About This Project
Status Forgone, T— L—: Recognizing My Followership by Cammy Kao (2026, In Progress)
This memoir concerns a discovery at middle age: Effective followership exists conceptually opposite of effective leadership.
In American English, the word “follower” has negative connotations. The word suggests a person who 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. Distressed for six years, I resigned voluntarily. Thirty years passed during which I was, despite repeated attempts, unsuccessful at fully applying my first-rate capacities.
Recent experience has hinted at the value of my followership. I can say, I am really good at this.
CMK
Sunday, May 3, 2026, at 9:45 PM CT
“Effective … effective” added on Monday, May 4, 2026, at 8:15 PM CT
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 S—, who lives in California. For each lesson to be included, Cammy would record several key concepts and one human response of S—’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.
Part IV of this memoir will continue online.
S-F-T-L
whereupon some people around us lessen our confusion