"The importance of stupidity in scientific research" from J Cell Sci
Anna Kushnir
Wednesday, 10 September 2008 17:03 UTC
Martin Schwartz writes in an essay in the Journal of Cell Science about running into an old friend (who became a big time attorney). This friend told Schwartz that she left grad school because it made her feel stupid. That’s when Schwartz (and I, while reading the article) realized that grad school made us feel stupid too. All the time, every day. Stupid.
Grad school – and science in general – is based upon studies of the unknown. There are certain skills to master and thought processes to hone, but overall we are working on problems which no one has the answer to, no matter how many grants and Nobel Prizes they have earned. Sometimes, the results don’t make sense and you just have to accept it. Right?
Schwartz argues that if schools teach students to be “productively stupid” (ie if you’re not feeling stupid in your work it means you are not really trying, to paraphrase), and if we, as students, in turn confront and embrace our ’absolute stupidity" early on, we will be far more likely to succeed.
“One of the beautiful things about science is that it allows us to bumble along, getting it wrong time after time, and feel perfectly fine as long as we learn something each time. No doubt, this can be difficult for students who are accustomed to getting the answers right. No doubt, reasonable levels of confidence and emotional resilience help, but I think scientific education might do more to ease what is a very big transition: from learning what other people once discovered to making your own discoveries. The more comfortable we become with being stupid, the deeper we will wade into the unknown and the more likely we are to make big discoveries.”
Do you agree? Should students stop fighting to be on top of every detail of their project and just accept the unknowns, and allow them to flow along till their natural resolution (assuming one exists)? How easy is it to accept one’s ‘absolute stupidity’?
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hmmm..
Hi Anna,
I think students should not accept any results/findings of unknown easily…
If all the students start accepting unknown as the the only truth… then truth will always be unknown…
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Hi Anna,
I agree with Amit. its coincidental but this was the topic my friend and I were discussing last day.Especially regarding the Biological sciences where ultimately end of the day you think so what did you discover?
And when you describe your topic of research to a lay man or a friend from other field,in that case,may finally ask you a question,So??!! and then you feel how stupid you are? but that should not stop us.
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Point well taken. There is a fine line to walk between accepting all findings because no one knows the answer anyway and rigorously testing carefully composed hypotheses, however. I think accepting one’s stupidity helps to avoid discouragement and dissatisfaction when things don’t work or fail to yield clear answers. I don’t think it necessarily leads to a lowering of scientific standards, but to an emotionally unburdened (free of “OMG why am I so dumb”) testing of a problem.
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In grad school we can’t get the Cliff’s notes to our experiment, to know how the story ends. We don’t even know if we are doing the right experiment, and if we will find out many months down the line that our experiment just didn’t produce any useful data. And time lost is a far worse punishment than a bad grade for making a mistake. Helpless and full of self-doubt we eventually learn to embrace our stupidity. Our ignorance is the driving force for our curiosity and creativity. I mean if you already know the answer you aren’t really doing hypothesis driven science. But that’s the exciting part. You get to make up the test, and nature gives you back the answers.
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Anna, please! Watch your choice of wording..we ARE NOT stupid. We are just ignorant…and becoming increasingly aware of just how ignorant we are.
If we were in fact stupid, we would probably be teaching. -
Thanks for your reply, Darrel. If you’ll notice, stupidity is not my word, but Schwartz’s. I suspect this particular word was chosen as much for the shock factor as for accurate meaning, but I think his point stands nonetheless. You are totally spot on too – the longer I spent in grad school, the more I realized just how little I know! It becomes almost incapacitating at times, when you can never make a definitive statement about anything because their are so many caveats and conditions on everything.
Your last sentence, however, makes me very sad. For many reasons.
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I also dislike the word “stupidity” and its implications and would suggest “humility” in its stead.
Grad school can be a time where you measure what you know against what you finally realize you don’t yet know and maybe no one else does either – a humbling experience if ever there was one.
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I surrender, I was kidding and I saw the article before I posted. Forgive my sophomoric rebellion.
But don’t be discouraged, Anna. I really do believe if we aren’t all students and teachers to each other…then we aren’t getting anywhere at all.
But I study humans, and that often makes me doubt that I’m any good at being one. -
Sorry, Darrel. Humor and sarcasm rarely survive the trip over the internet!
Heather – I met a lot of people in grad school who really benefited from being brought down a peg. Science does a really good job of that. Not taking it personally is an art, one that I have yet to master. Accepting the fact that you not knowing the answer is not reflective of your own personal stupidity is tough.
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Not sure I am clear on your meaning, Samer. As I said, shadings of meaning tend to drown in the internet waves. Can you restate?
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