Question: Hello. What is the biggest mistake you made either while studying or at your job, and what advice would you give younger scientists who might make the same mistake as you?

I’ve made a fair number over the years, mostly at the start. The biggest was to set out a plan at the start of a 3 year project and stick rigidly to it, without paying much attention to what the results were telling me. I had a plan and I was sticking to it. Failure to pause from time to time to consider what it was my results were telling me and whether the plan was leading me in the right direction cost me 18 months of research. It took a lot of hard work, understanding colleagues and fair amount of luck to catch up.
The most embarassing followed along the same line. I was analysing a new set of results from a technique I didn’t properly understand using a program I didn’t know well. The results it produced looked fantastic and I was proud to present them to my group….who noticed they were complete nonsense, totally impossible. I should have seen it if I properly known what I was looking at, or would have known if I asked for help from those who knew better.
The most expensive came from being cheap. Research funding was tight, I scrimped on the chemicals to spend on the analysis, thinking I could compensate by working harder or being clever. I couldn’t. The chemicals, the effort, and the analysis were all wasted. Not only that but it made it very hard to get more instrument time when next I needed it having wasted it first time round. There are some things you can’t compromise on and some things you can’t work around.