About This Project
Status Forgone, T— L—: Recognizing My Followership by Cammy Kao (2026, In Progress)
This memoir concerns self-discovery at middle age, in that followership exists as a concept opposite of leadership.
In American English, the word “follower” is negative, implying that someone cannot think independently or make decisions on their own. The traditional educational system in the United States aims to cultivate leaders. Being a follower is a step toward leadership, not a goal in itself.
Excelling in the American educational system leads students to positions of leadership, as it did me. In 1996 at the age of 26, I secured a Stanford professorship that would begin in 2000. After six years of performing poorly, I left voluntarily. Thirty years passed during which I wondered why I could not, through repeated attempts, apply my first-rate capacities fully.
Recent fortune has highlighted my value as a follower. I can say, I am really good at this. The literature explains why. Experience will teach me the reasons.
CMK
Sunday, May 3, 2026
Houston, Texas
On December 28, 2025, Cammy submitted her first poem, initially called “Tributing L—”, to Rattle, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and Poetry Magazine. Were the title to fit into the “Tributing” series, it would have been “Tributing Me”. The soccer assist came from Rodrigus Graham, a former colleague at Cammy’s school in Houston, who texted her this on Christmas Day: “Thank you for showing me what grace is”. Not knowing what he meant, she sought to provide her own answer! The resulting poem led to the artbook “The Tributing Series”.
On January 24, 2026, Cammy began an artbook about her virtual physics lessons with SWM, who lives in Northern California. For each lesson to be included, Cammy would record several key concepts and one human response of SWM’s or hers. Art teacher and professional artist Chu Okoli guided Cammy’s artwork. Her father, retired scientist Che-I Kao, influenced many of the lessons. The content in “Physics for a Middle Schooler” became a standalone work, called Physics for a Middle Schooler: AI as Adversary (Excerpt), that Cammy has shared with educational friends and colleagues.
An artbook about her baby pictures Cammy conceived third. These pictures she has known and loved throughout her life. Now Cammy can see the baby in “Not ‘Weird’, But” as if Cammy were that baby’s mother.