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In the middle of the current semester, a student in my large lecture class (of an undergraduate course) asked me for a letter of recommendation, to supplement his application to transfer to another, much stronger, school. (In case this matters: this is in the U.S.)

He is one of the quiet students: while he doesn't actively participate, he doesn't cause any trouble either. So during that first half of the semester I didn't have any personal communication with him, and therefore I didn't really know him; I mean I didn't have anything to say about him as a person. But he attended class, and his first two midterm test grades were A (90+ numerically). So I told him that I agree to write the letter, but it would be short because I can only write what I know about him, which isn't much: I could only say that I've known him for half of the semester and that so far he has been performing really well. The student said it's fine. So I wrote and submitted a letter of recommendation.

This was a month ago. Fast forward to today, and by now he's like a totally different student: he's still quiet and doesn't cause any trouble, but he often skips classes, and his third midterm exam was an F (50 out of 100).

I know that it's not about me, and I don't take this personally. It may sound like he changed his ways as soon as he's gotten what he wanted from me, but that would be silly of me to assume. Probably it's just that he believes that he's already in the other school and doesn't care about this school anymore.

But my dilemma is that now I know that he is not the kind of student that I described in my letter and recommended to be accepted to the other school. By putting my name on the letter I effectively vouched for him and his ability to perform at a certain level. To me, it's as if I made a promise to the other university, but now I see that I misled them (albeit unintentionally).

Do you think it's a good idea to contact the other university and request that my letter of recommendation be retracted from his application package? Any thoughts or advice?

Wrzlprmft
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zipirovich
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    Have you spoken to him? Perhaps there's something in his personal life that led to this drop-off? – Azor Ahai -him- Apr 23 '19 at 22:17
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    Agree with @AzorAhai ; Life is not that much simple to conclude that " it's just that he believes that he's already in the other school and doesn't care about this school anymore". For example, in my country, even such an the application takes lots of paperwork that I wouldn't even be able to find enough time to sleep every night. – Our Apr 24 '19 at 04:17
  • @onurcanbektas: Agreed. Somehow I feel that this is the case, but of course I could be wrong. That's why I said "probably", so I didn't say that it's a definite conclusion. :-) – zipirovich Apr 24 '19 at 04:23
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    Or maybe he lost his inspiration because the application was rejected. And maybe that's because your letter was not strong enough :p – Džuris Apr 24 '19 at 07:46
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    Aside from any issues surrounding the recommendation (which I don't think you should retract), you've noticed a change in the student, and should probably approach the student to see if you can guide the student to resources for help. – Scott Seidman Apr 24 '19 at 12:40
  • @ScottSeidman: That's what I normally do with my students. (Not that I want to boast, but in our department I have a reputation as one of the few instructors who pays so much individualized attention to students.) But to be honest, I haven't approached this student, because I don't know how to have such a conversation with him without mentioning the letter. – zipirovich Apr 24 '19 at 14:28
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    In the scheme of things, the letter is not as important as the well being of the student. In a conversation where you're setting yourself up as a potential advocate, bringing it up does not seem appropriate. – Scott Seidman Apr 24 '19 at 15:35
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    I don't understand the problem with the student not caring about his current school anymore. Why would he? He's transferring soon. No need to cause trouble for the poor guy—he's clearly already unhappy where he is. – user91988 Apr 24 '19 at 20:28
  • It sounds like the student is having problems outside of school tht are causing them to be distracted and/or not present... I would suggest both talking to the student or reffer them to the school councillor for a chat. ... If your school doesn't have a councillor then maybe suggest some mental health and stability clinics that are trained to handle vulnerable people. .. Even speaking to a GP can be beneficial. . . I would also ask the student WHY the sudden change... Show them the 90% compared to the 50% results and explain your concerns ! – Empire of E Apr 25 '19 at 11:17

8 Answers8

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I think you should do nothing.

(Nothing with respect to the letter, that is. You may of course want to consider intervening with the student as you would with any other student whose performance suddenly drops off. As Azor Ahai says, he may be experiencing some sort of academic or non-academic problem.)

By putting my name on the letter I effectively vouched for him and his ability to perform at a certain level. To me, it's as if I made a promise to the other university, but now I see that I misled them (albeit unintentionally).

I don't see it that way. You couldn't possibly make promises about his future performance, and the receiving university will not have interpreted it that way. They are well aware that "past performance is no guarantee of future results". Provided you made an honest assessment based on what you knew at the time, your letter was in no way misleading, and you have no obligation to correct it.

