BFF.
SELF-CARE FOR ACADEMICS
BODY FREEDOM FLUTTER
ABOUT BFF.
Has the airflow across your wings been disturbed?
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Body Freedom Flutter (BFF) is a type of flutter, or 'self-excited vibration,' the coupling of inertial force, elastic force, and aerodynamic pressure, when flying, which causes an aircraft to fall apart. It's also - we argue - a feeling some academics (and non-academics!) experience when certain forces interact. You thought academia was going be full of intellectual debates, intrinsic motivation, and international travel.. and it is... but forces driven by critical reviewers, department politics, handsy profs, tenure track intensity, demanding yet unmotivated students, competitive dynamics... can start to interact..
... and you could use a friend. A BFF.
BFF is about gaining perspective about our first-world aerodynamics issues:
- A reminder that vibrating into pieces is neither desirable nor appropriate.
- To breathe for a moment, stabilize... then glide through a cloudy airspace like a stealthy and structurally-sound angel!
- That this game is to be laughed at, not haunted by, but most of all, played!
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Keep flying, baby, just keep gliding, keep soaring, do not fall apart. We repeat: do not fall apart.
Do not go gently into that pitch and plunge! Rage, rage against the oscillatory load!
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XOXO,
YOUR BFF.