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Research is a capricious mistress

Research is a capricious mistress. You should be totally devoted to it, and you should be thinking about it all the time. Otherwise, it won't divulge its secrets to you. Research has this nonlinear return on investment (ROI) function. It awards persistence and dedication by folds and punishes apathy and laziness severely. If you give research your 100%, you will get at least 200% ROI back. Eventually, that is. It will first test you to see if you are worthy, if you really mean it, if you really have it in you. You will get several setbacks, false alarms. Yet, if you persist and overcome the failures, it will start giving back to you by folds. If you give research your 50% you will get 20% back. You won't make the cut, and you will be operating a business with deficiency. Usually someone else (the university that employs you) pays the tab. So what does giving 100% mean? It doesn't mean working overtime (sometimes that will be needed, and you will be doing it though).

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