I'm worried about a research topic at the moment. I've discovered that I really don't like doing research, or science inventions, for that matter. Don't get me wrong. I absolutely agree that research and inventions are very important, and I totally support it, and acknoledge that such are the best way forward, both in terms of academic research and scientific discovery. However, all I'm saying is that I really don't enjoy doing either at all. Scientific research and invention often gives me a sense of hopelessness, and that I'm wasting time doing nothing useful. Why? Precisely because when you are working with science, you are bound to face a lot of failures and dead-ends. And sometimes you even lose the point of what you are doing. Or worse yet, far into your research, you discover that what you have doing was completely useless, or that you started of with the wrong premise, and that it was never going anywhere! So you're back to square one, as if you never did any work at all. But what about all the hours wasted in the lab? All those wasted diagrams, theories etc etc? But of course, if you did something right, it could be a major discovery, and you could be famous overnight. It is often achieved with a breakthrough, with that, you have everything, but without it, you have nothing. The same goes with research. You spend hours in the library, going through book after book, flipping through the dusty pages, hoping to find something that you are looking for. More often than not, you find nothing. Again, hours completely wasted, and you feel incredibly frustrated, as you spent all that time, working incredibly hard, and the result is 0. Of course, if you find what you are looking for, and write a coherent report. again you might be famous if you publish what you have written. But without the right information (or if you started with a hopeless research topic the first place) you will have nothing. For me personally, what I cannot understand is how can I possibly justify to myself doing work which might result in nothing no matter how much effort I put into it? I get very frustrated as I know that I'm not talented in research or scientific work, and that no matter how hard I work, I will only produce work of average qualify (if not worse). So then I slack off, thinking there's no point in working hard for something that I will not do well in, and then I end up getting worse results because I put in so little effort, and end up disliking research work even more... @@ I think I need to change my attitude :P Anyone here that really enjoys research and scientific work? --

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