This book does not endeavour to give advice on just how a young person is to proceed in their goal of becoming a scientist.
There is no advice here on how to get a current academic position, but instead the author gives a fairly optimistic overview of what he believes are criteria for leading one's life as a (successful) scientist.The author is not shy about discussing academic life, both its virtues and its vices. For example he describes an individual, which he mistakenly though calls a "scientist", who plagiarized some photographs and paragraphs of text from a fellow worker and presented them in a scientific essay contest.One of the judges was apparently the person from which the material was stolen, but the aversion to scandal of the culprit's institution caused him to find employment elsewhere. Both acts, the plagiarism and the institution's cover-up, are despicable of course, and individuals who engage in them cannot be labelled as scientists, that designation reserved only for those who respect and practice honesty in all phases of their lives.The rewards for doing scientific research are also described very accurately by the author.
The "oceanic feeling" that Freud described when making a discovery is described by the author as something that will definitely keep an individual tied to the scientific profession, if there was any doubt before.The mixture of confidence and depression that can take place when doing scientific research makes this a welcome feeling, one that goes far beyond any peer recognition or financial rewards.Most refreshing is that the author decides to discuss sexism and racism in the scientific profession, an issue that has been a severe problem in the history of the university, particularly with women.Women are more welcomed in the scientific profession now, but there are issues with such things as maternity leave that still need to be ironed out. The author makes it a point to note that in his experience women do not approach scientific research in any way that is distinctive in comparison with men.
Any university that makes a conscious effort to hire women because of social or political pressures is doing itself, and the women (and men) it hires, an extreme disservice. The scientific profession, as all others, is an aristocracy of ability, and hiring decisions should always be decided on merit, not favouritism or some diversity quota system.Nothing can be more heartbreaking than to see enormously talented individuals locked out of positions because they did not have the "right connections".There are numerous other issues that the author discusses, such as the place of recognition and scientific prizes, and social attitudes about scientists.
Up to my mind the book is of assistance to young people who have decided to become scientists.This book is a collection of advice on different subjects the author finds important for scientists. Some of the advice is helpful. But still the book suffers from several problems: Its language is often stilted and old-fashioned.Most subjects are only shortly touched (e.
g., writing, the scientific process) and a large part of the advice consists of trivialities everybody involved in science certainly knows already. Thus the title of the book is rather misleading: The book is not for scientists (not even for young scientists), but it might be the book of choice for people who have to decide whether to go into science, or for people who just want to have a taste of what scientific life is about.The chapters cover: 'How can I tell if I am cut out to be a scientific research worker?', which contains a revealing and exceedingly quick intelligence test, (and which would probably be of great value as a surprise question in executive job interviews).A psychologist would classify this as a very direct test of 'little g', or the general intelligence factor, and it is refreshingly free of bias due to gender, culture, and educational attainment level.
