Dr. Jekyll's recent post on labwork and failure is a nice reminder for the rest of us on how to avoid throwing oneself out of the window after another seemingly pointless week at work. The researcher's life is one of ever-present failure. I often tell people that I expect to do a new experiment 7 times before I am successful (if I'm ever going to be successful). They think I'm crazy.
Maybe I am.
Who are we kidding? Research requires a healthy amount of delusion if you are going to evade depression in the face of constant set-backs and lead a happy life. One could argue that I have an unhealthy amount of delusion. Need a pep talk? Shoot me an email. I am especially confident that everyone else in this world will get great data at some point or another.
Dr. Jekyll's post reminds me of a day during my last year in grad school when I was mentoring a very fresh incoming graduate student (IGS). I had taught him cell culture, and that day, we were doing one of our first experiments together. Near the end of the four-hour experiment, we messed something up, and the whole experiment had to be thrown out. IGS was extremely distressed by this, and seemed unable to accept the waste of the last few hours of our lives. Meanwhile, I just cleaned up and said we'd have to redo it in a few days. IGS ran off to the bathroom to collect himself. About a half hour later, he sheepishly approached me and told me how amazed he was at the calm composure I was able to maintain in the face of failure. I laughed and told him it came from years of practice.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
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7 comments:
I'll agree. I've seen myself progress from almost bursting into tears at the thought of one failed experiment to just being able to go "eh, I'll try it again."
I wouldn't mind failure so much if I didn't feel like my whole life gets delayed by it. Sure experiments can be done again but I need this experiment to graduate and if I don't graduate I can't get a job and move on with my life.
Or if I don't get this published I don't have a good work record and no one will hire me.
I have this Domesday attitude with most failure.
I dropped a 75 lane gel, that I was preparing for a southern blot, on the floor directly in front of my postdoc advisor. Of course, it fragmented into 1 million tiny pieces.
I cleaned it up and moved on. Shit happens.
Apparently we've got the same genetics in this area...
I don't if its genetics or the fact that we have interests (lives) outside of science. For me science is science, its something I enjoy and work at but it doesn't define me. Failing of an experiment is not life or death, it used to be but now i know ultimately the monkey, mr.sm and my life with them is what defines me, it is what it of utmost importance. Perspective is great.
I soooo wish I had your patience. I also soooo wish I had scientistmom's perspective! Sigh.
I think I need to take a lesson in patience from you. :)
It is so hard to watch something crumble that you have invested time and effort into. I think it does take practice to remain composed - a little maturity helps too!
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