Proactively sending a followup unrecommendation would come across as somewhat vindictive, and I think it's sort of an ethical gray area. The student consented to having you send a letter, sharing his academic progress, at a particular time; I think it's a little questionable whether that consent extends to having you send additional letters. (However, if the other university should contact you to ask about him, I do think it would be appropriate to give them an update on his more recent work - but to me that feels different.)

That said, I don't think the student is really likely to profit from this anyway:

  • Your initial letter, saying "I've known him for half a semester and so far he's doing fine in this one class", can't really have done much good for his application in the first place. If the other university is "much stronger", having such a letter, in place of a very positive letter from someone that knew him well, may have sunk his application from the outset.

  • If he does receive an offer of admission, it will almost certainly be contingent on continued satisfactory academic progress. The other university will review his final transcripts before he actually starts in the program. If he receives a poor grade in your class, they may very well revoke his admission. Indeed, discussing this possibility with the student may encourage him to shape up.

Nate Eldredge
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    I don't agree that it is an ethical gray area. The student may assume incorrectly that there's some kind of threshold passed, but admissions can contact your recommenders and follow up any time if they want to. I don't see why the follow-up contact can't go other way. – A Simple Algorithm Apr 24 '19 at 02:06
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    @ASimpleAlgorithm Assuming I read the situation correctly, the professor gave the letter of recommendation to the student; not directly to the school he was applying to. This suggests to me that (reasonably IMO), the student had a chance to read the recommendation letter and what it said before they submitted it. The issue with the follow-up contact going the other way is that it was the students choice to include those specific words from the professor. The student wouldn't have included them if they were negative, so making it negative after the fact isn't really fair to the student... – JMac Apr 24 '19 at 12:09
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    ... For an extreme example, imagine getting a letter from a professor that says you were an excellent student over the past semester, so you provide that letter to the institution you are applying to. Then you find that you're rejected, because the professor called the school back to say "I thought about it some more and realized he's a bad student". It's obviously not fair, and this is essentially a much less extreme version of that. What good is the professors recommendation if they can't even be held to their word anyways? – JMac Apr 24 '19 at 12:12
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    @JMac: I wouldn't guess that the professor gave the letter to the student; this would be very unusual in US academic culture. Here, letters are almost always sent directly to the destination university, and the student is expected to waive any rights they might have to read them. OP says "I wrote and submitted the letter", which I understand to mean "submitted it to the other university". And the wording "asked me for a letter of recommendation" is commonly used to mean "asked me to submit a letter of recommendation to the university". – Nate Eldredge Apr 24 '19 at 13:12
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    @NateEldredge They also say that they specifically discussed and agreed upon what they were submitting. Functionally it's basically the same thing, though I did miss that wording when I read it. They would be going back on their word to two different people, which IMO would raise more concerns about their word than it would help clear things up. Plus, the way it was worded, it doesn't even make much sense to contact them about it, since the letter only addressed the work they already had access to. It would still be going behind the students back to change your recommendation after talking – JMac Apr 24 '19 at 13:19
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    @JMac: It is normal in this culture for the professor to tell the student, in broad terms, what they intend to write, but not to share with them the finished letter. However, I don't see this as a binding agreement, and it certainly doesn't override the professor's obligation to write an honest letter. For me, the issue is not really about whether the student expected specific content in the letter, but that the student consented to a one-time evaluation of their potential and not an indefinite ongoing reporting process. – Nate Eldredge Apr 24 '19 at 13:25
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    @NateEldredge That's a good way to word it, and really what I was getting at. A Simple Algorithm seems to be suggesting that the student isn't "in the clear" about ongoing evaluation from this professor. Technically, it may be true, but morally the professor really shouldn't do that. The letter was honest and reflected the work to that point. The student didn't request ongoing feedback, so providing it to a third party unprompted is definitely at very least a non-standard way to deal with the situation between them and the student. – JMac Apr 24 '19 at 13:44
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    To clarify: my conversation with the student about the letter was very short, and in my post I described pretty much all of it. It took all of a minute or so. Then the letter was submitted directly to the university, and the student hasn't seen it and has no access to it (waived his right to see the letter), as is typical in the U.S. academia. – zipirovich Apr 24 '19 at 14:22
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    @JMac I'd describe the recommendation process as specifically designed to be "behind the student's back". You pick people you hope will write good ones. But they may not and are certainly not betraying any kind of trust if they include negative details in your letter. The recommender is not a tool for the student to use, or an advocate like a lawyer, they are an evaluator within the academic system to help others in the system make the best choice. – A Simple Algorithm Apr 24 '19 at 16:43
