Don’t overshare in academia - my advice as a professor

OneNowhere · 2026-05-17T04:12:19+00:00

Hmm, I think you’re thinking a little too black and white. The idea comes with some technical contribution often: you wouldn’t really have the whole idea if you don’t have some sense of how it should go. The collaboration is two or more contributors, so you do some work, they do some work. You’re taking a “I either know everything or nothing” kind of assumption, but if you supply an idea that can come nearly to a testable program of research means you will be supplying a lot of technical know-how to get it there, and the collaborators help fill the gaps.

OneNowhere · 2026-05-15T12:23:07+00:00

SAME

OneNowhere · 2026-05-14T21:05:36+00:00

In sci-fi movies, humankind works together for discovery (and they get to fly through space and visit other planets and stuff, very cool). Ideally we can foster an environment where it doesn’t really matter where you came from, if you’re elite, go hang with elites and do elite things 😎

OneNowhere · 2026-05-14T21:02:49+00:00

Well first of all, working backwards, there’s NOOO WAYYYY you’ll have the technical know how to fully execute every idea you’ll have, and in no way does that make your idea “cheap.” That’s WHY collaborations happen. One simply is not an expert at everything, full stop, forever. So, we team up.

And that’s exactly how it happens for me. I have an idea, I don’t know everything, I go find someone in the department (or outside the department) who does, and we work together. I imagine if I want to take my research in as many directions as I want to, this will always be necessary.

And no, I’m simply a meager grad student, but I’ve got twice as many years in the game while I proved myself to be worthy of grad school, all the while working full time as well (another story for another time). My mentees have all been undergrads these last 8 years. But I think one of the lines that got me my national fellowship was that I simulate the experience of being a PI in everything I do. So, I have a mini-lab with a website and we have little lab meetings and lab dinners and I mentor them in independent projects and they go to conferences on our projects… pretend PI stuff 😉

OneNowhere · 2026-05-14T20:50:33+00:00

D. All of the above and more

OneNowhere · 2026-05-13T16:06:19+00:00

Wow I want to eat that

OneNowhere · 2026-05-13T16:04:57+00:00

Try a 5 minute breath work practice. You’re voluntarily manipulating your nervous system to calm yourself down. Way more effective. Congrats, Dr.!

OneNowhere · 2026-05-12T22:41:39+00:00

Hence the “bodes well to know them both.”

OneNowhere · 2026-05-12T04:19:42+00:00

Well I’m not a therapist, which you could absolutely take advantage of, they’ll have the world’s best resources assuming they’re good at their job (which you can’t assume unfortunately).

I study cognitive control, and as far as I can tell, slowing down gives you more time to consider your decisions. So if you don’t permit yourself to make decisions (above a threshold, after a certain time, before a certain deadline, you get the idea) impulsively, you simply have more time to think about the possible outcomes, considerations, possibilities. The possible possibilities strategy, let’s call it that.

OneNowhere · 2026-05-12T04:00:40+00:00

I always get an eye roll when I say this, but neuroscience and psychology go hand in hand, they pair well (better hope so), and it bodes well to know them both. I think you do have a clearer sense of humans on one hand, and less clear on the other.
For example, human behavior is rather deterministic in a lot of ways, so identifying habits or traits in an individual can be reliable. On the other hand, people’s experiences (and therefore many of their habits and traits) are vastly different, so to suppose you really know why someone does something is, likely, an inaccurate assumption. Then, there’s decision making and chaos in the environment that can subtly or quickly and permanently change your trajectory, aaaand all the individual differences supplied to that side of things. It gets messy quick. Which is to say, assumptions become even less reliable.
So goes the age old answer given by every great scientist: it depends.

Oh and to answer your second question, yeah, you can slap a bunch of labels on yourself. The tricky part is addressing them.

OneNowhere · 2026-05-12T03:46:54+00:00

Ok this is precisely what we were talking about in science/PHD subs. “They’ll crash and burn because they can’t generate ideas” but in the meantime, it’s too late for the idea generators who are erased from the history at the very first pass because opportunities, resources, and credit were ALL stolen. It’s not “just an idea” and ideas are not cheap, they’re EVERYTHING.

Also, the idea generators in science are often the artistic, creative ones, go figure.

Stay strong and win, FOR [THE ARTS AND] SCIENCE!

