The other day, experiments were not working for me. Same reagents and setup as on Monday, when I got lovely data without hardly trying--no clue what went wrong.
Simultaneously, Other New Postdoc (an outstanding experimentalist), was having a bad day trying to install a camera frame grabber in his computer. After a lot of frustration, he hollered, "I quit!"
In another corner of lab, GradStudent was supposed to be working on his first paper. He instead was helping ONP with the camera issues, and he said, "Man, I hate working on this paper. I want to quit and just become a technician who troubleshoots things like this camera problem."
So here is the idea I proposed to them:
"We are going to run a lab together. GradStudent, you will be the technician, computer guy, and chief troubleshooter. ONP, you will do all the experiments. And I will write the grants and papers."
Everyone was happy with this utopian future.
Later in the day, I ran into another grad student who was unhappy with his day too: "Today I found that the code I'd worked on for the last week was buggy and in any case not as good as equivalent code another guy wrote," he mourned. I told him about the Lab Collective Plan, and he said, "Oh, man, can I join? I'll be the conference schmoozer and seminar presenter--that's the one thing I'm good at."
At home, Dr Hyde also expressed interest in joining the Collective. "What is your unique skill?" I asked him. He thought for a while, and then said, "Dogwalker."
Anyhow, the point of this is that as scientists, we must wear many hats. Hardly anyone is good at all the jobs required--we all have predilections for one or another part of the Scientist Skillset. I think this is one reason we frequently feel so stupid.
If you were going to form a Lab Collective, which job would you want? Writer? Experimentalist? Technical support? Teacher? Schmoozer? Other?
15 years ago
9 comments:
I'm mainly a graphic designer these days: web pages, power point presentations, display posters etc so I'll take the designy tweaky stuff in any collective!
Enthusiast and mad-idea-generator?? I'll happily wander round and tell people how neat their data is and come up with interesting ideas about how they could frame it for publication or a grant app or whatever. But I really struggle with the detail...
Also, I am pretty good at making cakes and muffins... every lab needs nice snacks at journal club, right?
I guess I should say that I would be the teacher but I think I would be much better at being the sarcastic bitch that criticizes everyone else (it's a gift, what else can I say).
I'm definitely the paper-writer and conference presenter. Apparently, I excel at communicating.
Honestly, though, if I didn't have to wear so many hats, I might go insane. What you're good at is not necessarily what you enjoy the most. I like the variety that comes with doing a little bit of everything.
I would be much better at being the sarcastic bitch that criticizes everyone else (it's a gift, what else can I say).
PiT, you crack me the fuck up!
I'll be the organizer/ lab manager/ supertech.
Will you need any help writing papers and grants? And websites? Press releases?
I had this same conversation with friends at my old industry job. I was going to be the technical writer, others wanted to be heads of sales, IP, R&D etc. We would have had an awesome company, if only we'd had a patentable idea of any kind.
When I was a grad student we used to play 'Fantasy Institute' - you had this huge windfall so that you could set up a research institute in your field. We would spend hours discussing where it would be (which university would we honour with our presence? What kind of building and location should we have? A restored heritage house or a totally green new build?), what facilities and so on would we have (we spent a lot of time talking about what our offices would be like - sharing a very crowded lab suite, our own rooms seemed like a wonderful dream) and who we would allow to work there (one of the best bits of the fantasy was imagining all our colleagues and competitors, especially the patronising or snooty ones, queueing up for places in our wonderful institute (which would have great wages and an official sensible-working-hours policy, multiple weeks of paid vacation that you were required to take each year, generous conference and field work allocations, and a proper common room with comfy sofas to encourage relaxing discussions), and we would be able to turn them away if we wanted...)
Wow, I think we have quite a team going here. You're all hired.
janeb2, that's awesome. Especially the required vaycay bit.
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