  • @ASimpleAlgorithm You yourself are calling them a "recommender". They are specifically being used to recommend someone for the position. If the institution wants evaluation, why would they even requests recommendations from you? Wouldn't it be far more prudent of them to get this information without student input on who they should get this information from? A recommendation is a tool for the student to use, to make them more appealing in the application process. If for example, no one was willing to recommend you, then obviously there is less appeal. – JMac Apr 24 '19 at 16:48
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    @JMac Many recommendation forms have checkboxes ranging from "excellent" and "one of the best students I have seen" all the way down to "average" and "below average". Huge red flags of course at the latter end. I have seen applicants with these selected. Perhaps they even go below that, I haven't noticed any. It's still called a "recommendation". And the professor who did that is still called their "recommender". – A Simple Algorithm Apr 24 '19 at 16:54
  • @ASimpleAlgorithm And if you discuss with someone and they say "I will give you a recommendation based on what I have seen thus far", you aren't really asking them to provide feedback on future work as well, and by doing so they are essentially going behind the students back. If the institution is looking for more information, they could ask that; but it seems like they could also ask that without a recommendation. If future performance will have a bearing on a recommendation based on past work, then the recommender should make that clear to the student upfront. – JMac Apr 24 '19 at 17:04
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    @JMac I feel I've already addressed these points. A recommendation isn't a "deal" you make with a student. They require you give your contact info, and many people write in them "please contact me if you have any further questions". Those questions may well go beyond the scope of anything discussed in advance with the student. Again, if a student makes incorrect assumptions that is their mistake. – A Simple Algorithm Apr 24 '19 at 17:16
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    @ASimpleAlgorithm "So I told him that I agree to write the letter, but it would be short because I can only write what I know about him, which isn't much: I could only say that I've known him for half of the semester and that so far he has been performing really well. The student said it's fine." It seems to me like they came to a clear understanding about what the recommendation would contain. Sending new information, without even a request from the institution for further feedback or discussion with the student, doesn't seem right. It's not like OP lied by saying he did good all year. – JMac Apr 24 '19 at 17:30
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    @JMac Yes I understand your position, I just disagree with it. Obviously this disagreement will not end. One final note. My perspective, comes from a side where students are constantly trying to manipulate, maneuver, con, and cheat their way through the system by playing these games to get a higher spot than where they really belong in the ranking of merit. Going along with it is unfair to other students, and does no one else a favor either, including the student who ends up in over their head. – A Simple Algorithm Apr 24 '19 at 18:44
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    @ASimpleAlgorithm In this case though, the school looking to recruit the student just has to do their due diligence. They have recommendations for how half his semester went, but if they wanted a true picture of his performance, they should be checking up on his end of the year results. If they only care about the first half-year, they wont bother to ask, and have to rely on information that was accurate at the time. The professor providing that extra information is essentially butting themselves into something between the student and the school they are applying to. – JMac Apr 24 '19 at 18:49
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    @zipirovich I had a similar situation a few years ago: I wrote a recommendation for Pharmacy School, then towards the end of the semester when the student was worried about grades, they asked me to look again at some exams that they thought were graded incorrectly. There had been obvious changes to the answers or the answer was wrong and they still did not understand why. I asked the advice of my Dean of Academics and they told me to leave it as the letter reflected my opinion at that time but if contacted, to be honest about my current feelings/thoughts, essentially as Nate suggests. – eshier Apr 25 '19 at 20:27
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    Agree. It sounds like OP is imagining a scenario where a professor at the new school decides the student is a dud, relays this information back to the admissions office, who pulls the recommendation letters and notes who wrote them, and then in the future when they get another letter about another student from the same instructor or university discounts it on account of the first student. It's true that OP is speaking on behalf of the university and in an professional capacity, but anything negative about the student is probably not going to reflect back on OP or the original school. – Matthew Leingang Apr 26 '19 at 13:14
  • @eshier: Thank you for sharing your story! This is indeed even worse... or so it was, until this morning -- when I discovered that he cheated on the latest assignment (after the one that I described in my original post). So my guy beats yours. As everybody suggests -- and I'm very grateful for all the advice! -- I'm gonna let it be, although it feels all the more wrong... and I feel all the more terrible. :-( – zipirovich Apr 30 '19 at 04:06
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Based on your statements, all that you vouched for is the performance of the student at that point in time.

