I've been thinking about knowing vs. not knowing a lot lately, and I would definitely agree that knowing is good.
I just got an email that my proposed paper was accepted for a conference this coming May. I'm tickled to be invited, mostly because it's a Victorian paper, and I've never written or presented anything in Victorian lit, even though that was one of my comps areas. And having seen how many places on the job list were looking for scholars who can do both 19th and 20th century, it would be good to develop some 19th century cv lines. (The conference paper is based on a section of a dissertation chapter I've already written, so it's mostly just a refinement/condensation of my ideas, not a start-from-scratch paper.) I'm also very glad they told me because I'd been flirting with the idea of attending two other conferences in June and August, but that would be really too much conferencing to go to them all!
I also got an email in the last week about a proposal for a book chapter I sent in, telling me they are still working on organizing the volume because of the overwhelming response to their cfp, but that they're still considering my submission. How lovely is that? I don't mean that I'm still under consideration, though that's nice, but that they took the time to email about the status of the project. Since the proposals were only due in October, I thought it was very responsive of them to let people know in December that they wouldn't be making a decision for a while yet.
Compare that experience with another book chapter that I have floating around the ether. I submitted the fully written chapter in August of 2007 after having been greenlighted based on the proposal about 8 months earlier. It was a decent writing timetable, and I was told upon submitting the chapter that I'd hear about the final decision in December. Then at the beginning of 2008, that the volume was being "rethought" and I'd hear soon. I emailed in fall, wanting to know its status so I could update my cv, and was told the whole project was still being reconsidered. I really should pull the chapter from the volume and shop it around elsewhere, but I've got so many other things going right now, it's not a big priority. But if I don't hear in the next few months (after I finish all the drafting of the dissertation) I will pull it and send it out as a journal article. It's based on a book that came out in 2005, so I'd really hate to sit on it so long that someone else scoops me by writing a journal article about it first! Especially since it's all written up and everything. But that's beside the point. What I'm getting at in telling that story is that the email I got this week updating me on the book status was really just a nice thing to do. Very professional.
I of course am also thinking about knowing vs. not knowing because I'm still waiting for feedback from one of my committee members on three chapters. Yes, three. I realize life's busy, but three chapters is a bit far to fall behind. So I'm chomping at the bit there.
The other reason I'm thinking about knowing vs. not knowing is that I've heard a lot of complaining from job candidates over the years about schools not letting them know about their status. Even though I'm not on the market this year, before my committee made that decision, I'd sent out five applications already. All five have been kind enough to let me know that I didn't make the cut (obvious since they never got the followup reference letters) or that the search was cancelled (only one). So it was very nice to see that these schools - at least if they have no interest in you - were good at notifying candidates.
I have also resolved that if I ever get to join the club, I'm going to be like those schools, and the email sender this week by keeping in touch and notifying people as soon as possible about the things they're waiting for from me. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go write some thank you emails...
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