2 ms·
Our job as scientists is to find the truth. But we must also be storytellers
- dekhn 8y agoThe first time I was going to present my work in my graduate group, I asked a senior postdoc for advice. I showed him my slides and he said, "But what's your story?" I didn't understand, so he clarified: "you're not going in there to present a bunch of raw data. You're going in a with a story- a narrative- about how the world works, and show some data that supports that narrative. It's your job to make up that story- you can crib from others if you want- and it's your job to tell the story so other people believe you. A successful scientist is one where many people believe their story is true." After I got over the initial shock I realized this is how nearly all successful scientists work. One of the best things about science is that it's a collection of stories, which happen to be the ones we've not been able to show are untrue yet. Nothing is absolute truth (well, unless you're a superintelligent perfect brain), but some stories are less untrue than others.