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E.O. Wilson on Becoming a Great Scientist

by MrXOR on 1/3/21, 7:53 AM with 27 comments

• by sradman on 1/4/21, 4:10 AM

  Letters to a Young Scientist [1] was written in 2014. E. O. Wilson [2] has written five more books since then.

  Deborah Gordon’s [3] work on red harvester ants may also be of interest to the HN community:

  > In 2012, she found that the foraging behavior of red harvester ants matches the TCP congestion control algorithm.

  [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letters_to_a_Young_Scientist

  [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._O._Wilson

  [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deborah_M._Gordon

• by ivan_ah on 1/4/21, 1:07 PM

  > If your level of mathematical competence is low, plan on raising it, [...]

  This makes me think for how many people basic math competence remains an obstacle for getting into science.

  Shameless plug for my new book about "basic math competence" for adults that think they "suck at math." See extended preview here: https://minireference.com/static/excerpts/noBSmath_v5_previe...

  The material is similar to the more advanced books on mechanics, calculus, and linear algebra, but contains ONLY the essential material from high school math that is the most practical and useful for day-to-day "quantitative analysis."

• by supernova87a on 1/4/21, 3:31 AM

  Well, it is good advice, but you also have to keep in mind that it has become a lot more competitive since the time that E.O. Wilson became a Harvard professor. He grew up in the age of an expanding faculty, not competing with the entire world for a professorship, and let's just say... a world interested in the lives of ants.

  Not to cast any doubt whatsoever on his impressive scholarship and advances for the public good of science at all, but the environment he succeeded in is not the same world that today's young professors face.

  You should do all the things he suggests. But don't expect that that alone will lead to greatness without a lot of luck too.

• by andrewnc on 1/4/21, 3:26 AM

  This is fascinating because it never mentions the role of publishing in the field of science. There is a huge pressure to "publish or perish" which seems at odds with much of the advice given here.

• by hprotagonist on 1/4/21, 3:13 AM

  Ramon y Cajal's "advice to a young investigator" is still quite good as well: https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/advice-young-investigator

• by ArtWomb on 1/4/21, 2:56 PM

  >>> need for extreme focus over a long period

  The budding chorus of "fund the researcher, not the project" is finding solutions. UBI stipends and crowdfunding are a far cry from MacArthur Genius Grants for All (~$500k/anum). But the success of Fold.it, a citizen science protein synthesis game, demonstrates viable alternatives. The competitive landscape now isn't in the form of a Leibniz–Newton rivalry between humans. It's human+AI vs human. DeepMind with it's unlimited budget and GPU cluster can solve protein folding in less time than a theorist penning their grant application!

• by KuriousCat on 1/4/21, 7:43 AM

  Hamming's lectures are great in highlighting the challenges young scientists face and the importance of political acuity

• by code_scrapping on 1/4/21, 10:17 AM

  I love when the comment section gives me more good reading material than the original post. Kudos to the community!

• by drewcoo on 1/4/21, 6:03 AM

  This is about old pre-plague book "Letters to a Young Scientist," article from 2015.