Beware Solo Artist

I made the mistake today of going to a practice job talk for one of our esteemed postdocs. This was part job talk practice part organize the paper business. This woman works like a machine, perhaps to her detriment. If I could link myself I would refer to the previous post where I describe yelling at her. She is a good person. She is far away from even being in left field.

So she worked real hard, she has tons of data. Some off campus dude and some big shot at school come to see this talk, my boss is there too. Im looking forward to seeing some outsiders force my boss to speak in complete sentences. Doesnt Happen. Pdoc lady spills data for 40min before I realize that she is totally not having a bottom line, a coherent thesis, or any argument whatsoever. In her mind you write a paper after gathering a ton of data and then reciting it all.

The outsiders help a little, but not actually. The ill fated pDoc crumbles at the words, which I have heard my boss say before, "we probably should make two papers" and now she is just another squirrel in the forest. Hungry, and scared. For the love of God and all things beautiful, if you cant point out the three things that your work portrays or explains or answers, or plans to answer, stop with the talking and the writing. The real point here for me is that you never want to be so isolated as to not have your work impact anyone in your lab at all. You need people to help shape your story and help determine what is important. I will hopefully say this in a more clear fashion again, Im just too troubled by the events.