This post was not part of my original plan (obviously was not anticipating a global pandemic when I started this blog), but I want to share a few recent thoughts that relate to dealing with tough situations in research and life.
The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting all of us in significant ways. While the specific challenges are different in number and scope for each person, we have all had to adapt to circumstances that were unimaginable (to most of us) just over one month ago. It goes without saying that recent weeks have been extremely difficult – and we’re not out of the woods yet.
But in the midst of the adversity, I’m beginning to find a renewed sense of motivation to get back up and take the next step (do the next right thing). You see, in addition to the universal pandemic-related stressors, my research is in a disastrous place right now. My funding is scheduled to end in several months, and I’m left without time or resources to do anything as I had originally planned.
And yet, reflecting on this calamity has made me realize something:
I have – to an extent – been here before.
Sure, any past experiences seem dwarfed by the magnitude of our current reality. But as I’ve detailed in previous posts, challenging circumstances can become a catalyst for innovation and discovery. If I had not gotten so absolutely tired of measuring thousands of sand grains, I wouldn’t have been motivated to develop an alternative methodology. Solving problems in difficult situations is what we’re trained for as scientists; however, such problem solving extends beyond the world of research.
Solving problems in difficult situations is what we’re trained for as scientists.
I want to take a look at two of my favorite “research” movies (well, one is a Netflix show, and both are technically based on books): The Martian, and A Series of Unfortunate Events. Both stories portray concepts that are encouraging and motivating in challenging times (spoilers ahead). The Martian is the story of an astronaut named Mark Watney, who is stranded on Mars and must get creative to survive until he can be rescued. A Series of Unfortunate Events follows Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, who are left as orphans when their parents die in a fire. They go on to experience – literally – a series of unfortunate events, as a villain named Count Olaf employs various schemes to kidnap them and steal their inheritance.
So, why are we drawn to these protagonists?
1) They face insurmountable odds.
It doesn’t need to be said that finding yourself stuck on Mars would be an insurmountable challenge. Even in The Martian’s hypothetical reality where humans travel to Mars, the logistics of this remain complex; in other words, Mark can’t simply call his crewmates to turn around and pick him up. As he acknowledges early on, his survival depends on multiple systems that could fail at any time, and in the best-case scenario, he would still run out of food. To quote another famous movie/book series, “the odds were [not] in his favor” (The Hunger Games).
The Baudelaire orphans face equally difficult (though less extraterrestrial) circumstances of their own. In an instant, they lose their parents and their home. While that would be more than enough to deal with even in a supportive environment, they are subsequently placed in the care of hostile and/or incompetent guardians who introduce many additional troubles. And when they communicate this adversity to the few well-intentioned people in their lives, nothing ever happens to resolve the issues.
Mark Watney and the Baudelaire orphans, therefore, find themselves in impossibly grim situations. While most of us do not (usually) face challenges of the same scale, I think we can all relate to dealing with circumstances that seem impossible to overcome.
2) They solve problems.
In the midst of their dire situations, however, the protagonists of both stories are problem solvers. For Mark, it begins with him resolving not to die on Mars, and addressing his food shortage problem by growing potatoes. He is, after all, a botanist by training, so this is a great illustration of putting technical skills to use for a practical purpose. When his crewmates return to Mars to retrieve him, they run into trouble with their intercept velocity and distance, potentially hindering the rescue operation. At that moment, the commander says, “come on, guys, keep it together. Work the problem.” Even though conditions look really bad, she keeps them focused on the task in front of them.
The Baudelaire children constantly find themselves in various plights (inflicted by Count Olaf), but in every situation, they discover ways to innovate and address the issue at hand. They also use their unique skills (Violet: inventing, Klaus: literature/research, and Sunny: biting/cooking) to deal with the challenges as they come.
Which brings me to…
3) They’re resourceful.
Because these characters have found themselves in very non-ideal circumstances, their resources at any given time are limited. The Oxford Dictionary defines resourcefulness as, “the ability to find quick and clever ways to overcome difficulties,” and the protagonists in both stories clearly exemplify this quality. In The Martian, Mark only has the few manmade materials left on Mars, and lacks basic essentials we commonly take for granted like unlimited water and breathable atmosphere. And yet, he uses these resources – and seemingly disconnected pieces of knowledge – to solve problems and ultimately survive.
The Baudelaire children also embody resourcefulness as they face their own series of unfortunate events. Violet’s inventions provide the clearest example of this; she’s always building crazy contraptions – out of whatever she happens to have on hand – to help the kids escape their ordeals. How many of us have encountered a problem, then looked around the room and thought, “hmm, what do I have that I could use to build something and solve this problem?” I’ve frequently found myself doing that, especially in recent years; perhaps Violet has inspired me.
4) They’re resilient.
At the end of the day, Mark Watney and the Baudelaires persevere. Despite facing one challenge after another, they always get back up and keep going: they are resilient. This is why we, as the viewers/readers, love to root for them; we feel suspense when they face a new difficulty, and yet an underlying confidence that they will figure something out. And they always do, because when they fall down, they don’t stay down.
These fictional stories provide relevant lessons that apply to all of us today. Whether solving difficult problems in research, figuring out how to work and stay in touch with friends from home, setting up a green screen for crazy virtual backgrounds during video calls, or facing any other challenge, we can be encouraged to persevere and to think of creative solutions for small-scale problems. Mark Watney sums it up really well at the end of The Martian, in what is probably my favorite quote from the movie:
"At some point, everything's gonna go south on you. Everything's gonna go south, and you're gonna say, 'this is it. This is how I end.' Now you can either accept that, or you can get to work. That's all it is. You just begin. You do the math. You solve one problem, then you solve the next one, and then the next, and if you solve enough problems, you get to come home."
Things are really bad right now, and they might get worse. But while the big-picture situations are out of our control, we can start by taking small steps to solve problems in our lives. And in the words of Lemony Snicket (author of A Series of Unfortunate Events):
“All cannot be lost when there is still so much being found.”
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