What I have learned about science during the last year
Productive circles, pushing new ideas, deciding to be more creative, testing new workflows
The last year, 2023, was again a successful year for the lab by any measure. We published many papers, graduated many students, several people joined the lab, others left for good positions; we conducted experiments, did analyses, forged connections and reinforced existing collaborative links.
What have I learned during this past year, and maybe the last few years?
Productive circles
One of the most important aspects for productivity for me in the last few years was to be part of several very productive circles of researchers. This was not really something that I consciously planned for, it just happened, most recently actually as a consequence of giving an (online) talk. In other cases, it’s long-lasting friendships and collaborations. These productive circles (I hesitate to use the word ‘networks’ because it has a negative connotation to many people) that I consider myself lucky to be a part of also have very little overlap in terms of people (and to some extent, topics), so they really are additive in their effect. Of course, this is also about way more than just productivity. These types of collaborations are stimulating in terms of getting new ideas, learning new things, and seeing topics from different perspectives.
Lesson learned: cherish and foster links with productive circles and teams of researchers.
Pushing a new idea at the risk of stepping outside of your comfort zone
I was fascinated early in 2023 with large language models and AI; topics about which I know nothing in terms of technical background. This is a bit scary because of the risk of sounding stupid. I am quite proud that I didn’t let that deter me from thinking about it, and connecting the topic with something that I do know, environmental science and ecology. I wrote a paper on the effects of large language models on the environment and environmental science pretty early in 2023, and this has opened some opportunities, including co-authorship on another manuscript. Another paper I wrote on the same topic didn’t fare so well initially, but is currently submitted. And I still find the topic super interesting and may write more about it. One way to make stepping outside your realm of expertise a bit more palatable and ‘safe’ is to enlist the help of domain experts as co-authors. This has worked well and is a very good idea.
Lesson learned: push your new ideas; write something early on an emerging topic, risk stepping outside your bubble of expertise.
Making a conscious decision to be more ‘creative’
This was my dominant theme in 2023, and I suspect it will remain a central aspect of my work going forward. I made the decision to dedicate time to developing new things, new ideas, new concepts. I really enjoy this and have for quite a while now, the difference in the last year or two was that I made this a conscious effort. I also started teaching a course about creativity, which worked reasonably well, I think, and has reinforced this focus in my mind. And I will continue to teach this course about creativity in the coming years. I really liked reading the new book by Rick Rubin, and I think there need to be a lot more resources and tools tailored for scientists. There’s really nothing better than a new idea that pops into your head - the initial excitement from this is amazing and quite motivating. Did this decision to be more ‘creative’ have an effect on my output yet? Difficult to say, but I think this is an important goal to pursue — and it is fun, and it has changed the way I approach my work life: for example, rather than thinking ‘this is not so much what I am interested in’ to ‘is this an opportunity to get new input?’. Of course not all time, but more often than before perhaps…
Lesson learned: make creativity a priority.
Testing new workflows
What I did for the first time this year is trying out a new workflow for growing ideas. I post an ideas that popped into my head as just a sentence/ thought on social media (twitter/ X, bluesky, mastodon, LinkedIn) and then see how people respond. I sometimes found the interest that a post evoked quite motivating to either directly start writing a short paper, or to first write a newsletter post. This newsletter is then an opportunity for another round of feedback, when the thoughts are presented a bit more clearly than is possible in a short social media post, and so on. I don’t do this for all ideas, but I have found this quite productive. One thought that I posted on twitter/ X elicited quite a lot of excitement; much more than expected. I proceeded to write this as a manuscript for publication, and it was just accepted. This is a new one for me.
Lesson learned: test out new workflows.
I think these were my lessons learned. What have you learned about the process of research this past year? Please share in the comments! If you enjoy reading these newsletters, please feel free to subscribe for free.
Though I’m not a scientist or researcher, all of these resonated with me. As an architecture professor, I did step outside my comfort zone last year to produce a podcast about visionary student projects. It led to my Substack, which has been a primary way I’ve connected with others and prioritized creativity in my writing. AI is another thing, though. So far, I’ve only used it to help me draft rubrics for assignments (😉). Three of my colleagues this year will research its application to early-stage design ideation. I look forward to their findings. Here’s to a creative 2024!