Rejection Collection

I was just admiring our rejection collection. We started the rejection count on December 7, and we're already up to 17 rejections-- Yay, us! [Click here to read about the party we held upon reaching 100 rejections.]

I hate evaluating applications

It's application season again. Everyone is applying for grad school and postdocs and jobs; there are inevitably a lot of rejections, and they hurt. Of course they hurt. We're people; we have egos. And a lot of scientists (including me) have egos that are all about being good at science. It's who we are. So when we apply for something, it doesn't feel like a committee is judging our application; it feels like they are judging us. It's just guaranteed to make a person miserable.

Revise and Resubmit

My co-author and I are revising a paper for the nth time. 3rd? 4th? I don't remember. It's a really good paper. And it actually has gotten much better through this revision process. When we first sent it out, it was a series of three experiments. It was good, I thought. But the journal didn't think we quite nailed down the findings, so they rejected it.

Simonton's Equal-Odds Rule

Dean Simonton studies intelligence, creativity, talent and genius. He has spent a few decades trying to predict which scientists are likely to produce great work, and when in their careers they are most likely to produce it.