  • What confidence can you provide in the new behavior of the student being his "true" character (rather than a sign of an unknown external pressure)?

  • In what way would you retract your letter that will not cause you to appear as being vindictive?

  • What reason can you give to retract your letter that is not covered equally if not better by the outcome that this student is on track to earn a lower final course grade on his transcript?

With so many unknowns, your first instinct should not be to retract the letter.

  • When you care first to know why the behavior has changed, call the student for a visit and give him a chance to explain why.

  • When you care first not to be seen as vindictive, call the student for a visit, explain to him that you face such a decision, and give him the chance to defend himself.

  • When you want nothing less than a recognition that your letter then was only for his performance at that point in time, allow the student now his time to complete his own record of his performance past that point.

To conclude, this link from an article in Psychology Today Jan 2013 also provides background for my summary of the opening statement to relate current behavior as a predictor of future behavior. Other citations could likely be found branching from this.

Jeffrey J Weimer
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    I agree with Jeffrey on the point that the letter is referring to an evaluation of the student at that point in time. For instance, Ted Bundy was highly touted by the faculty at U Washington while he was a student there because he did good work, and that was a fair evaluation at that time. The faculty can't be faulted for not knowing that Bundy was actually a psychopath and would later become a serial killer. – ssjjaca Apr 23 '19 at 23:23
  • @ssjjaca but in your rather extreme example, if you had recommended Bundy to become a nursing student somewhere and later learned he was a serial killer. While you may be legally covered if the worst happened and surprised you all. But the original topic here would imply you later knew the truth about Bundy but the school didn't, and faced the "dilemma" of whether to notify them of the update. Obviously there's no question what you'd need to do in that case. – A Simple Algorithm Apr 24 '19 at 17:02
  • @ASimpleAlgorithm An example to your statement is that schools can and do withdraw degrees based on clear proof of academic misconduct to the requisite level even when that proof is found only after the degree was awarded. However, the counter argument here is, the OP has no proof of anything to justify any action; the OP has only inferences, speculation, and "hurt feelings" (as I would read between the lines). – Jeffrey J Weimer Apr 24 '19 at 18:24
  • @ASimpleAlgorithm I do not think there is a legal question. You are free to write letters of reference for Bundy, Hitler, and other rogues without fear of legal consequence. – emory Apr 24 '19 at 18:25
  • @emory Legal questions are avoided only to the extent that what you write is an accurate representation of what you know at that point. While they may have all been "good people" at some point in the past, any letter that would be written now cannot lie about them no longer being such. I have to imagine also that any letter written now should also avoid obfuscation about this point as well lest other types of legal questions are raised as a consequence. – Jeffrey J Weimer Apr 24 '19 at 19:12
  • A person writing a recommendation letter for another person vouches for the other person in general, not just at a certain point in time. The recommender implies that he knows the recomended (is that the right word?) well enough to vouch for him/her. -1. – einpoklum Apr 25 '19 at 10:03
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    @einpoklum Not in academia. Students may need two references, and may have limited selection of vouchees. A reference which is limited to what the lecturer knows about a student is not as effective as a personalised one, but certainly not a general reference, unless it contains sentences which imply the latter. – Captain Emacs Apr 25 '19 at 11:17
  • @CaptainEmacs: Anywhere. A letter of reference means more than just its contents. You could argue that the strength of the implicit voucher aspect of such a letter is weaker in Academia, I suppose, but I'm not even sure that's universally true. – einpoklum Apr 25 '19 at 11:28
  • @einpoklum Under your assumption, it would be impossible to write letters of references for a large proportion of students. Of course, a personalised letter is always far stronger, but basically, your criterion makes it impossible for a strong, but not noticeable/personable student to gain the formally required 2 letters for a grad application, without recourse. They are filtered out from the outset, just by the inability to get a personalised reference. I must say, this is a pretty drastic criterion. – Captain Emacs Apr 25 '19 at 17:55
  • @CaptainEmacs: 1. Most students don't apply to grad school. 2. In most(?) countries, you don't need an academic staff member's letter of recommendation to apply for graduate school. 3. A letter of recommendation to bypass an onerous technical requirement is something different to an actual letter of recommendation. Interpreted in context, I would construe it as saying "I don't have any problems with this person, why not let them in." – einpoklum Apr 25 '19 at 18:16
  • @JeffreyJWeimer The only legal question is that of libel ("a published false statement that is damaging to a person's reputation") but there is no general law against making false statements. So if the false statements do not damage a person's reputation then you are legally safe. However, if one is in the habit of making false statements then sooner or later, one will be called a liar - and it won't be a libel. – emory Apr 26 '19 at 13:46
  • @JeffreyJWeimer but if there was a legal consequence for making false non-libelous statements in a letter of reference, no sane person would volunteer to write them. – emory Apr 26 '19 at 13:47
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A recommendation letter is/should as close as to your perception of the truth as possible as to the time of writing.

