Learning to Love the Reality of Research

Before Laidlaw I didn't know the true reality of research, I was only aware of the extremes: Nobel prize winning breakthroughs, and the contrasting possibility of long lonely hours sorting through reams of paperwork. Laidlaw taught me that research is about learning to love problem solving.
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 When I'd think of research big names such as Einstein and Hawking would spring to mind. I’d imagine their enthusiastic announcement of their era defining breakthrough: a speech followed by each member of the audience falling off their chair in surprise at their sheer brilliance before them. On the other hand, I was also aware of the challenges of research, nothing but tedious long hours completing repetitive tasks would spring to mind. Through Laidlaw I discovered that these conceptions were misconceptions; research certainly is not all bland repetition, but neither is it exciting result after exciting result. The true nature of day-to-day research largely revolves around overcoming the reams of smaller challenges researchers face.

My project abruptly introduced me to these challenges by presenting me with tasks which appeared to have a mind of their own. One particularly frustrating example concerned a piece of software I had to use. I hoped that it would take about three days to figure it out, but three weeks passed before I got it to behave.  These realities struck a stark contrast to my mental images of research. I was suddenly aware that there was no straight path from A to B, but instead there is a pot-hole of disruption waiting for me every few hundred yards. 

I realised that if one grew resentful of the number of challenges posed by a given research project, then before long one would inevitably become incredibly miserable. In order to avoid this, I determined that I should devise a mentality to enable maximal enjoyment of the process. I directed my energies into resolving the problems as they arose (instead of bemoaning the very fact of their existence in the first place), and the more I did so, the more I enjoyed the ins-and-outs of my project, and the more success I subsequently had. 

In short, Laidlaw taught me about the practicality of the reality of research. If I was ever to give advice to anyone wishing to undertake research, I would tell them to focus enjoying the ride — approach the challenges as opportunities to ask questions, grow your understanding, and hone your problem solving skills. 

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Go to the profile of Emily Shepherdson (she/they)
over 2 years ago

Love this! My biggest problem in research was that I was expecting to find something ground breaking as though anything less than a post-PhD standard of research wasn't good enough. But you're right, we really need to enjoy the little and even tedious parts of research! It's so important to remember that the things we're finding out are really interesting but these are just out initial research projects, first probably in a line of many!