In article <1278850891-374764735 at mail.ontogeny.com>, Karen Allendoerfer
<kallen at ontogeny.com> wrote:
> But I've also found that these assumptions are just that: assumptions.
> Over the years, as I've questioned them and stopped buying into them,
> I've found that people come out of the woodwork who don't share them
> either. Men and women. Postdocs and grad students. PI's and non-PI's.
> People who have big Thanksgiving dinners at their houses, who put up
> Christmas decorations at their bench or observe the high holy days.
> People who know about taxes. People who cook and enjoy their food. Even
> a few people who get 8 hours of sleep a night on a regular basis. These
> people often aren't the scientific stars or the favorites in the lab.
> But I started to realize that who makes the favorites, anyway--I can have
> my own favorites. More often they are the quiet ones, the ones whose
> work, both scientifically and otherwise, may fall outside the mainstream.
> It can be lonely there, but more and more, I think I've come to see that
> it may be, all in all, a better place to be.
I would agree that, in most situations, these are just myths. Two
problems:
1. New graduate often think they have to act this way and don't get
sufficient counseling from older students to just act normally; and
2. There are PIs who do believe these assumptions are true and do act
on them.
B. Martin
