Why is the motivation index so low?
I have been puzzling over this problem. Is it because I am not getting any science done? I do not think so. Troughs in productivity are a common problem for us scientists and we have developed mechanisms to pull ourselves out of it. That is one of the essential survival skills in this career.
My analysis points to two factors.
As a post-doc…
(1) Even on quieter days, when you might not want to go to the lab, going to the lab was not such a difficult enterprise. You jump on the train and/or bus, you get free meditation time, when you can stare out of the window and let your mind wander or bring your latest favourite book and lose yourself in that world for that little while that it takes to get to the lab.
(2) When you do get to the lab, you are surrounded by your friends. You could convince one or more to entertain you, in the lab or in the cafeteria. Granted, in the post-doc it was not always that easy to find like-minded company to take the stress off (who had nothing better to do with their time).
But the new life here has pulled both these defense strategies from under my feet.
(1) Getting to the lab is no child’s play. It involves an hour of driving through messy roads at snail’s pace or wide open 4-lane roads at break neck speeds . Neither very conducive for wandering minds or reading novels. Your mind is fully engaged, your eyes are glued to the fender of the car in front. Your muscles are bunched, your throat is parched. The activation energy barrier in getting to the lab seems most times too high to be cost-effective to overcome. I drag my feet at leaving home in the morning and I wait with bated breath to get back on the road and be done with the return drive home, so I can relax until next day morning.
(2) The social aspect of life also does not offer much respite. People might think scientists are socially awkward border-line Asperger’s patients (and they would be partially right). But we do have a thriving social life, only it almost exclusively involves people with PhDs and a penchant for pursuing esoteric, elusive goals endlessly. But I am learning that a PI is essentially an island. Students live in a different world, which you can only look from afar with envy now, not be part of. Other PIs are… just other particles in the atmosphere, constantly moving as if in Brownian motion, you are lucky if you collide with each other once in a while. Those interactions are fun and de-stressing. But they are rare….the graph of collisions and transient Van der Waals interactions plummet to near zero as you make that post-doc to PI transition.
Thus, now I am in the process of not just developing new research projects to uncover nature’s wonders, but also to stay afloat in this fast moving stream of time.
Comments
I'm sorry I've been out of the communications world for soooo long!! I just found this out and I thought it would be so appropriate to comment on this post. I don't believe that with your charm and funny comments all the time you haven't found anyone to have tea at 4pm with. I think it is a matter of time. And in the mean time I guess you can fool your student into it with excuses of talking about work. I'm sure he is lucky ;)About the phD students life, and me living it, I do agree it is another level, after noticing that I've been staying almost 12h a day in the lab and thinking 'it is just normal' to do it. But it is fun and I agree with you, there is an incredible motivation which I really cannot describe where does it come from. I think it is just because I'm a rookie in this and just looking at something different (ie new transgenic or something) makes the day exciting. or when something works :P