On science communication, graduate priorities, and happiness
Full disclosure: I hadn’t heard of Science Sam. I first learned about her outreach efforts through a recent article, which proposes her Instagram is a wasted, perhaps counterproductive, effort to correct gender disparities. Reading this inspired me to share a story from my own graduate school experience. In brief, if doing outreach (or anything else) makes you happy, please do it. Science is hard. Happiness is important.
When I was a third year graduate student I hadn’t published a first author paper and couldn’t see one coming. Watching faculty candidates come and present their work always made me anxious. How did they do all this research? I knew I wanted to try for a career in academic science but I doubted my priorities, since my productivity didn’t seem to be stacking up.
I’ve always loved to teach and communicate science. I had already volunteered twice with the Science and Health Education Partnership in San Francisco and was an organizer of the “bootcamp” for incoming first year biophysics & bioinformatics students. I was beginning to wonder if I was allocating my time in the best way, so I talked about my anxiety around graduate school priorities with many faculty at UCSF and elsewhere. I was told (by more than one) something to the effect of: “You know, the competition for faculty positions is intense. You’ve been doing all this teaching and outreach. This isn’t going to help land faculty positions. In fact, some institutions may interpret the teaching you’re doing as a lack of focus or dedication.”
I was crushed when I heard this. I had to give up something I loved to pursue something else I loved? The way to be a scientist is to shed all activities that don’t lead to publications? I stopped all teaching and outreach for a little over a year, and cut back on other hobbies. I almost immediately felt a cloud descend over science — job prospects seemed bleak, the normal failures in lab work were crushing, and I was working more and more but was decreasingly happy about it. This sadness impacted my ability to recover from setbacks, my interactions with my PI and other lab members, and my relationships.
After a bit over a year, I abandoned the idea that I was only going to pursue “career-relevant” goals. I realized, with credit to my then-girlfriend-now-wife and my PI, that this myopic focus just doesn’t work for me. I need to do different things, and also to work hard at science. I need to explore new music. I need to travel and relax with friends and family. But also, I need to do outreach periodically. Outreach and teaching remind me why I love science, and how much education there is to do in the world. Importantly, my work output increased after deciding to do outreach again since my concentration and mood improved. Happiness alone is justification to do something, but I wanted to bring this up to clarify that there is not a one-to-one tradeoff between doing “outside” things that make you happy and work productivity. Outreach makes me happy, and being happy helps me do better science.
There are many ways to “do science”. I’ve known people who are happy in science with no outside activities. I’ve known people who are happy in science with many outside activities, whether they are science communication, outreach, mountain biking, painting, sailing, DJing, or whatever else. I’ve also known successful people in both groups. You have to do science how you want to do science. You also have to work hard and be productive of course, but lab work and outside activities can be synergistic — even if it’s not always apparent to others how. It’s essential to find your balance.
Now I know who Science Sam is. She’s inspiring. Maybe I’ll even join Instagram. But nah, because that’s not how I #scicomm. I’m happy it’s how she does. You do you.
