What motivates us?
Here is another idea for “Science pizza” or “Journal Club”:
I am fascinated by the idea of “motivation“. I have been struggling with it ever since I realized during high school that I should do something with my live intellectually. And unfortunately that struggle didn’t cease until I finally got my own lab. And who knows, maybe it will start again once I get tenure (because “What’s next?”). Maybe others of us have similar/different experiences and it would be interesting to share these. In any case, I think waiting with the final motivation boost until you get your own lab is a bit long, and maybe there are things one can do already at the level of “how a lab is run” in order to avoid such long periods of “thirst”.
Interestingly, I just found this little video clip here, which led me to write this post and propose some discussion: To what extend is academia “there” in auto-motivating its work force? or How can we improve it? Please watch at your leisure Dan Pink‘s talk, which illustrates the hidden truths behind what really motivates us at home and in the workplace, and then let me know what you think. Maybe we can start by drawing the parallels between the business model and the academic model and see where that leads us to.
And no, my fever did not come back, nor am I on crack right now, I mean it.