Frustrated researcher
Last week, Matt and I were talking and he had this quote from his boss that I thought was quite clever: "Doing research is like making sausage - the end result is tasty, but no one wants to see how its done." Now, Matt (and his boss) were talking about clinical research - the nitty gritty medical research that is done in hospitals, labs, clinics, and (sometimes) homes. I still feel, however, that that same sentiment could be applied to social sciences research, too.
Its agonizing. Its irritating. Its dull - especially when you're on your own! You read, you write, you brainstorm, all until your eyes give out on you and your brain melts. You email, call, fax, and meet with people, begging and pleading for interviews. You wait to talk with people, you wait until they get back to you. You can't find a book or an article that you really need, or you can't quite figure out how to edit your work. You slave over your manuscript, and you lose sleep over it.
And the painful realization that you're always fighting to keep in the back of your mind is that no one cares about your project as much as you do. No one.
Its agonizing. Its irritating. Its dull - especially when you're on your own! You read, you write, you brainstorm, all until your eyes give out on you and your brain melts. You email, call, fax, and meet with people, begging and pleading for interviews. You wait to talk with people, you wait until they get back to you. You can't find a book or an article that you really need, or you can't quite figure out how to edit your work. You slave over your manuscript, and you lose sleep over it.
And the painful realization that you're always fighting to keep in the back of your mind is that no one cares about your project as much as you do. No one.