{"id":632,"date":"2008-08-03T05:23:55","date_gmt":"2008-08-03T10:23:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/swansont\/?p=632"},"modified":"2008-08-03T05:23:55","modified_gmt":"2008-08-03T10:23:55","slug":"the-importance-of-being-earnestly-stupid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/swansont\/archives\/632","title":{"rendered":"The Importance of Being Earnestly Stupid"},"content":{"rendered":"

The importance of stupidity in scientific research<\/a><\/p>\n

I recently saw an old friend for the first time in many years. We
\nhad been Ph.D. students at the same time, both studying science,
\nalthough in different areas. She later dropped out of graduate school,
\nwent to Harvard Law School and is now a senior lawyer for a major
\nenvironmental organization. At some point, the conversation turned
\nto why she had left graduate school. To my utter astonishment, she
\nsaid it was because it made her feel stupid. After a couple of years
\nof feeling stupid every day, she was ready to do something else.
\nI had thought of her as one of the brightest people I knew and
\nher subsequent career supports that view. What she said bothered
\nme. I kept thinking about it; sometime the next day, it hit me. Science
\nmakes me feel stupid too. It\u2019s just that I\u2019ve gotten used to it. So
\nused to it, in fact, that I actively seek out new opportunities to feel
\nstupid. I wouldn\u2019t know what to do without that feeling. I even
\nthink it\u2019s supposed to be this way.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My immediate reaction was that, technically, ignorance and stupidity were being mixed here \u2014 experience and intelligence aren’t the same thing, but it’s not always apparent which is which. But I understand the sentiment \u2014 as soon as you figure something out, you move on to something new that you don’t know. Isn’t that one of the draws of doing science? Of learning, in general? I like getting my “fix” of somethingnew<\/em>, whether it’s a solved problem or some new topic. One of the usual side effects of studying science is an awareness of all that there is that we do not know. If that make you feel stupid, well, so be it. It’s also a side effect of working with a lot of smart people, but that’s also a great way of getting that “fix” I like.<\/p>\n

Other commentary at Science to Life<\/a>, Blog Around the Clock<\/a>, FemaleScienceProfessor<\/a>, Counter Minds<\/a>, and probably elsewhere, as I imagine this is making the rounds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The importance of stupidity in scientific research I recently saw an old friend for the first time in many years. We had been Ph.D. students at the same time, both studying science, although in different areas. She later dropped out … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-science-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/swansont\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/swansont\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/swansont\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/swansont\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/swansont\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/swansont\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/swansont\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/swansont\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/swansont\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}