10 Reasons NOT to be a Scientist
Ok, this week has been a bad week in the lab so far. A few weeks ago I wrote a post describing 15 reasons to be a scientist. Today I am in the mood to cross over to the dark side and give you 10 reasons NOT to be a scientist! Strangely I could only think of 10. If you have any more, please feel free to add them in the comments section below.
1. Egos. Science attracts some straaaange people – and you have to work with them.
2. You can spend weeks, months even, trying to clone a gene, grow a strain or whatever and end up with zero results in the end. Bench work is surely one of the most frustrating jobs in the world.
3. Career Structure. Mainly if you work in academia I suppose. There are plenty of post-doc posts, but what about the next step?
4. Coming last at Trivial Pursuits. I don’t know about you, but I have spent so long with my head in science books that my general knowledge is terrible.
5. Having to write grant proposals
6. Repetition. As is often said – a trained monkey could do 90% of your job.
7. None of your non-science friends have a clue what your job is really all about (maybe that’s a good thing)
8. Transience. You work somewhere for a few years and make lots of friends, then gradually everyone moves to new jobs all over the world and you never see each other again. Sniff.
9. Unless you are very lucky. No-one in the real world cares about, or will be affected by, what you do.
10. The following quote from Max in the comment section of the the sister post to this one sums it up beautifully:
Getting paid substandard wages while working days and nights while on tenure track, while your buddies drive BMWs and surf in Hawaii, while you wonder why your second wife has left you and why you still don’t have an office with a window???
Oh wait, that was my “inside” voice,
Ahhh, I feel better after that. Remember to add your own in the comments section and maybe you’ll feel better too!
Photo: Steenslag
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Here are some additional reasons:
1. If you are refusing to accept that you maybe wrong; If you looking for evidence only to support your claim and ignoring any alternative that contradicts your claim, or if you can not questions your own bias and then you are no longer seeking the truth; once you stop lokking for the truth then you are no longer doing science.
Sometimes it is the frustration of doing something new when u cannot afford it and not doing what you can afford.
If you do animal research:
What about aggression from animal rights activists?
@Katie: I work in Bioinformatics and as with most computer related work you can work from home although I don’t think it is a good idea to do it too often, it disconnects you from the working environment. The repetition issue is also much less of a problem in bioinformatics. On the flip side I think it is much easier to scoop a bioinformatic project.
How about never being able to work from home? Unless you have the money to furnish your own lab in your basement, there will be no calling in sick and working from home. Lame.