Chapter 16. My Data Go Primetime

 After deciding to do a one-year postdoc in Paris, I needed to start planning for the job after that back in the USA. It would be easier to apply for and interview for a job in the USA while still in the USA. I didn’t want to start applying for my next position from Europe. I needed to meet people and talk to them face-to-face, so I started that job hunt well in advance of my departure for Paris. I was in fact planning two different jobs at one time that were going to occur in tandem. A good way to get people interested in hiring you to do scientific research is to publish your research and make public your data. So it was undoubtedly time for my data to be widely disseminated to the whole scientific community.

Between finishing my Ph.D. and taking French lessons I was extremely busy. I was so busy I longed to have nothing to do. I overheard some students, high school students or young college students, one day, and they were talking about “fighting boredom” as if it was a big problem. They had nothing to do, so they would hang out and “fight boredom” until it was time to go home. I was envious of their problem. I also made myself a promise. I swore that I would never be bored with nothing to do. As far as promises go, this was an easy one to make and an easy one to keep.

Writing a thesis is an onerous task in that it is a written scientific document that sets up a scientific question, explains the importance of that question, describes the methods that have been used to try and answer the question and results and then reports the results of that research and objectively discusses its significance. The old saying, “wrote the book on the subject” almost describes a thesis when it comes to the depth and detail of the work involved. A Ph.D. thesis is a scientific textbook whose writing has often become la bête noire for Ph.D. candidates because it is a daunting job to put in writing four or five years of your work, but it is required to receive the degree.

Writing such a document takes an enormous amount of time, discipline and dedication. Some authors complain and talk about writer’s block. When they hit a block, they may take time off from writing or write something different to get back into the swing of writing. When writing a thesis, however, there is not just a deadline, but a degree and career on the line. Taking time off or doing something else is rarely an option.

My strategy for thesis writing was simple. I wrote on paper in longhand, and my goal was to write as much as possible. I wanted words on paper. Each blank page was an enemy and I wanted to fill those pages with stuff. Ann would help by transcribing the longhand into the computer. Even though I can touch type and compose at the computer, I found that if I transcribed my longhand myself I spent too much time editing. I also felt less of a sense of accomplishment when writing at the computer because it in came out looking like one long page, and I liked to see a big batch of finished pages, signaling productivity. So Ann typed up and saved the longhand pages to help me feel productive. As the pile grew I was closer to finishing.

I did get writer’s block, though. I hit a very dry spell where nothing seemed to come out. Ann had caught up on transcribing, and I had finished proofing and polishing the previous drafts and completed all of the data analysis. There was no time or opportunity to take a break or do anything else—I really needed to get this draft finished. Since I seemed to be stalled anyway, Ann dragged me to the mall one evening. So, of course I was looking at some note pads and pens. I didn’t need any paper, but I purchased a scratch pad to write more thesis on and a fountain pen. I’d had many fountain pens, felt pens, ballpoint pens and tons of other writing implements. But this pen was really nice and it felt so smooth on the paper as I wrote. Having a new “toy” to play with helped me get out of my writing slump. The pen just slid along the paper and words came flowing again. Science, discussion and data were pouring forth again. Thanks to a new pen I was back on track. After this, anytime I hit a writing slump, I would go buy a new pen—often fountain pens but frequently ballpoints or anything that wrote and felt good helped me get back into the swing of writing. Sometimes with the fountain pens, I would change the ink before it completely ran out and write to see the color change as I wrote. They may sound silly, but these techniques got me to put ink on paper.