Second thoughts on science research careers

This is to remind the kids that careers in science research today is very different from the many exciting and romantic stories they read about from the books they took from the library.

Today lots of people are researchers for the wrong reasons and there are just far too many of them. It boggles the mind that so many cannot even handle simple statistical analysis of their experimental results. Nassim Taleb is always gets into an apoplectic rage on this.

Science is now about prizes and career advancement. It is wonderful to love exploring and discovering but the bread and butter realities of this business will probably not permit that. Furthermore there are now more scientists than positions for them, something like 6:1 ratio.

If you want to explore, go to the undiscovered country. They are everywhere but often invisible. You can only see them with imagination.

I was told by more than a few friends that there are many unhappy scientists at our A*Star labs.