Meg Duffy is collecting ecologists’ origin stories, and who doesn’t like to write about themselves? So here is my story of How I Became an Ecologist. My story begins on the high plains of the Great Karoo in South Africa. I’d never been anywhere like it. The land is flat and dry and ruddy, dotted …
Monthly Archive: May 2016
Permanent link to this article: https://ecologybits.com/index.php/2016/05/25/from-the-beginning-my-path-to-ecology/
Postdocs, don’t buy that yacht just yet
If you’re an early career scientist and you spent any amount of time on the interwebs this past week, you no doubt caught sight of headlines proclaiming great news for U.S. postdocs: “Postdoc pay to increase due to new overtime rule,” “US law could increase postdoc pay,” “Fair Pay for Postdocs.” Well, I hate to be …
Permanent link to this article: https://ecologybits.com/index.php/2016/05/25/postdocs-dont-buy-that-yacht-just-yet/
When should I start a family? (Actual advice rather than platitudes for the early career academic)
Standard replies as to when to have kids when you’re on the academic path are: “there’s no good time” or “when it’s right for you” or “there are tradeoffs” or variations on these themes. While this advice is true, it’s also useless. And for people who are looking for actionable advice, it’s frustrating to not …
Permanent link to this article: https://ecologybits.com/index.php/2016/05/18/when-should-i-start-a-family-actual-advice-rather-than-platitudes-for-the-early-career-academic/
Let’s stop ignorance-shaming
The most egregious time I was ignorance-shamed I was working for a mid-sized non-profit whose mission was to raise money to fund cancer research. I had moved to a new city and had ended up at the non-profit through a temp agency; I worked part-time doing administrative tasks. While I was there, the executive director …
Permanent link to this article: https://ecologybits.com/index.php/2016/05/12/lets-stop-ignorance-shaming/
Pie charts: seldom or never?
So, the other day, I was casually browsing Twitter when I saw that Meg Duffy had posted some preliminary results from her latest survey on authorship over at Dynamic Ecology. “Oooh, pretty graph,” I tweeted of her pie chart. To which, I received this reply: @margaretkosmala really? It’s terrible. Pie charts should just die @duffy_ma …
Permanent link to this article: https://ecologybits.com/index.php/2016/05/04/pie-charts-seldom-or-never/
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