Tuesday, 15 March 2011

Week 2 - Reading 2

This weeks reading 2, was written by a PhD Student Schwartz. He talks about his PhD experience as a science student in this short essay.I found this reading to be one of the most interesting so far. It is actually nothing to do with the Folie design, yet everything to do with it! Some of the quotes motivated me a lot. It make perfect sense not to know what I am doing for my Folie design 100% and to explore various possible methods. I think this reading directs us to a thinking pattern of looking outside the box. Below are some of the quotes I found VERY inspiring: 

  •  How could I possibly frame the questions that would lead to significant discoveries; design and interpret an experiment so that the conclusions were absolutely convincing; foresee difficulties and see ways around them, or, failing that, solve them when they occurred?
  • If our ignorance is infinite, the only possible course of action is to muddle through as best we can.
  • We just don’t know what we’re doing. We can’t be sure whether we’re asking the right question or doing the right experiment until we get the answer or the result. Second, we don’t do a good enough job of teaching our students how to be productively stupid – that is, if we don’t feel stupid it means we’re not really trying.
  • That kind of stupidity is an existential fact, inherent in our efforts to push our way into the unknown.
  • Productive stupidity means being ignorant by choice. Focusing on important questions puts us in the awkward position of being ignorant.
  • education might do more to ease what is a very big transition: from learning what other
    people once discovered to making your own discoveries.

"The more comfortable we become with being stupid, the deeper we will wade into the unknown and the more likely we are to make big discoveries".


Source:

The importance of stupidity in scientific research
Martin A. Schwartz
Department of Microbiology, UVA Health System, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22908, USA
e-mail: maschwartz@virginia.edu
Accepted 9 April 2008
Journal of Cell Science



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