The importance of stupidity in scientific research

http://jcs.biologists.org/cgi/content/full/121/11/1771

by BioGeek • 18 years ago

63 22 18 years ago

jcs.biologists.org

lallysingh• 18 years ago

Amen.

As a CS guy suddenly having to do statistics (which my crypto prof called "Sadistics") 10 years after my last calc class, I completely agree that you often feel stupid.

OTOH, once you've felt stupid & worked through it in a few areas, the rest of science suddenly feels more accessible to you. You know that you can pick up a textbook on the topic and muddle through until you know what you need.

My dad had to learn a good amount about electronics to build his physics experiments. To this day he's better at it than I am.

stcredzero3• 18 years ago

Years ago in Florida, I was with my sister, watching manatees in a huge glass walled aquarium. The manatees were effortlessly floating from near the bottom of the tank to the top. I asked, "How do they do that? Do they have ballast systems like fish? How would a mammal evolve that?"

My sister turned to me and says, "You ask the stupidest questions!"

I was devastated. Only recently have I realized the truth. My sister's just not that bright. (To be fair, she's humanities/arts. Her strengths are in other areas.)

kragen• 18 years ago

Areas other than intelligence, perhaps. Congratulations on being smart enough to ask stupid questions!

biohacker42• 18 years ago

Have you by any chance watched any "Dexter's Lab"?

stcredzero3• 18 years ago

My sister's a choreographer, actually.

nihilocrat• 18 years ago

I do not mean to insult your sister, but there was a study some months ago I think was posted to HN which pointed out that smart, informed people tend to doubt their knowledge a lot more than stupid, ignorant people. From my own experience, I agree. Those who know little seem to jealously guard what they do know and try to overstrech it to suggest they know more than they do.

She was probably just thinking "jeez, who cares how manatees float".

gcheong• 18 years ago

Sounds like a perfect example of the "fixed" vs. the "growth" mindsets that Carlyn Dweck describes in her book "MindSet".

http://mindsetonline.com/

jballanc• 18 years ago

I have a sign above my desk: "If we knew what we were doing, we wouldn't call it Research" --Einstein

As a Ph.D. student, what was more daunting than the realization of just how much I didn't know, was the day I realized that I had more questions than I could find answers to in one lifetime...makes you feel rather...mortal.

dhimes• 18 years ago

Bachelor's Degree: you think you know everything

Master's Degree: you realize you don't know anything

Doctorate: you realize nobody knows anything

jeeringmole2• 18 years ago

BS = B_llSh_t

MS = More of the Same

PhD = Piled Higher and Deeper

Rod2• 18 years ago

I am also a Ph.D. student and it's somewhat comforting to realize I am not the only one who has more questions than one lifetime would allow one to answer. It's also comforting to acknowledge I am not the only one who has printed that Einstein quote and placed it by my workdesk. Science is a humbling quest indeed.

Quoting Prof. Carlos Bustamante (Cornell):

"Being a scientist means living on the borderline between your competence and your incompetence. If you always feel competent, you aren’t doing your job."

amichail• 18 years ago

Feeling stupid is not a good sign. Why not switch to an area where you feel rather confident?

lliiffee• 18 years ago

The argument of the article is that if everyone who felt stupid did that, no one would be left.

tokenadult• 18 years ago

To the contrary, a lot of quite successful research mathematicians claim that you feel stupid a lot if you are working on genuinely important problems. Paul Zeitz one year at MathPath put the word "STUPID" up on a blackboard in huge letters when orienting the middle-school age students attending that program to what the difference is between math contest problems (which most participants in that program are quite good at, by the selection criteria of the program) and professional mathematics research problems.

Rod2• 18 years ago

Quoting mathematician Sylvain Cappell (NYU - Courant Inst.):

"When you start on a new problem, you always feel stupid. You might spend a whole day on a single paper, an hour on a single line. And you still don’t understand it. When you get to a certain position in life, you don’t want to feel stupid anymore. In mathematics, that’s when you’re dead."

jeeringmole2• 18 years ago

Douglas Adams wrote "A scientist must be absolutely like a child. If he sees a thing, he must say that he sees it, whether it was what he thought he was going to see or not. See first, think later, then test. But always see first. Otherwise, you will only see what you were expecting." (in So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish)

I was in school when I first read that line. I showed it to a fairly well-known scientist who immediately put a copy on his office door. The smartest people I have met are also the quickest to admit they don't know.

adharmad• 18 years ago

Reminds me of the quote by Francis Bacon which goes something like: Science is about being a blind man with a stick, and he who most persistently pokes blindly ahead of him, contributes the most to our understanding of the Universe, though only if he is willing to accept what the poking tells him that he does not want to be true.

adamc• 18 years ago

Thanks, best article I've read in a month.

tspiteri• 18 years ago

I think the article is about ignorance, not stupidity. Ignorance is a lack of knowldedge, so it is important for research; research leads to new knowledge. Stupidity is a lack of mental ability, which will not help in research.

anirudh• 18 years ago

The article is pretty accurate, though I do not agree with the use of the term “stupidity”. Following is how I view the evolution of a student:

1. BS: This is the time when students read pre-digested information. 2. MS: They continue to read pre-digested information. In addition, they also start reading information directly from the source (papers). Also, get a brief taste of what it means to contribute to the field of knowledge 3. PhD: Students should read solely from the source (only papers). Further, it is payback time. After having benefitted from all the knowledge that others created, they are now required to produce knowledge.

The reason it takes research 5-7 years has nothing to do with how long it takes to answer the thesis statement. Instead it has to do with how long it takes for a student to become “mature in research”. In other words for them to understand that their job is: • Identify problems, solutions to which are relevant and challenging (the solutions can serve a purpose or can simply possess aesthetic appeal). • Create solutions and document them for everyone else to benefit from (papers and more papers) • Mentor young students to embrace research • Teach digested information with a hint of the appeal of science and research

Confronting a significant problem (not an incremental addition) is daunting, I would not say it makes a student look stupid. I would say it shows the opportunity and need that a field exhibits.

The importance of stupidity in scientific research

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