Page 102 - Gonzaga at 60
P. 102
102
GONZAGA AT SIXTY: A WORK IN PROGRESS
Padraic O’Súilleabháin,
senior teacher of Greek and
Latin since the retirement of
Fr Eddie Keane
diplomats for the US and other foreign services for eighty years. But this was 1999 – the height of
the dotcom boom – and most of my peers had their eyes set on careers in investment banking or
management consuling. These were not opions I had considered before (indeed I would have
been hard-pressed to describe exactly what was involved in either profession). But I soon saw
that they ofered a seducive combinaion of early responsibility and a steep learning curve – not
to menion inancial rewards – not easily matched at the entry level of other careers.
So it was that I found myself at McKinsey & Co., one of the big management consuling
irms, for three fast-paced years. Consuling certainly lived up to its promise. The work was
varied, exciing and always stretching. But I also learned more about myself and what I value
in work. Consultants live by what they call ‘the 80-20 rule’. The irst 20% of the ime spent on a
problem gets you 80% of the way to the answer. Any further efort gives diminishing returns –
and is largely wasted, since 80% is good enough for most real-world decisions. There is a lot to
be said for the philosophy: it is certainly a valuable lesson in personal efeciveness. But I came to
realise that I loved the problems as much or more than the soluions. It was frustraing to have
to abandon them just as they were becoming diicult and interesing. This led me to reconsider
my earlier decision not to pursue a university career. With the beneit of hindsight, I could see
that one of the great privileges of academic life is the luxury of worrying about that last 20% of a
problem – not to menion the freedom of choosing which problem to work on.
Once I started thinking seriously about an academic career, I quickly realised that there was
only one subject that could sustain my interest for such a long ime. This brought me full circle –
to a Doctorate and then Research Fellowship in Roman history at Cambridge (one of the handful
of places in the world where Classics is studied on a scale to jusify a building of its own). It has
been every bit as rewarding as I hoped, ofering not just the freedom to pursue quesions of your
own devising, but also the pleasure of teaching students who have chosen an unusual subject
because it excites them.
Myles Lavan
Class of 1995
Myles Lavan is currently a Research Fellow in Classics at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, soon to leave
for a Lectureship in Ancient History at St Andrews University. He is puing the inishing touches to a
book on slavery and imperialism in Ancient Rome.
GONZAGA AT SIXTY: A WORK IN PROGRESS
Padraic O’Súilleabháin,
senior teacher of Greek and
Latin since the retirement of
Fr Eddie Keane
diplomats for the US and other foreign services for eighty years. But this was 1999 – the height of
the dotcom boom – and most of my peers had their eyes set on careers in investment banking or
management consuling. These were not opions I had considered before (indeed I would have
been hard-pressed to describe exactly what was involved in either profession). But I soon saw
that they ofered a seducive combinaion of early responsibility and a steep learning curve – not
to menion inancial rewards – not easily matched at the entry level of other careers.
So it was that I found myself at McKinsey & Co., one of the big management consuling
irms, for three fast-paced years. Consuling certainly lived up to its promise. The work was
varied, exciing and always stretching. But I also learned more about myself and what I value
in work. Consultants live by what they call ‘the 80-20 rule’. The irst 20% of the ime spent on a
problem gets you 80% of the way to the answer. Any further efort gives diminishing returns –
and is largely wasted, since 80% is good enough for most real-world decisions. There is a lot to
be said for the philosophy: it is certainly a valuable lesson in personal efeciveness. But I came to
realise that I loved the problems as much or more than the soluions. It was frustraing to have
to abandon them just as they were becoming diicult and interesing. This led me to reconsider
my earlier decision not to pursue a university career. With the beneit of hindsight, I could see
that one of the great privileges of academic life is the luxury of worrying about that last 20% of a
problem – not to menion the freedom of choosing which problem to work on.
Once I started thinking seriously about an academic career, I quickly realised that there was
only one subject that could sustain my interest for such a long ime. This brought me full circle –
to a Doctorate and then Research Fellowship in Roman history at Cambridge (one of the handful
of places in the world where Classics is studied on a scale to jusify a building of its own). It has
been every bit as rewarding as I hoped, ofering not just the freedom to pursue quesions of your
own devising, but also the pleasure of teaching students who have chosen an unusual subject
because it excites them.
Myles Lavan
Class of 1995
Myles Lavan is currently a Research Fellow in Classics at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, soon to leave
for a Lectureship in Ancient History at St Andrews University. He is puing the inishing touches to a
book on slavery and imperialism in Ancient Rome.
