Research

Doing research is exiting and challenging. That's true. If you join a research team, it's worth wondering yourself about how you do your research. This is not a trivial question when researchers are continuosly puzzled with burecracy and evaluation stuff (how many impact papers, how many cites, etc) that can interfer in the real objective of doing research: how to make people life better, how to make our world a better place.

Doing research is not anymore an individual task. If you think that individually can cope with the big challenges of our society, you are wrong. Doing science means speak. Talk with your office mates, chat with your colleagues via email, social networks and do networking whenever you can. You never know when the inspiration may visit you.

To quote Richard Hamming, "The closed door is symbolic of a closed mind.". In his talk, Hamming noticed that "if you have the door to your office closed, you get more work done today and tomorrow, and you are more productive than most. But 10 years later somehow you don't know quite know what problems are worth working on; all the hard work you do is sort of tangential in importance. He who works with the door open gets all kinds of interruptions, but he also occasionally gets clues as to what the world is and what might be important." So, why not, try to follow this simple rule: "Leave Your Door Open".

Indeed, a research team is a collaborative environment that has certain dynamics. For sure, it's marvellous if you work effectively to realize innovative solutions that try to improve people's quality of life, but, most importantly, you are part of a group and you should ensure the well-being and relationship of the team members and your colleagues. Remember, in science, the whole is greater than the sum of the indivisual parts.

Initial readings

Be green

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