The following article was revealing concerning current funding/proposal issues:

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/316/5823/356

It was published recently in Science 20 April 2007: Vol. 316. no. 5823, pp. 356 - 361 re: current difficulties of NIH funding, and the impact on scientists’ careers. Apparently, many cannot recall such a stressed-out period. Now, I know NIH is supposed to be gravy compared to NSF. {Heh…I’ve tried both repeatedly, w/no luck, and my tenure, too hangs in the balance. Tick..tick..tick} But the challenges described in that article are very educational, and speak to many of the issues raised here, and may be relevant to NSF too.

I’ve gotten similar advice to just dive into solitary-confinement grant-beserk mode, mixed w/frantic data aquisition and pretty pictures (time to get a graphic designer?) Hasn’t worked yet, but nothing else to do but keep swinging and get hard-to-take but oh-so-necessary wicked criticism from someone kind enough to take time to do it.

re: tenure, even w/funding, the process seems rather capricious. I know colleagues that have had multiple federal grants, papers, and decent teaching evaluations that still somehow miss the mark.

Even as this whole funding/tenure/political miasma can sometimes get frickin’ frustrating, for me it’s also been quite nice to actually pursue some research themes that would’ve been otherwise impossible for me. Ok..back to proposal writing!

If you should be so lucky as to attain a measure of power over that environment, then change it to match your ideas as best you can, and it may help the next guy up the ladder. My bet is that if Rob Knop gains tenure his perspective will change, too, and the ladder will be very similar for those who follow him.

Of course, if you should be tied to a romantic concept like “Be true to yourself, do what you love, and the rest will follow”, then there really isn’t much hope for you. Substitute the word “may” for “will” and the concept becomes more realistic. The vast mass of men seldom get to do what they love; the trick is not to live a life of quiet desperation because of it.

In any event, we agree that the reality is that to do good science in this world, you have to do a lot of crap work. My argument is that instead of seeing this as a soul-sucking trial, you can focus on the priorities — family, doing science — and let the rest roll off your back. Definitely, it’s harder to keep this perspective when you have demands heaped on you, as when you are on the tenure track, but it’s been done. As Mark writes in his post, faculty mentors are supposed to reduce the stress by helping your learn the ropes.

In the distant future, you hope society will be more amenable to your noble goals, by making research funds more available. It’s a lot better now than before industrialization
PS: If you’re seeing a therapist, hopefully (s)he just doesn’t sit there like a brick for 45 minutes and then tweak your meds. If so, find one who’ll get in your face a little bit.

I’m having a real hard time seeing how that translates to “Be true to yourself, do what you love, and the rest will follow.”

And perhaps that’s a big part of my problem. I’m not good at twisting and obfuscating the truth beyond recognizability in the interest of presenting an appealing package.

-Rob

Certainly, it’s far easier said than done. Maybe Tim left out the part about fasting and meditating at the summit of Mount Whitney to secure this perspective.

He says first that in order to succeed, you have to learn to get good at marketing and self-promotion.

If you’re somebody who doesn’t have a taste for marketing, then in what way is following what you love going to help you succeed, according to his own criteria?

But beyond that, it’s a platitude. It’s an empty, feel-good platitude that’s just as meaningless as all those motivational posters that despair.com makes so much fun of. You should pursue what you love, but just doing that won’t get you anywhere. You have to be realistic as well. You have to recognize what is in the real world. You have to figure out what it is you really like about what you do, and then figure out what is available for you to do that captures as much of that as possible. You will have to make sacrifices. Life is complicated. Just following what you love and getting everything you want– that may be the “secret,” and it may work for a small number of lucky people (and, indeed, most of the way through I’ve been quite lucky myself), but the world doesn’t sit back and hand you success just because you’re doing what you love. Sometimes you have to make choices, and do what is feasable and palatable because it’s the best you can do.

-Rob