August the 12th, 2017. Usain Bolt participated to the Jamaican 4 x 100 m at the World Championship in London. The pressure is rather high. A country, a large number of supporters (my kids and me included), the sponsors, the sport amateurs are all with Bolt, The Legend, the Lightning. He caught the baton and accelerated... faster... faster. And suddenly, he stopped. He rebounded on one leg, the other was injured and finished on the floor. Terrible images. He is still the champion, the legend and a human being. On the TV, the Belgian speaker (Frederic Xhonneux) said something like that:
High level athletics is very demanding. You wake up for athletics and you think athletics the whole day. This is so demanding that you cannot do it for a sponsor, for supporters, for a country. The only way to inflict yourself such a demanding work is to do it first for yourself. And probably Bolt, did it for the country, for the people and less for himself.
I hope I do not corrupt the words of Mr Xhonneux too much. The high level in any sport is like this. The envy and the self-motivation are the basis. Of course, the talent is part of the equation but without motivation and consequently without work, this can be a waste.
This relation between talent-motivation-work reminds me the thesis. Why to start a thesis? Why does someone want to spend 3-4-...-20 years of the life to get worry about one subject? What is the root of this mind procedure? For me, the parallel is obvious with Usain. Is it for money? hmmm... if you got a master, go to a private company for money. Is it for the boss? it is better to marry the boss. For the country? it could, is it sufficient. For the family? if the family is mean.
Curiosity. This is probably the strongest motor of the progress of the Humanity. As noted by Matyo (the excellent cartoonist at Pour la Science), the epitaph of the scientist should be the question "WHY?". The curiosity is also probably the motor to start and to manage to finish a thesis (that is actually a start).
Regarding Usain Bolt and the PhD students, I would say that a PhD student is a high level sport.wo.man. The path to the success is long, not secure, with high and (very) low. An adventure much more difficult than to reach Mordor. But it is also a human adventure with a lot of meetings and brain explosion like 'I get it, thanks for the discussion' and in appearance stupid things like being happy just because a needle moved. To keep the motivation is even the most important fuel for the thesis achievement. Like in professional sport team or professional individual sport, the environment is very important: good food, good drinkS, good sleep, good friends and ... a good life balance. This is very delicate and probably the equilibrium is impossible to keep during the whole duration of the thesis but, at least, in average the balance must be done.
Regarding the situation of the last year, it is really a pity that the thesis defences were not followed by a true public, and by a true party with gifts and speeches. Exactly like for high level sport, playing with no public is dull and sad. Anyway, keep the faith in you and in your goals. Science makes you rich (even and especially when the experiments do not work) and if you are rich, you are happy and if you are happy you can make other people happy which makes you even richer.
PS: talking about happiness. Sport is only sport. Science is only science. From the professional point of view, both have the (awesome) common point that the way to get money meets the pleasure and the passion. However, it would never replace a good walk in the forrest with friends and family, a good (or even bad) beer close to a fire, a kiss, a laugh, a smile, a tear...
PS2: In case of problem: Always look on the bright side of life, Jungle book, and as they said in Wonderwoman "May we get what we want, may we get what we need, may we never get what we deserve"
High - Low - Path
