September 29, 2011

Mirkwood.

Right now I am feeling like I'm in Mirkwood. That's a reference to "The Hobbit", by the way. I feel lost in the woods of postdocdom. I'm feeling my way blindly forward and keep bumping my head and sometimes feel like I'm shouting blindly out hoping someone on a path will hear me and tell me what it's like there. I suppose this is part of feeling like a scientist as this column nicely points out- science is about being productively stupid. So that's what I'm trying to do. It still very much feels like faking it (until I somehow hopefully make it). At least in 'The Hobbit', Bilbo and the dwarves were sort of rescued by elves and made it out of the woods and went on to bigger things....the dragon Smaug. I hope I get there.