Don't forget the joys of working in collaborative projects. My supervisor is in a three co-PI NIH grant. Since we're spread out through Arizona, we occasionally have "progress meetings".

Too bad there isn't a room big enough for their three egos. Progress meetings turn out to be a day listening to each of them explain the data and its relationship to the other data. Then the others pick it apart. Then we discuss future projects that need to get done.

After travels, it's a long day of what could be discussed in under an hour. The techs on the project and I accomplish a lot more via e-mails and phone calls than face to face.
Jenn | Homepage | 09.30.05 - 12:59 pm | #

You forgot big-ego PIs, and how they react if your data is not consistent with their favorite model. It's not that they are trying to understand the difference between experiments (let alone that they would change their views...), but they immediately start attacking you, often on personal issues. "Oh, from that lab? That's crap anyway!". How often have you heard that?
M | 09.30.05 - 3:16 pm | #

hehe.....excellent post.

the PhD thesis (i.e. procrastinate ... procrastinate ... furious writing ... 84 hours straight of writing)...

i've finished the "...procrastinate, procrastinate.." but need to start that furious writing (of the papers first, then the darn thesis).

but you forget....what about the part where you tell your boss that you think you're ready to graduate, and look for a postdoc????
sunil | 10.01.05 - 9:43 pm | #

Dear Jenn and M,

You're both perfectly right ... I was going to write a #8 entitled "The Model", as in scientists that view their model as their own child fearcely deffending it with every psychological means necessary, but I ran out of time. In light of your comments I could have entited it "The ego and the id".
Mad Scientist | Homepage | 10.03.05 - 8:27 am | #

Sunil,

Excellent point. Leaving your thesis mentor is like a messy divorce. I was (and am) great friends with my thesis advisor, but when I had to go - what a mess. They train you and you live in their feifdom for 5-7 years ... and eventually they come to think of you as their own property. The worst scenario is to depart the lab with an unpublished manuscript. I had to go back and forth between NY and Boston (thank goodness for the China-Town Bus) several times over the course of two months to finish up my work.
Mad Scientist | Homepage | 10.03.05 - 8:43 am | #

Aaaaaarrrrrrgggggghhhhhhh!!!!

coturnix | Homepage | 10.05.05 - 1:46 pm | #

Everything here is right on.
BotanicalGirl | Homepage | 10.05.05 - 1:56 pm | #

Cant wait to read the update.
Acme Scientist | 10.09.05 - 2:16 pm | #

24c1a9 5cfead6d16
Ioke | Homepage | 12.15.06 - 12:39 pm | #