Engagements & Resources

“You should write a book.” Over the past year, the frequency with which I’ve been told this has steadily increased. Until recently, my instant response had been “thanks, but I don’t think I’m cut out for that.” I enjoy writing, but pretty much all of that writing is limited to the scope of between 280 characters and a few thousand words…and, I kind of have this day job of being a faculty member.

Hi friends, hopefully you’ll humor me as I try something new here - I have an idea I’m just beginning to toss around, and would love to open that up to dialogue. I had never put words to this, but even when things are going well, I can find myself walking around with a gnawing sense of guilt and growing feeling that I’m just kind of failing at life. Anyone else?

I started graduate school at the University of Toronto (UofT) in September 2017. I have since co-hosted two big house parties where I invited over many friends that I had made since high school. The second party in July 2018 was attended by about a hundred people, which included the grad school friends I had made in the chemical engineering department. A few days prior to this party I finished Solitude, a book by Michael Harris that describes the anti-social nature of social media. It left me in a deep contemplation. The party was, to me, an ode to change. I stopped using Quora and Tumblr the next day. I also deactivated Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. I deleted Snapchat. I didn’t want to learn about the lives of others anymore.

We all face career barriers, and while every situation is unique, we also have much in common. This series of guest posts highlights stories and advice from a diverse group of people who have confronted a wide variety of career barriers. Hopefully this post helps you to feel less alone in your struggle, gives you advice for moving forward, or allows you to help someone around you.

We all face career barriers, and while every situation is unique, we also have much in common. This series of guest posts highlights stories and advice from a diverse group of people who have confronted a wide variety of career barriers. Hopefully this post helps you to feel less alone in your struggle, gives you advice for moving forward, or allows you to help someone around you.

We all face career barriers, and while every situation is unique, we also have much in common. This series of guest posts highlights stories and advice from a diverse group of people who have confronted a wide variety of career barriers. Hopefully this post helps you to feel less alone in your struggle, gives you advice for moving forward, or allows you to help someone around you.

I’m fascinated by the television show Shark Tank, where professional investors listen to a brief pitch from aspiring entrepreneurs, ask a few questions, then make a decision on the spot to invest (or not invest) up to millions of dollars in an idea. Similarly, if you’ve ever pitched project ideas to someone who has been doing research for a significant amount of time, they can often tell you very quickly whether they think your idea has promise

When you look ahead on your career path, do you see nothing but open road to be traveled, or is there a big brick wall in your way that feels insurmountable? Do you feel like you’re skipping along, or like you’re struggling to make any progress because of the heavy weight you’re dragging? Do you even know what path you want to be on, or are you still working to discover what direction you want to travel?

What do you do with your ideas? If you’ve been following along, we’ve worked through how to generate research ideas, why you need to have lots of ideas (and be willing to have bad ideas!), and how to figure out which ideas are the best ideas. It’s easy for this to sound like a linear process that you walk through for each idea, but of course the reality is much more complex. You might have an idea that is initially not that great, but after months of thinking and refining, becomes something you are excited about. Or, you might have two ideas that on their own don’t go far, but become amazing when merged together.

I have a lot of bad ideas. Literally thousands of them. Not just bad, but terrible ideas. And, they are the secret to my success in this job.