Yes, scientists use lots of different computer software, namely, Microsoft office, Adobe Creative Suite, Mathematica, Matlab, etc. And there are lots of 'small & simple' programs specialized for certain forms of data. I purchased a student version of Matlab a few days ago and pretty suffered from it because it crash with Windows 7 computer.
But this is not what I want to talk about today. I want to talk about motivation.
As a oceanography graduate student, I am very tempting to make nice figures, animations, graphics showing scientific data into world. But it takes too long time since I don't have any computer background. In fact, I took a Matlab related course once and that's pretty much it. Sometimes, I spend more time for playing with computer software than reading a book or paper, then I feel guilty about it. So to speak, I have a strong motivation for extracurricular activity than just my job.
As a person from S.Korea, I am (actually was) very scared of professors or teachers. They are supervisor and master of my life and traditionally I must respect them, but cannot love them much. However, my thoughts of teacher was changed after I met Dr. Raleigh Hood at Horn Point Lab. He is not only a master but a friend. He allowed me anything I wanted to do in his laboratory and didn't blame me even if I was deserved. More importantly, though, he changed the perspective of motivation of mine. He let me do whatever I want to. I worked because I should and I believed that it is one kind of motivation in a different shape. Especially, the personality was securely developed during my military service period. But here, we don't call it motivation, but just a order.
Today, my blog is much longer than before because I am very happy after watching a video. Dan Pink in the video talks about motivation and productivity. In scientific studies, it turns out that productivity is lower when people are rewarded by his/her work than people are not rewarded at all especially if the work requires any little creativity. I clearly remember many of my friends who said that their parents will buy this toy, that toy, this game, that game if they got a good score from the test. And the reward seemed to work because they get better scores than mine who never got this kind of offer from parents. But now, I see that my parents are much more wiser than other parents. I cannot say that I am a more productive person than they are now because I don't know what they are doing and I don't think I am very successful right now. However, I believe that I have more potential than them because I have been doing whatever I want without any incentive. I am going to enjoy my life more seriously from today for the higher productivity.
Conclusion of today's blog. Although I spend many time for playing with softwares which I don't need to do, it will make my life much more productive than ever.
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