Comments on: Resistance to boredom as a scientific moral value? http://www.academicproductivity.com/2008/resistance-to-boredom-as-a-scientific-moral-value/ A survival guide for the 21st century researcher Fri, 21 Nov 2008 21:30:42 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Marisa Ponti http://www.academicproductivity.com/2008/resistance-to-boredom-as-a-scientific-moral-value/#comment-38884 Marisa Ponti Wed, 01 Oct 2008 18:06:38 +0000 http://www.academicproductivity.com/2008/resistance-to-boredom-as-a-scientific-moral-value/#comment-38884 Hello Jose, i just discovered your blog:-) you are so witty and amusing! Talking about boredom, this is how I feel right now trying to find a purpose - except for passing a course - for sustaining my vacillant attention while reading a bunch of boring articles. Isn´t it demoralizing that after a lot of hard work - that Victor summarized well - to craft a publishable paper, the outcome can be, well, embarrassingly boring?? I am a PhD candidate - a mid-career graduate student who started academic work for twists of life but - and I like studying and do research but I have already learnt that the academic system rewards papers and not ideas, even more so now that research assessment is largely dependent on publications in reputable journals. Hello Jose,

i just discovered your blog:-) you are so witty and amusing! Talking about boredom, this is how I feel right now trying to find a purpose - except for passing a course - for sustaining my vacillant attention while reading a bunch of boring articles. Isn´t it demoralizing that after a lot of hard work - that Victor summarized well - to craft a publishable paper, the outcome can be, well, embarrassingly boring??

I am a PhD candidate - a mid-career graduate student who started academic work for twists of life but - and I like studying and do research but I have already learnt that the academic system rewards papers and not ideas, even more so now that research assessment is largely dependent on publications in reputable journals.

]]> By: jose http://www.academicproductivity.com/2008/resistance-to-boredom-as-a-scientific-moral-value/#comment-30382 jose Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:05:29 +0000 http://www.academicproductivity.com/2008/resistance-to-boredom-as-a-scientific-moral-value/#comment-30382 Hey Victor, I just visited your startup (http://www.mendeley.com/) and I think you guys have the potential to alleviate some of the boring tasks I mentioned :) By the way, I have my own startup too. I'll post some more about it soon. Good luck! Hey Victor,

I just visited your startup (http://www.mendeley.com/) and I think you guys have the potential to alleviate some of the boring tasks I mentioned :)

By the way, I have my own startup too. I’ll post some more about it soon.

Good luck!

]]> By: Victor http://www.academicproductivity.com/2008/resistance-to-boredom-as-a-scientific-moral-value/#comment-30380 Victor Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:21:47 +0000 http://www.academicproductivity.com/2008/resistance-to-boredom-as-a-scientific-moral-value/#comment-30380 The parts of doing research I enjoy are reading, thinking, preparing experiments, doing data analysis... Publishing papers, on the other hand, always felt like a really boring drag: Having to write up the results, re-writing for clarity, shortening to meet to a journal's maximum page number, re-writing based on peer reviews (often again and again over the course of months), writing answers and explanations to reviewer/editor questions etc... I'd acknowledge that all my papers and my understanding of my research subjects have/has been improved through the process required to publish, because it forced me to be more meticulous, methodical and succint than I'd otherwise go about my research. And still, the need to publish - i.e. having to go through the publishing process - was one of the reasons why I decided to leave academia (at least temporarily) to start a company instead. Haven't had a boring day since, but sometimes I miss having the time to fully think things through like in academia. The parts of doing research I enjoy are reading, thinking, preparing experiments, doing data analysis… Publishing papers, on the other hand, always felt like a really boring drag: Having to write up the results, re-writing for clarity, shortening to meet to a journal’s maximum page number, re-writing based on peer reviews (often again and again over the course of months), writing answers and explanations to reviewer/editor questions etc…

I’d acknowledge that all my papers and my understanding of my research subjects have/has been improved through the process required to publish, because it forced me to be more meticulous, methodical and succint than I’d otherwise go about my research.

And still, the need to publish - i.e. having to go through the publishing process - was one of the reasons why I decided to leave academia (at least temporarily) to start a company instead. Haven’t had a boring day since, but sometimes I miss having the time to fully think things through like in academia.

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