Science and the Importance of Chit Chat
Science and the Importance of Chit Chat
Scientists are trained to do many wonderful things in the course of their careers, but talking to people who don’t “do” science is not one of them. In fact The Oligarchy, the great all-seeing board of super scientists that govern everything, frowns upon such fraternization. Historically, they funded a blue ribbon committee of some highly verbal emeritus professors with an avuncular air to go out among the unwashed to talk to them. The neophytes had to remain prostrate upon the altar of science and never betray their allegiance to all things scientific.
Closer to the reality is that many members of the Old Guard of Science gave up years ago trying to talk to anyone in a non-science field, with the exception of the spouse and kids. It does not make any sense to them why the young folk would want to socialize with people who are not fundamentally driven by a deep need for scientific inquiry.
When I was an undergraduate at UGA, we did not have such blurry degrees like psychosocial botany and anthropological photochemistry. We had chemistry, biology and engineering – and that was plenty. Anyone who had any leanings to pursuing multiple fields was considered a dilettante and was not to be trusted. Even biochemistry got the hairy eyeball by the crusty old-timers, but was finally accepted because each field was equally nerdy and dysfunctional. Botany was for pansies.
Blended scientific degrees have become more the norm these days and the Old Guard no longer feels threatened by such pursuits. However, science is blending with other fields now and some of us are not ready for it. Science is becoming inextricably linked with intellectual property law and business. The only way to avoid this blending is to spend your life in pursuit of government based grants that are purely for research with little interest in commercialization. Purely focusing on scientific knowledge alone now carries with it a great risk of endangering your career. The highly complex system of patent law provides scientists with the opportunity to prevent others from making, using and selling their inventions. However, if one is not conversant in intellectual property law, one can make some dreadful mistakes that can make legal protection impossible. With this year being the 20th anniversary of the Baye-Dole Act, commercialization is becoming commonplace. Commercialization without proper patent protection makes the pursuit extremely difficult if not downright impossible.
Unless you plan a life solely devoted to research in pure science or the noble task of teaching, you are putting your future in grave danger by not reaching out beyond the hallowed halls of science and greeting the more mercenary fields of law and business. This is especially true if you plan to commercialize your technology one day.
Commercializing a technology means that you are going to have to talk to lawyers, investors, corporate types, customers and, yes, even marketing people. These people are generally very smart and some of them may enjoy talking about science with you. They just don’t want to talk about science with you all night.
This is where we broach the ugly words of networking and chit-chat.
Chit chat is not just for the shiny set over the newest martini. Chit chat is an intuitive and primal way of vetting other people before making advances towards a relationship. If you have plans to commercialize a technology, you are going to be talking to people in a social setting who can help you get funded. They want to know how you are going to behave in a professional environment. They want to know how you are going to hold up under stress. Will you thrive under pressure? Lose your temper? Crack? Use crack? Flee? Flee with money? Without dragging out my transactional psychology handbook to find the proper words – chit chat is a very subjective and preliminary way of determining whether or not you will fit in with the tribe.
If you plan to live in the world of commercialization, you need to know how to “do” networking. That means going to meetings and talking to people – about things that are not related to science. There are some very talented people who work in the commercialization arena that don’t know a great deal about science. You still have to talk to them. You can’t just go to a meeting, ferret out the investors, stuff them in a corner and wow them with the depth of your intellect. Sometimes you need to get the non-science types to introduce you to the investors. Some of these non-science folks have these things called “professional networks” that are chock full of people that can help you in your entrepreneurial pursuits. If you talk to these non-science people like they are equivalent human beings, they may put you in contact with those people who can help you – and allow you take another step toward gaining entry into the tribe.
Next week, I will send a post that gives you some tips about how to make your next networking event with non-science people more of a success.
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