cultural caveats & a little history about me

1. A way to do science and to become a scientist –Science interests, scientific approaches, and a scientist's responsibility. 

2. cultural caveats & a little history about me

3. 1. Preparing yourself • Know your motivations, use them • Know your strengths, weaknesses, interests, passions • Give yourself time to think, ponder (What is worth giving your life for?) • Read widely, read deeply (both informational & biographical) Realize book learning has its limits

4. 2. Picking a mentor/advisor • What traits/style/knowledge do you want to learn from him/her? • Compatibility • Freedom vrs guidance • Do you appreciate each other? • Personal ‘chemistry’ • “If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him” • Becoming Buddha • Everyone has strengths & weaknesses – see them with compassion

5. 3. Picking a problem to study • Start with what you know & like, but stretch outside your comfort zone • Goldilocks and the three bears (‘this bowl is too big, too little, just right’) • Long term goals versus short term goals • At the end of the study, you will be a different person at a different place. Who & where? • Cavafy poem: Ithaca • Will the work be fulfilling, bring you happiness?

6. 4. Take time – to think, to wonder, to observe, to question, to ask the questions no one is asking

7. 5. Be tenacious:strive for completion (but realize when you’re on a dead end)(a good advisor can help)

8. 6. About hard work… If you are passionate, it’s not work…it is joy When asked about his genius, Thomas Edison said: “It’s 99% perspiration, 1% inspiration” In science, that 1% inspiration is essential Story of the lost key

9. 7. Social Responsibilities: using your talents & efforts for good What is good? Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”

10. Enjoy the journey & find the path that brings true happiness to you, your family, your country, the world