Why I started to write ✍🏽
Research is a journey of the mind. It’s not an easy one, but requires consistency, critical observation, and ability to communicate thoughts and ideas. These thoughts and ideas are often times unique, built upon the existing knowledge of science. Although science attempts to represent the physical world in the form of objective truths, it is also important to understand that it is not just a collection of truths, but a way of critical and creative thinking.
As Carl Sagan famously mentioned,
Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge
My research journey began by learning how to leave space for thinking, to think, then learning to write what I thought about. I realized that research writing involves collecting as much as reasonably possible situations and conditions that lead to the observations. And so goes with assumptions and simplifications while analyzing collected data or while developing predictive models.
Thus, the importance of documentation slowly surfaced. I started enjoying the process of writing as it provided an avenue into observations, understanding the correlations between observations, about the living world - personal, scientific, and everything in between. It allowed me to be a better researcher and a better person.
Therefore, I write.
What I write about 📝
Even though writing allowed me to assimilate such observations and correlations, create elaborate stories, the more knowledge I gained during the Ph.D, while living, I learnt that I do not know anything. Knowledge seemed like liquid water that you can never hold in your palms. Slipping away, the more I learnt about it. Contradictory to the process of gaining expertise. But practising this process of writing helps me and motivates me to continue growing.
Here, I write about things that motivate me. These things are work-related and personal, and thereby this digital garden. 🪴
Work-related: To keep my passion for science alive
- Coding: Part of daily research activities, knowing that I struggled with learning some while trying to continue my work, I try to compile guides for assisting someone who might be in a similar learnign phase.
- Fundamental theories related to reaction kinetics, modeling: because it is amazing
- Could also serve as a resource for an undergraduate or a graduate student in similar field.
- Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) applied to reaction kinetics and material flammability: because it is fascinating.
Personal: To find balance when necessary
- Backpacking experiences, beginning with First long backpack in the U.S.
- Thoughts, collection of meanderings of the mind such as the short essay on Art and Science.
Who am I writing for
- For myself, 🙋🏽♂️
- a mysterious thing called sanity, 🧘🏽♂️
- and whoever finds this journey and knowledge interesting or helpful. 🙏🏽