If you have sent it, retraction would be inappropriate (unless you got notice that the student achieved his marks by cheating).

Of course, a future recommendation letter may be not that brilliant, and you should let the student know that you'd rather not send another one if he asks you for it.

Captain Emacs
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    Exactly. The only reason to retract would be if the new circumstances, unknown to you at the time of writing would have come to light. Cheating is the good example. – xmp125a Apr 26 '19 at 10:52
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Why not use this as a chance to open a conversation? "Hey, I noticed that you stopped participating after I wrote your recommendation letter. Is everything okay?"

Grover
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    This could be part of a good answer - one that advises against trying to retract the recommendation letter, and instead suggests focusing on ensuring the student is doing all right - but right now it doesn't answer the question at all, instead simply suggesting a different course of action with no explanation of why or how it will solve the problem. –  Apr 25 '19 at 11:31
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Do you think it's a good idea to contact the other university and request that my letter of recommendation be retracted from his application package?

No. Because revoking a letter of recommendation suggests something extremely bad has occurred (as people very rarely do this AFAIK) - much worse than a student getting a couple of poor grades. More generally, unless you were misled into providing a letter, or if its contents is patently false (which is not the case with your letter) - I wouldn't even begin to consider acting to retract the letter.

Any thoughts or advice?

Yes. You should not have written a letter of recommendation for someone you don't know beyond a few numeric grades. Other than attesting that person has not misbehaved in class nor shown themselves to be incompetent - you can't really say anything meaningful about them. But a letter of recommendation says a lot. It imputes meaningful acquaintance with the recommended person. It suggests you know them and vouch for them, generally.

einpoklum
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    I disagree that the OP should not write a letter. If someone insists on writing a letter you can ALWAYS write one, as long as it is honest.If you know a student for few months and only his achievement you can vouch for is one midterm grade, then so be it. It won't be really very strong recommendation, but that is on recipient to judge. Etiquette dictates that you don't write letters that are not recommendations, but if someone would really pester me after refusing, I'd write the non-flattering one too. As long as you write the truth, it is ok. – xmp125a Apr 26 '19 at 10:50
  • @xmp125a: You wrote "if you know a student for a few months" - fair enough. But you don't get to know someone by virtue of him/her sitting in your class saying nothing. – einpoklum Apr 26 '19 at 11:01
  • This simply falls under "As long as you write the truth, it is ok". "To whomever it may concern, I know the mr. X from my lectures. He is always present, but did not ask any question and we had no verbal contact so far." As I said, it would be pretty bad recommendation letter, but if the person persists... – xmp125a May 14 '19 at 22:20
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You should not retract the letter. If you wrote it honestly, it represents the accurate picture of the student at the time of writing. There is nothing wrong with it, except as someone noticed, it is not a very strong recommendation, but this is not your fault.

xmp125a
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You should not retract the letter because it is perfectly correct. It was at the of writing, and it still is. The facts did not change, because the date on the letter specifies up to which date it applies. Regarding it's effect, I see no reason they will or should not trust the letter. They can assume his behavior changed in correlation with the transition to another school, which is correct. Whether it is caused or at all related with the transition is not clear at all, it may be completely for independent reasons.

Independent of that, I could imagine that the change is caused by the transition, but completely fine: He may have no use for the grades and the actual content of the lecture, because he knows he will have more in depth lectures in he topic soon, or because he lost interest in the topic earlier, changes his topic, and is no longer forced to learn it anyway. He could be the "previous student" in the new school.

Volker Siegel
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Let it go. I think there is a little bit of a logical/philosophical/character flaw in many academics (so valuing precision over a more Bayesian view of the universe) to want to regulate things around them. (We see the same things with reviewers that think they control if a paper is accepted or not, rather than just being advisors to the editor/author.)

You wrote a valid letter. Going out on your own to write ad hoc (not requested) negative letters is uncool. Settle down and be more phlegmatic, more Stoic, more Zen.

And don't you have something else to work on? To worry about? Go invent a room temperature superconductor or solve a Millennium Problem or something.

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