The habits of highly effective scientists

The one thing about science that people completely misunderstand and the media even exacerbates is that scientists are people too. This point gets made so often, yet, your average Joe essentially thinks of a scientist as a disembodied brain kept in a jar of formaldehyde in a lab somewhere. I've been waiting for a while to do this, but now is the time for me to officially create a series on this blog of how scientists are portrayed. I will come up with a catchy title for this but everytime we see a commercial with a scientist in a lab coat you will be hearing what I have to say about it. Also, I think I will post all instances of "scientists are humans too", starting with the Neuroscientists in Huntsville who went postal at her department meeting.

But more on the positive side, here is the transcript of a speech from some guy Hamming, talking about what qualities he observes the greatest scientists to have. In the vein of business people self-improvement books, he talks about the small things you might not consider that scientists who do great work do, perhaps incidentally, perhaps acquired through some power of insight that helps make them great. This guy has obviously been around a lot of smart people and his argument is that personality traits, not mere brainpower, are what separate the great scientists from your average PhD. The ability to speak in public and "sell" your work to your peers, work ethic and focus (on important questions, not just any question), the tendency to leave your office door open while working, the courage to ask questions nobody else will - these are part of what help make a scientist legendary.

This question of what makes scientists great has always been an interesting one to me. Some say it is a question of luck, some say brainpower and hardwork, some say just knowing the right people and having a good "intellectual lineage" (the best way to earn a Nobel is to work under a Nobel laureate). Anyways, the speech transcript is an interesting read, enjoy.