WIR-025

Previous goals

---

• 1. Write 400+ new words (or edit an equivalent amount) at the start of each day for 7 days.
• 2. As an alternative to (1) two uninterrupted hours spent working on figures will count as 200 words.

Work completed

---

• My manuscript is drafted! But it appears that my one manuscript is actually two, and so work continues.

Reflections

---

Research is the agonizing process by which we attempt to translate things we barely understand ourselves into language accessible to all. In some regards, scientific writing resembles fiction. The scientist attempts to descend a fog of mystery around an idea and very gradually lift it away, revealing precious insights to a captive audience. But in other respects, producing written research is far more difficult, as the scientist also bears the burden of being entirely correct. And I should mention that the best academics are also semi-professional illustrators, who bring their stories to life through diagrams and figures–figures often requiring intricate code forever obscured from their audience. And as I write these words, thousands of tenderly crafted manuscripts and monographs lie buried in some internet archive or packed away on dusty shelves; the vast, vast majority of all academic literature will fail to make the slightest impression on the course of history or the conscience of humanity. And yet, for reasons that remain inexplicable, except as some quirk of the human spirit, thousands of overworked and underpaid multilingual scientists descend on this country each year to chase their dreams of discovery, knowing all the while the odds are long stacked against them. I think for these reasons, that any person willing to devote their life to writing and research is no different than an artist—about as useful to society, and no less insane. But we starstruck psychos persist, less for the promise and more for the potential of what our work might bring.

Action items

---

Weekly goal

• 1. Write/create figures for the first 90 minutes of each day.

Until next week 👋