I wanted to start a blog to document starting a lab. Then a year went by, and I wrote nothing
(except grant applications and papers).
In the spirit of something is better than nothing, I am going to “try” a
simple format.
The premise: 10
things I like and don’t like. Some about
the job, some about other life stuff.
Hopefully it’ll balance and not just be whining. Maybe it won’t.
Here is the first iteration, a year to the day of my lab
officially starting.
1.
Loneliness.
Lots of hard things about starting a lab, but the one that gets me often is how
lonely the job can be. While there are
lots of people around, everyone is busy.
The camaraderie of the lab is not gone, but different, cause you are the
boss. Obviously, that changes the
dynamics of your interactions. The folks
you have the most in common with are super busy, making the casual
lunch/coffees seem short, cause you both have to get back soon. It is a lonelier job than I anticipated.
2.
Bargain
Hunting. Buying stuff is fun and you can take real pride in the “good”
stuff you get to buy. I currently love my Stirling -80 and look forward to
having its oil changed. You also have an unreasonable level of satisfaction of
stuff you were able to “rescue” from surplus or another lab. It feels like you found a real gem when you
grab and “fix” an old “shaking” incubator.
That feeling hasn’t worn off for me… yet.
3.
My own
office with a door. It is great to
close the door and get some work done, or listen to Taylor Swift in peace. Nice
to be out of the hovel.
4.
My own
office with a door. It facilitates
that door being closed and having “SOMAAD” days (Sit on my a** all day). Coupled with being the boss, it can/does
exacerbate that loneliness.
5.
Being
recognized as your own scientific being.
So often, I started emails in the context of the lab I was in (post-doc
or grad student). I learned to use the
stature of my old bosses to get attention and respect. The cloak of their competency if you
will. When you hang your own shingle,
you still maintain this a bit (“former post-doc in the X lab”, junior PI from X
lab). Every once in awhile, someone will
respond… “I know who you are.” “Of
course I know your work.” I wish I could
bottle that feeling of validation.
6.
Who’s lab
are you in? The parallel to the
above is the need to know who you work/ed for.
This is mostly a conference thing and with the season upcoming, I’m
bracing for the … “well, I have my own lab now, but I used to work for…” answer.
I know I get this less than others because 1) I am male, 2) I am an amazing scientist (ha) 2) I am generally less approachable (my wife
with her kind face is always approached to be asked for help or just to chat…
me, not so much).
7.
The
unicorn foundation grants. Writing
grants is the name of the game and I believe reps are really important. However, not getting feedback on your grants
ranks up there as things that are super annoying and something you don’t
realize right away. While the reviews
I’ve gotten have been painful, they have been exceeding useful in pointing out
flaws in either my approach or in how I failed to explain something well. With that, the majority of foundations grants
that I applied to offer no feedback. In
my case, just a “you didn’t get it” form email.
I knew this up front and tried to reuse as much of the text of the
grants over and over again, knowing no feedback was forthcoming (Perhaps why I
didn’t get them). While everyone
complains about reviewers, it is actually worse to not get any information.
8.
Work-Life Balance. I refrained from weighing in on the
twitter discussion about how much time to spend in the lab. I am very much a do what I say, not what I do
on this front. I try to encourage my
people and trainees I interact with to go home on weekends and at night; find a
balance cause science is hard. More time
is not always better. At the same time,
more is often more, and that translate to more productivity for me. I fortunately have a wife and (now) 3 small
children that demand my life be balanced.
I still spend parts of my weekends working on stuff, but try my best to
keep track and account properly for the time worked. I am a believer that work must ebb and flow;
the key is to take the time off when you can as there will always be times you
need to crank it up.
9.
Graveyard
Papers. There was a twitter
discussion about finishing old papers from previous labs. I am fortunate to have gotten several papers
out in the last year wrapping up work.
While I take great pride in that, it was not primarily to get the
productivity. My goal was to wrap up my
projects such that no one ever contacted me a few years later to ask what I
did. Translating my lab notebook or
other notes for them years after the fact was not ever going to be a good use
of anyone’s time. Now that I have small
kids, I have replaced that knowledge with Daniel Tiger tunes. With that in mind, the easiest way to
document your work is to publish it.
That’s what I’ve tried to do. I
will say it is not impossible, but if you don’t make it a primary goal, it’ll
never happen.
10.
Building
a network & resources. I have
been truly blessed to have great mentors and friends who have helped me in this
job. I have relied on people a few years
ahead to give me advice, grant materials, and a sounding board for my
idea. There are too many to name, but
I’d say building your network is more than just a catch phrase and most of my
good friends in science came from interactions that had nothing to do directly
with science (ax throwing, poutine,
stumbling up the hill at Cornel late at night). I am also indebted to blogs and twitter that
provide great insights. My favorites include:
http://thenewpi.blogspot.com/
http://drugmonkey.scientopia.org/2008/10/14/repost-researching-your-cv/