Now that all the B.S. is Behind Me...
Over the course of the past six years that was my undergraduate experience, I have come to realize just how many possibilities and directions any one person's life can take. Now that I have a Bachelors degree in hand, I have been forced to take a long hard look at what it is I really want to do with myself for the next 80 years or so.
This auditing process was magnified over the series of events this summer that led me to the resolution to walk away from all the research I was attempting to do in the Forensic Entomology lab here on campus. However, it became alarmingly clear in a matter of weeks that the burning desire to explore complex questions and the almost effortless ability to generate experimental designs to answer those questions was a part of my personality that just could not be ignored.
This presented me with a great internal conflict, because I no longer wanted to pursue a PhD in this laboratory, but I seemed unable to leave science alone. Given the large amount of effort I would have invest in getting into another graduate program elsewhere, I was forced to evaluate what the payoffs would be for my program of study, and what it would cost me to get there.
It was at this point, that I had a different thought, one I pose to you for your consideration. On the whole, math and science are held in huge contempt amongst elementary and secondary school scholars in this country. The number of students studying, or even capable of using concepts in, the sciences is sharply decreasing. Yet many of the problems in the world are either still unanswered, or the list is growing past the rate researchers can handle it.
Doesn't it make sense, then, that the kinds of people who can't resist asking questions, that the individuals who stay up excited for days on end working out the details of some flash of insight, have an obligation to take up study in the areas of research that directly impact society?
This is not to say that am arrogant enough to assume I could answer any of these questions quickly or better than past researchers have done, but if choosing between an answer that allows me to convict half a dozen murderers a year, or an answer that feeds, cures, or heats millions of people, aren't I being selfish pursuing such an arcane topic? Do I not owe it to the world to give my best efforts to the very problems that plague them, pursuing other questions of lesser merit recreationally?
This auditing process was magnified over the series of events this summer that led me to the resolution to walk away from all the research I was attempting to do in the Forensic Entomology lab here on campus. However, it became alarmingly clear in a matter of weeks that the burning desire to explore complex questions and the almost effortless ability to generate experimental designs to answer those questions was a part of my personality that just could not be ignored.
This presented me with a great internal conflict, because I no longer wanted to pursue a PhD in this laboratory, but I seemed unable to leave science alone. Given the large amount of effort I would have invest in getting into another graduate program elsewhere, I was forced to evaluate what the payoffs would be for my program of study, and what it would cost me to get there.
It was at this point, that I had a different thought, one I pose to you for your consideration. On the whole, math and science are held in huge contempt amongst elementary and secondary school scholars in this country. The number of students studying, or even capable of using concepts in, the sciences is sharply decreasing. Yet many of the problems in the world are either still unanswered, or the list is growing past the rate researchers can handle it.
Doesn't it make sense, then, that the kinds of people who can't resist asking questions, that the individuals who stay up excited for days on end working out the details of some flash of insight, have an obligation to take up study in the areas of research that directly impact society?
This is not to say that am arrogant enough to assume I could answer any of these questions quickly or better than past researchers have done, but if choosing between an answer that allows me to convict half a dozen murderers a year, or an answer that feeds, cures, or heats millions of people, aren't I being selfish pursuing such an arcane topic? Do I not owe it to the world to give my best efforts to the very problems that plague them, pursuing other questions of lesser merit recreationally?
1 Comments:
Hey, that TechShop project is way cool! I signed up for their mailing list; Menlo Park is only about an hour and a half away. Your idea of a congruent project would be great, and I think since university facilities are always swamped, it would definitely work out. However, it would be tens of million dollars to start up... maybe someday?
I guess I was mining my options, so that I could lay out a course to get to the point of maximum impact over a few years. That is, I wanted to define my endpoint, then figure out how to get there. Thus, I was anticipating to be doing after hours work for quite some time to arrive at my first stage deliverables, anyway. The question was more of what I am studying in my "free" time to actually get there? Does everything I want to do involve a passing knowledge of DiffEq? Would I benefit more from the ability to effortlessly craft microcontrolled circuits? Is it most imperative that I can do complex organic chemical reactions in my head, or is mastery of genetics still the key to changing the world?
However, you make a really valid point, and it's one I think people chasing dreams often forget. It would not matter if you cured cancer, if you never spent time on the people directly involved with your life - your friends, your family, and your local community.
In the end, it seems like it is less important if you make a big difference, so long as you've made one at all...
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