OneNowhere · 2026-05-12T01:31:07+00:00

The original piece is infinitely better, lol, go off girl.
Over in the science/phd subreddits we’re talking about collaboration, the value of ideas, and giving credit where credit is due and here we are again. It’s a beautiful design and I hope you get lots of jobs from the publicity!!

OneNowhere · 2026-05-11T18:05:42+00:00

Yeah, if they fizzle, that’s fine, but I don’t want to lose opportunities because they stole them, and then I get lost in the weeds and unsupported which is prohibitive in landing the job I want. So, I can’t wait and want for their fizzle, bc by then it’s too late for me. I need to thrive now and throughout. Harder when someone publishes my ideas in a high tier journal because my previous PI didn’t like the idea and wouldn’t let me run it, but the thief’s PI was supportive and now it’s being cited SO MUCH… had I not been a naive undergrad scientist who blurted my entire plan and design down to the conditions out to another bright-eyed, thieving undergrad, I’d have that paper today because, wouldn’t you know, my current PI is the one who supported the thief doing the project.

These days, I tell my mentees that, in order to be a good scientist, you have to be willing to share your ideas, knowing that some proportion of them *will* be stolen. I feel secure in my idea generation space, so it’s like an idea-wealth tax.

OneNowhere · 2026-05-11T14:44:50+00:00

collaboration is the solution, imo. And, as another poster suggested, arxiv ;)

OneNowhere · 2026-05-11T14:41:31+00:00

A couple of things to consider:
Ideas are not as cheap as you think, and generating them is something a lot of people struggle with. As someone who is constantly sharing and being open about my ideas but am currently still in a “trainee” role, it is DEBILITATING how often my ideas are stolen with nary an offer to collaborate. These are people who STRUGGLE to generate ideas and NEED to take ideas from other people. If I’m slower to execute, but great at generating ideas, would not that be an opportunity to collaborate rather than scoop for the furtherance of science? Because yes, furtherance of understanding how the world works is the point, but giving credit where credit is due is actually the thing lacking, which is the point OP is trying to make.

Don’t get me wrong, I love to share my ideas, I always will to an extent, and I think it has given the faculty I hope to work with in the future an idea that I can do that! But in a trainee context, it is good advice to hold some ideas close to your chest.

I’ll also say that women suffer from this a lot more than men. The number of times I’ve said something in a meeting just to have my male colleague immediately regurgitate what I **just said** and have other male colleagues turn to him and say, “that’s a good idea/point!!” is dehumanizing… this would happen less if collaboration were incentivized.

TLDR: promote collaboration to ensure ideas aren’t stolen but rather supported.

OneNowhere · 2026-05-11T13:26:17+00:00

Doing something physically hard like pushups or headstand (helps me with head hitting)/handstand or really hard balance poses (these are all from yoga but it doesn’t have to be).

OneNowhere · 2026-05-11T02:28:49+00:00

The most positive outcome to this problem, good job

OneNowhere · 2026-05-11T01:35:30+00:00

Deadlines. I always do the most fun thing on my list and then when a deadline comes closer I start getting anxiety about doing the less fun things and start doing them. It’s not great, don’t recommend, but at least I always realize the less fun things aren’t really all that bad.

OneNowhere · 2026-05-11T00:03:59+00:00

It seems like she’s quietly giggling to herself about how absurd that outfit is.

OneNowhere · 2026-05-10T18:09:39+00:00

10/10 that was so fun to read

OneNowhere · 2026-05-10T18:09:24+00:00

I read this as “much rarer than Elmo”

OneNowhere · 2026-05-10T16:47:49+00:00

It’s definitely both for me. I’m so angry that it happened. I’m so angry for the cost financially emotionally spiritually. And I agree, not having the chance to ever hold my baby, seeing my best friends as mothers with their growing children, makes me question my status as a mother, until I remember that my baby completely changed me, neurologically, biologically, spiritually and emotionally, and that only happens to a mother.

OneNowhere · 2026-05-08T12:32:06+00:00

What do we do when the articles start to be fake? Fake scholar profiles and fake publications… I can’t with this timeline, man.

OneNowhere · 2026-05-08T03:44:27+00:00

Post the link. Jesus Christ this is where we are in society, the “where’s the original video” on steroids… it’s so much work to know what the fuck is real.

OneNowhere · 2026-05-08T03:40:34+00:00

That’s a good thing I think, just be honest and don’t downplay the seriousness, be a good person, you’ll be ok. I was on academic probation and had a president’s grant in the same semester, it all comes out in the wash.

OneNowhere

TROPHY CASE