Tear 'em down, then build 'em back up.

Oh, the process of apprenticeship is a strange one.

First, you have to strip away all the bad habits of the trainee.

The sloppiness. The tendency to give long-winded answers. The expectation of being treated like a human being. The defensive argumentative whiney crap.

You do this by muscle confusion. You make them jump when you ask, then ignore them for months. Criticize them as much as possible, even when they did everything you asked. Criticize for being too obedient.

Only when they're completely confused and helpless, when they've thrown their hands up in the air and said, "Whatever!", then you can start to imprint the qualities you want.

Organization. Promptness. Brevity. Humility.

Then, slowly, you force them to learn confidence by forcing them to stand up for themselves. Repeatedly.

Eventually they start to argue with you again, but now they do it more effectively.

You are proud. You take credit for their progress, although what you've done was not always pleasant for them.

But it is the way, alas, that it has to be.

Now they are ready to go out and present their progress to others. This is the time when you help them build back up. You praise their good habits to their peers. You pat them on the back.

To them, it seems like little reward for a lot of suffering. If they are grad students, they will get a PhD, and to most people outside, this is the mark of achievement.

Eventually, they will realize it was little reward for a lot of suffering. When they are postdocs, that little pat on the back is all they're going to get. Because by the time they are ready to apply for jobs, the economy will be tanking.

The end.