I won a bet.
A couple of years ago, the person whom I was sort-of-maybe-beginning to see predicted that I'd be promoted to Senior Lecturer within three years. "I bet I'm not," I said.

And she took me up on the bet. The stake was that the loser would take the winner to dinner.

This was silly on her part. After all, for her to win, I'd have to find referees, apply for promotion, convince my School to support my application, and then convince the Faculty to promote me. The whole process takes about 10 months from first application to actually getting the new job title.

By contrast, for me to win, all I'd have to do is sit back and not apply for promotion for two years - the 10-month-long process would mean that that'd take me over the three-year term of the bet. Needless to say, winning the bet was easy.

On the downside, the nascent relationship never really got going, and she and I don't really talk much now. So that means that I've quite possibly sacrificed two years' worth of higher pay at the altar of a dinner-date that'll almost certainly never happen.

But, dammit, I won the bet.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Fri 29 Apr 2011, 10:20, Reply)