Conscientiousness
. . . I need to foster it.
I volunteered to participate in someone's psych research. I took a "personality test", for which I received results afterward. It tells me I'm neurotic but open-hearted. I know you are all as shocked as I am.
Equally shockingly, it adds that I've run low on "conscientiousness". I'm honest, but I grow discouraged easily, and I lack the propensity to see things through. I lack persistence. This bodes ill for my career as a scientist. This calls for a dose of "fake it till you make it".
I plan to absent myself from the blogosphere for a few days. I need more time to work on my timeline of goals for the next year and a half. Besides. I know you've all been wondering what the hell I actually plan to do in order to become a scientist!
(At least, I hope you've been wondering. I flatter myself that you are wondering.)
If you haven't already, read Eppendork's posts on amateur science, here and here. I sense a post coming on titled, "What's Wrong with Hacking Genomes in Your Garage? Especially Since Today's Science Is Allegedly an Aristocracy". Okay, maybe I'll shorten it. The title, I mean.
4 comments:
Becoming a scientist?
I've always had a problem with that, particularly because it's such an exclusive word. I am a technician with a B.S. in CMB, but in most peoples' eyes that means I'm not a scientist. Yet I go in to the lab and I make science happen. Surgeons make surgery happen. Nurses nurse people. Teachers teach people. Technicians do...what exactly? Science! And therefore I strongly feel that we are scientists too.
So don't worry so much about becoming a scientist as being one. There is only more, not less.
Sorry to go off like that, you just touched off one of my personal powderkegs is all.
You're going to standout among so many other scientific folks because you're an awesome writer and you're looking at not just the height of your error bars are on your graphs. (Hopefully, they are always very, very tiny!)
Seriously, I hated studying philosophy at the time, but it was pretty damn cool to see years and years later on your blog "Karl Popper" and be all like, "I know who that is!" Ditto for the term "ontology." The fact that you can digest all the crap (and I use crap in the most endearing sense of the word) and make it palatable earns you much, much props.
Good luck figuring everything out in the next couple of days.
"I'm honest, but I grow discouraged easily, and I lack the propensity to see things through. I lack persistence. This bodes ill for my career as a scientist. This calls for a dose of "fake it till you make it"."
I so empathize with this feeling. Trust me, if you do in fact hang in there and never quit, even when you feel your energy flagging, you will make it! I am quite convinced that at least 90 percent of success is persistence, because so many of your colleagues and competitors will eventually quit. If you are the one still doing it, then SCIENCE GODDESS!
When I was in my twenties, I fell firmly into the 'easily discouraged, lack of followthrough' category. Now I'm forty, and I'm not sure when or how it happened, but I now am a star member of the 'hang on like a pit bull, make it happen' category. This is meant to be encouraging. :)
I am a technician with a B.S. in CMB, but in most peoples' eyes that means I'm not a scientist.
No need to be sorry, Toaster Sunshine. I've been in the sci-blogosphere long enough to know that this whole Academic PI vs. Some Other Science Profession business is a very touchy subject. I have nothing but sympathy.
I stopped thinking of technician scientists as "technicians" after I read this:
http://scienceblogs.com/drugmonkey/2008/04/you_are_not_just_a_tech_you_ar_1.php
If I had my way, I'd refer to "academic research scientists" or "industry scientists" or what have you. For example, my subscription to Damn Good Technician's blog appears in the "Industry Scientists" folder of my Google Reader. I don't have a folder for "Technicians". Such a trifle, I know. But there it is, for what it's worth.
One of my friends gave me Nobel Prize Women in Science for Christmas. I knew nothing about the overwhelming majority of them before I read this book. I think Trudy Elion is my favorite Nobel laureate now.
When I was in my twenties, I fell firmly into the 'easily discouraged, lack of followthrough' category. Now I'm forty, and I'm not sure when or how it happened, but I now am a star member of the 'hang on like a pit bull, make it happen' category. This is meant to be encouraging.
Perky Skeptic, it totally is!
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