Monday, May 18, 2009

Reach for the Sky? Nah, Go for the Low Hanging Fruit Instead

I am getting disillusioned with Science. Apparently I have not seen the 'light' despite ~5 years of Grad School. There is only one metric to measure productivity and success at this stage: number of publications. So no high-risk, high-reward/failure "fishing expeditions". Go for already established projects which will pay some quick dividends. All the more so if I am a young postdoc still trying to land my first faculty job or a research position in a National Lab (with the field getting so ridiculously competitive and crowded) anywhere.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

"vulgo vel pereo"

"publish or perish"

Everything sounds cooler in Latin, hahaha.

Cheers,
Ray

Jay I. Chok said...

Hi Takchek

That's the way it is. It's the same case everywhere...so it is important to select your subfield carefully.

I guess you also need to reach for the sky while trying to get the low hanging fruit at the same time. The low hanging fruit sustain your short-term survival but if you want to become a full prof at a top univ, you still need something ambitious.