Slashdot Mirror
What is the First Day in a University Lab Like?
the_kanzure writes "I'm going to start at a university lab a few days after my high school graduation ceremony. The lab is an eclectic blend of computer science, evolutionary engineering and molecular biology, essentially it's research/development and — best of all — the research is worth something to me and my other pet projects. What I do know of science, tech and research has been gleaned from the internet. The open access research repositories (arxiv, PLoS, etc.) have been a life-saver. But showing up to get real, hard experience is not the same as those late hours into the night spent debugging software. In person, you can't just call up a favorite bash script to open up a few hundred tabs to do some quick research on feasability and past research ... how is this supposed to work — does anybody really get stuff done this way? So I've been wondering how Slashdotters have handled transitioning from learning in front of a screen and a good net connection, to actually showing up and getting stuff done. What's a first day like in a lab? Stories? What's the etiquette? Informal? In programing circles, you can always submit a patch and alternatives, but does this hold here? Is the professor still generally considered the PHB and the lowly undergrads are his minions to carry out his bidding?"
Yeah, I completely agree. This is the stupidest ask I have ever seen on Slashdot. How entirely immature. I hope he fails college and drops out, because he's an idiot for coming on Slashdot and asking "What is my first day of lab going to be like?"
You are completely right in saying this does not belong.
But I guess I will answer the question. YOU WILL FIND OUT WHEN YOU GET THERE, MORON!
Then I asked the grad students lots of questions because the professors were not available much. They are very busy.
Here's where I'll disagree. Yes, professors are not available much. No, they're not very busy. Professors with tenure have very easy lives. They're professors for a reason. They could go make more money in industry if they're half decent, but they choose not to because staying at a university affords them the flexibility of not showing up on a daily basis and working on what they want when they want. So yea, they're hard to find, but not necessarily because they're huddled away doing tons of work. I didn't fully appreciate this contrast until I started working on Wall St. Only then did I fully understand what "busy" means.
"Nature doesn't care how smart you are. You can still be wrong." - Richard Feynman
First, get a life. You are a total loser. It is hard to believe anybody would actually post something so pathetic. Second, you will be the lowest, smallest turd on the totem pole. Nobody expects you to know anything. If you look like you know too much, everyone will think you are an a$$hole. Which is pretty much a given anyway.