38:08] Speaker C: Well, it's because they're surrounded by people who are 17 or 18 and who are very focused on short term and who may be, you know, they haven't seen thousands of students like you and I have.
[00:38:20] Speaker B: Yeah, that's true. Or parental pressure. I see a lot of that, too, you know.
[00:38:25] Speaker C: Yes. I mean, that goes back. Don't live another script, you know, your, your parents.
[00:38:30] Speaker B: That's a whole nother show.
[00:38:31] Speaker C: That's right. And they, they lived in a different. They were young in a different decade, and students different challenges.
[00:38:39] Speaker B: One more question, because I know you've got to go. Are you working on any more books or do you have a website that people who are listening can go to?
[00:38:49] Speaker C: If you are interested in my ideas, just Google James T. Hamilton, Stanford, and you'll find out about my research. I am the Vice Provost for undergraduate education now, so I've had to put my research aside. I've been writing a book that is a history of the Media told through 300 years of help wanted ads.
[00:39:08] Speaker B: But how close are you being finished? Finished?
[00:39:11] Speaker C: Well, I think I'm 100% in my new job now, so I can't start again until I step down. But I love my work. I love talking with students. And today is the second day of our quarter and it's really exciting to see everybody very excited to be back on campus.
[00:39:31] Speaker B: It's a beautiful campus, let me tell you. It's the first time that campus is the first time I've ever seen a jacaranda trip tree.
[00:39:40] Speaker C: We have those. We have Meyer lemons. We've got amazing trees.
[00:39:45] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. I had never seen a jacaranda tree. Beautiful purple. And. And I was admiring one of the trees and someone overheard me and told me what it was called, and I was like, I don't think we can grow those in Alabama, but they are beautiful. And it's a beautiful campus. Yeah.
[00:40:02] Speaker C: They call it the farm because it once was a working farm. And it's still very beautiful. Beautiful.
[00:40:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
Well, thank you again for being on the show. I really appreciate it. I know you've got to go. I'm going to make some announcements, but go ahead and log off if you need to. I really appreciate it. I'll get get you a copy of this when it drops on Apple, but this is. This was great. Thank you.
[00:40:23] Speaker C: Thank you. Thanks for the invitation. Goodbye.
[00:40:26] Speaker B: Bye Bye.
Don't forget our shows are recorded and and podcasted on the Apple Podcast, audioboom.com and Voices UA Edu. Just type in Brain Matters and you'll find some.
There's also a link to Voices ua Edu on the Counseling Center's website and that's Counseling ua Edu.
I want to mention again, I made this announcement last week that Suicide Awareness Week is coming up. The Walk the Suicide Awareness walk is Sunday, October 19th at the Student Center Plaza. Registration begins at 5pm and then the walk begins at 6pm and will finish at 7pm we'll also have several events planned throughout the week and listen. Listeners can follow us on Instagram tiedagainsuicide to get more information. I also mentioned that on October 14th Brain Matters will feature several students from Tied Against Suicide on our show. So that'll be a good show and pertinent and timely. Right before the Suicide Awareness Vlog. I like to thank a few people who've made the show possible. As always, Dr. Greg Vanderwaal. He's our executive director here at the Counseling center, my producer and colleague Katherine Howell, my colleagues here at the Counseling Center, Gareth Garner at wvua, who edits our shows every week for us, and of course my guest tonight, Dr. James Hamilton. Don't forget, we're on again next week and the topic will be Wrestling through Adversity. I can't wait to do this one because I talk to a lot of students about challenges in their lives, no matter what it is, and I think this will be a good show and a good show right before we go into the busiest part of the semester midterms.
So stay tuned. Next week we're on same place, same time. Thanks again for listening. Have a good night.
[00:42:25] Speaker A: This show was not intended as a substitute for professional counseling. Further, the views, opinions and conclusions expressed by the show hosts or their guests are their own and not necessarily those of the University of Alabama, its officers or trustees. Any views, opinions or conclusions shared on the show do not create a relationship between the host or any guest and any listener, and such a relationship should never be inferred. If you feel you're in need of professional mental health and are a UA student, please contact the UA Counseling center at 348-3863. If you are not a UA student, please contact your respective county's crisis service hotline or their local mental health agency or insurance company. If it is an emergency situation, please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency.
