Classic essay resurfaces: why feeling 'stupid' is essential to scientific research
burny_tech · x · 2026-11-10
A reshare of Martin A. Schwartz's 2008 Journal of Cell Science essay The importance of stupidity in scientific research, recommended as a must-read for every researcher.
Key points:
- Research is intrinsically about confronting absolute ignorance — not knowing if you're asking the right question or running the right experiment — and that feeling of stupidity is normal, not a competence failure.
- PhD programs fail students twice: they don't convey how hard research is (driving students who feel 'stupid daily' to quit), and they don't teach productive stupidity — choosing to sit with ignorance and learn from being wrong, time after time.
- Schwartz recounts realizing as a third-year grad student that even Nobel laureate Henry Taube didn't know the answer to his problem: 'that's why it was my research problem.'
The takeaway applies equally to AI research: the sooner you make peace with feeling dumb, the deeper into the unknown — and the bigger the discoveries — you can go.
Related event: Classic Essay Revisited: Embracing "Stupidity" in Scientific Research(2 posts)→
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