The Most Underrated Research Habit
After interviewing dozens of students and researchers, it becomes clear that one trait above all else that offers opportunities and enables ongoing success in research.
One key skill seems to permeate all the most successful researchers. It’s the same skill embodied by the Greek philosophers, contemporary scholars, and even early-career researchers and PhD students like Kenan Kraković. Kraković is a student at EPFL (École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne) and creator of the Better Biologist Podcast, where he interviews biologists to help early-career researchers better understand the professional and academic landscape. From his interviews, he’s observed one powerful common thread in what brings researcher success: curiosity.
Whether it’s curiosity about other fields, interest in potential collaborators, or an openness to new ideas, simply leaning into our curiosity may be the most underrated quality for scientific success. In this newsletter, we’ll uncover exactly how this trait unlocks new research potential, and what simple habits students and researchers can adopt to better tap into more transformative science.
Can expertise narrow your mind?
It’s no surprise that when we’re new to a subject, we ask many questions, poking around in the dark to try and create our understanding of a new field. In no time at all though, most of us develop an intuition regarding the general constraints and methods of the field, and immediately begin confining ourselves to them. This is what allows meaningful understanding and contribution, but also has the double-edged effect of stifling creativity.
Kraković uses the analogy of the Grandmasters in chess. The greatest chess players in the world have both exceptional skill, hard-won by many hours of training and study, and an unwavering connection to their own creativity. Similarly, the most successful researchers strike the same balance between knowing the rules and yet still thinking outside the box.
However, this balance is not so easy to master. Research shows — and Kraković’s personal experience validates — that experience and expertise tends to gradually reduce creativity. Intuitively, it makes sense. Learning the key ideas, constraints and challenges of a field requires an entirely different mindset than that which seeks to break those rules.
Kraković even noticed this change in himself shortly after starting his PhD at EPFL, where he examines how the immune and nervous systems of Drosophila melanogaster flies interact. In the first few months, he asked many questions and conducted many experiments, until he started to develop a stronger intuition of what would and wouldn’t work. Quickly enough, he was running far fewer experiments. Although this intuition was critical in understanding his field and helped him to make his research strategy more targeted, it can also be demoralizing. Especially when junior researchers continue to let their ideas go unchecked. This is where cultivating an attitude of openness comes in.
Use curiosity to get creative
Becoming an expert is an essential step to making meaningful contributions. But as we’ve seen, it comes at the cost of out-of-the-box thinking which can break old patterns and lead to radical, new discoveries. From Kraković’s interviews with professors, biotech entrepreneurs, and postdocs, we can peek into how staying curios helps fuel a productive and enjoyable research career.
Here, we’ll dive into the key habits that enable open-mindedness and maintain connection to creativity, by tapping into curiosity. Not only does this enable better research, but helps structure a way of approaching science that leads to long-term growth.
Be curious about your experiments
The more expertise one develops in a field, the easier it is to get an intuition for what will and won’t work. But, more often than not, that intuition leans in favor of what won’t work. This is where it pays to zoom out, to think less, and just perform the experiment. The idea here is to stay curious about what an experiment may reveal instead of always anticipating every result.
Kraković recalls a recent lull he hit in his own research. Although he had many ideas for a range of experiments to run on his Drosophila flies, none felt compelling enough to pursue. That is, until he spoke with a colleague who helped him separate the negative-leaning intuition about what wouldn’t work from what could work. It became clear that several of his experiments were worth a try.
In those cases where experiments can be done easily, it can thus be advantageous to just run the experiment instead of always thinking out a solution beforehand.
“The more you talk to people, the more they tell you why it [an idea] won’t work… And you hear that about 20 times, and you start closing yourself in a box. Every now and then you need to talk to someone in science, but maybe not in your field, to tell you to be brave and try that experiment anyways.” - Kraković
Be curious about people
Although the different scientists and professionals Kraković interviewed have had different careers, goals and paths, all shared one commonality when it came to their research success stories: the power of relationships and networking.
Students and junior academics can often be initially off-put by the term networking. As Kraković shares, “when you imagine networking, you immediately imagine people trying to get something from you,” but the reality is entirely different. Instead, the scholars and professionals he’s interviewed, as well as Kraković himself, stress the importance of simply being curious about others.
“The power of just meeting people without the intention of getting anything from them. Just meeting them for being cool and interesting. Long-term doing that has benefited them [the interviewed researchers] the most in their careers. Like 99% of people I’ve talked to so far have said this. And that’s one thing, as students, we don’t really utilize.” - Kraković
There are several practical and actionable ways to bring this advice into reality. For one, consciously participating in conferences can transform the experience from one of passive attendance, to a real opportunity to build brand new connections. The curious researcher even prepares beforehand, reviewing what posters and presentations may occur, to see what’s worth attending and who they’d like to speak with.
Be curious beyond your niche
Stoking the flames of your scientific curiosity is one of the most accessible and vastly underrated ways of tapping into inner creativity and “zooming out” of your local pocket of research. Certainly you don’t need to start a podcast, but it can help.
Kraković started the Better Biologist Podcast in order to satisfy his own curiosity, as well as support early-career researchers. By exploring questions he is fascinated by with his guests from the biotech industry and academia, he “feeds himself” when it comes to learning, and address the pressing questions other students also have.
In fact, this attitude of curiosity for topics beyond one’s specialty is a common trait among many great scientists. Schrödinger, like many well-known scientists, was quite a Renaissance Man, active in a range of disciplines from physics to philosophy to German poetry. Today, such characters are less common in our era of specialization. But with the explosion in platforms sharing science, there’s an imminent revival of students and researchers tapping into inspiration from various domains.
Practically speaking, there are hundreds of ways to tap into your curiosity and fields of interest. Kraković shares one easy way to not only get a broader perspective, but to also meet interesting people and build new connections: attending guest lectures. Many institutions have weekly seminars with visiting speakers. These are an excellent way to pique your curiosity in a new subject, form new connections and even learn about potential opportunities for collaboration or work.
Whether it’s through podcasts, blogs, social media or real-life lectures, the bottom line is simply tapping into your curiosity in order to expand your field of awareness in order to stimulate your creativity and bring renewed passion into your work.
With curiosity so foundational to good science and creativity, it’s surprising how easy it is to lose this instinct when overcome by the research grind. As is evident by the range of experiences Kraković has examined through his interviews, the most passionate and successful researchers don’t neglect their curiosity. Instead, they nurture it and maintain an open mind. In this way, they can bring in fresh perspectives, collaborators and energy into their scientific work.
How do you tap into your curiosity and fuel your research creativity? Share your experiences with us below!
The Scoop would like to warmly thank Kenan Kraković for the insight and passion he brought to this edition of The Scoop. To learn more about his work, follow him on Substack, LinkedIn, or YouTube.
Resources
Should You Be Doing Science or Sharing It? June 2024
Don't think, just do the experiment May 2024
How the Best Scientists Avoid Burnout May 2024
How I lost and found my scientific creativity March 2024
The role of memory in creative ideation 2023
Curiosity made the cat more creative: Specific curiosity as a driver of creativity 2019
Inflexibility of experts—Reality or myth? Quantifying the Einstellung effect in chess masters 2008
The Expert Mind 2006