Jack Handey wunce sed:

"We tend to scoff at the beliefs of the ancients. But we can't scoff at them personally, to their faces, and this is what annoys me."

This post could also be titled something like: Ten simple rules for career advancement that I choose to ignore.

I've been here for 5 days now, but it was only today that I met my real host, the director of the research centre here, as he was running a conference elsewhere earlier in the week. Now this guy, suffice it to say, is a bigshot. He runs research in this country.

There are several people visiting his lab at the moment, and tonight we all had a absolutely awesome dinner at a local restaurant (juicy steak, arseloads of lobster, fine wines...). At some point the conversation got on to a debate about the relative merits of western and oriental medicine. Woah, nelly... dangerous ground.

Lets put it this way: of the seven people at the table, all were dead silent on the topic except for three. In one corner was our host. In the opposing corner were myself and another guy, also of "western" background.

Now, I've had arguments on this topic before, but always against aussies my age who are half-arsedly enthusiastic about anything vaguely mystical. Not against an asian professor who, e.g., chaired the board which decided the course of his nation's scientific development over the next several decades, a part of which was debating which "side" should get the lion's share of the multi-billion dollar medical and biotech research funds. (Universities here have separate departments of western and oriental medicine.)

Of course, it became one of those heated debates that lasts several hours, goes in circles, reasons and positions get shifted, arguments spring up over what the original argument was, I'm sure you all know the type, particularly if you happen to come from my high school circle. At times it ran dangerously close to collapsing into "my culture's intellectual history is superior to your culture's, which is dumb and still wets the bed", etc, etc.

The following four facts occurred to me somewhat late in the piece:

1. The other guy on my side was a really really bigshot, an old friend of our host, and his career is completely unassailable,
2. He also leaves to go back the states early tomorrow morning,
3. This is the first day I've ever met our host. My career is highly assailable.
   
4. I have another three weeks here working with him.

The choices of the others (including my boss) to stay silent in this debate suddenly appeared much more prudent. But I've been mates with Paul far too long for that though (also my logic was correct). I argued my point until the restaurant closed and we got booted out.

Now, the other guy on my side told me later that our host is a good guy, loves a debate, and doesn't take personal offense or hold grudges. I hope so! Will report back later...

One positive: the "other guy on my side" is the director of robotics at NASA, and we got along very well on several levels (strictly professional, mind) which could come in handy down the track. He's doing intemeresting stuff.