November Scientiae: love it and loathe it

At long last, I give you the November Scientiae Carnival!  I was a little distracted this month, so if I missed your post please let me know.

The theme this month was best and worst.  I asked, "What is the best part of your job/life as a scientist, and what is the worst part?"  There were some great responses, many of which will probably sound awfully familiar.

Several of us reported that people are either the best or worst parts of our jobs.  Podblack Cat shared a particularly trying (and rather comical) experience trying to teach to a group of high school students obsessed with The Human Centipede*.  I really can't fathom the patience it must take to deal with this kind of nonsense!  Rebecca wrote about her recent experience conducting interviews for postdocs.  While she many wonderful people in the process, she also encountered some truly wacky candidates -- go read to learn another entertaining example of what not to do if you want a job.  I expressed my frustrations with waiting for other people to do their bits, which was pretty similar to Rocket Scientista's complaints about slow vendors.  On the other hand, she loves her awesomely awesome colleagues.

Several of us also wrote about about getting the data, which can be teh suck or teh joy.  Patchi's described her trials with a challenging lab protocol.  She had an experience we all dread -- getting unsatisfying results.  You know the kind, when you feel like you didn't do enough but you can't realistically do more.  Victor Poor offered a somewhat more lighthearted treatment of a related event--probably the worst moment in science--when you realize that months (or years) of hard work resulted in flawed data and no new knowledge.  Sad.  On a happier note, I shared how the thrill of intermittent inspiration keeps me going, and Rocket Scientista reminded us how great it is to get new! data! and gain new! knowledge!

Silver Fox and Karina both have significant field components to their work, and not surprisingly, identified that as both a source of joy and frustration.  Karina loves the exotic places where she gets to work, but misses home and her husband while she's away.  Silver Fox has lots of favorites about her job and finds that they mostly negate the sucky aspects.  After all, it's the sucky stuff that makes the fun parts possible. That's lemonade for you!

If Silver Fox has trouble finding fault with her work, ScienceGirl is momentarily at the other end of the spectrum.  New baby fatigue has her feeling like the incentives for her work have disappeared, leaving her motivated only by avoiding negative consequences.  We're sure this will pass, ScienceGirl, and we're rooting for you!  Likewise, in another post Podblack Cat wrote about her exasperation at being encouraged by Oprah, of all people, to go beyond the call of duty when really the call of duty is quite enough in itself.

Finally, A Life-Long Scholar described her favorite thing about academia - the freedom to set one's own schedule.  I couldn't agree more!  Of course, that comes with the risk of feeling guilty for not working enough (as a commenter noted), but it 's a risk worth taking.

Thanks to everyone who contributed!  The next installment of Scientiae will be hosted by Pat of Fairer Science.

*I saw this movie as a birthday gift to Ecogeoman who loves horror flicks.  The trailer pretty much covers everything.  Ick.