great quote about research and academia - stupidity rules, be afraid to ask the unknown

 "I'd like to suggest that our Ph.D. programs often do students a disservice in two ways. First, I don't think students are made to understand how hard it is to do research. And how very, very hard it is to do important research. It's a lot harder than taking even very demanding courses. What makes it difficult is that research is immersion in the unknown. We just don't know what we're doing. We can't be sure whether we're asking the right question or doing the right experiment until we get the answer or the result. ... Second, we don't do a good enough job of teaching our students how to be productively stupid – that is, if we don't feel stupid it means we're not really trying. ... Science involves confronting our 'absolute stupidity'. That kind of stupidity is an existential fact, inherent in our efforts to push our way into the unknown."

thanks Martin Schwartz! you rock!! I want to be productively stupid forever!!!!  you are so right -It's so hard to be friends or to work with people who are constantly scared of sounding stupid - they try to hard to ask the "right" questions that they sacrifice exciting research.  It's also hard to be friends who are scared of being stupid - I mean look we are all insecure in some ways - but you gotta at some point let go and be open to the unknown! 

unknown + security in the unknown = stupidity x excitement = awesomeness

Schwartz, Martin A. 2008. “The importance of stupidity in scientific research.” J Cell Sci 121:1771.