Over at the Naturally Selected Blog I’ve been writing the occasional post about science careers. The most recent post: “Who are you to deserve grant funding?” garnered a few “skeptical” responses.
One writes:
A very plausible pep-talk, but what objective evidence is there that excellence and self confidence are the most important, or even significantly important, determinants in grant funding? I know a lot of anecdotal evidence to the contrary, including my own experience. I know, I know, the purpose of a motivational presentation is to energize and inspire, and toward this useful end, fairy tales may serve better than facts. I’m just saying.
This person missed the point of the post entirely (and he is also wrong about the self-confidence issue).
First: Self-confidence is critical in any human endeavor – especially one as complex as grant writing. All great accomplishments come from a sense of “confidence” that we can pull it off. If we don’t have that confidence, we don’t even get started. Fait accompli. Study the history of any great accomplishment, from flight to relativity to the lightbulb, and you will see that the originator had confidence in their ideas and their ability to implement them.
Second: this wasn’t about having self confidence per se – it is about knowing that you are doing worthwhile work, and being willing to show that in the proposal. The commenter says he knows of “anecdotal evidence to the contrary.” What, exactly, is that evidence? I’m just saying that if you don’t have the confidence in your ability to do great work, then your grant writing will reflect that. But I’m not saying that if you have confidence, you’ll automatically get the grant. It takes a lot more than that.
Third: There is this view of the world – particularly widespread in scientific circles – that we are just machines, part of a big universe that is like a clock winding down. In that view, everything is pre-destined. We are given certain talents and circumstances, and we have no control over what happens beyond those things we were given. That’s because a machine is deterministic, meaning that its ultimate trajectory is completely determined from the beginning. However, taking that point of view is both contradictory to many observable facts, and more importantly, if you act like that’s true, your life will go nowhere.
The poster’s comment reflects this deeply-held point of view. “It’s all fate” is the underlying message here. Belief has no role. The clock was wound so that you’ll either get the grant (or not) and there’s nothing you can do. It’s a “fairy tale” to believe that you can improve your odds, or do better.
But this whole universe-mind-as-a-machine is just another fairy tale!
Hence, if you adopt that view, you’ll permanently suffer from the view that life just happens to you, and there’s nothing you can do.
In the meantime, people who don’t suffer from that view will continue inventing, creating, and building.
And that’s what grants are ultimately about – getting the funds to create, build, invent, and test.
We all live within our own particular “fairy tales”. There is no objective reality that the human mind can grasp. Reality is far too big for our minds. We tell ourselves stories in an attempt to make sense out of the bigness of it all.
Which story are you going to tell yourself? I choose to tell myself stories that will help me accomplish more of what I want and less of what I don’t want.
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