Dr. Almost there: Time to take the heads out of the sand

Hi guys,

Just a short one here, but I reached a sort of revelation just a few hours ago, and I thought I'd share it...

We all get stuck. Overwhelmed. We don't know where to start. It all seems just too immense. We should have been reading the literature from the start, and now with only a few months to go, we suddenly realize we know very little about what we actually do (on the broader scale) and why... right? I can tell you exactly how best to transport marine invertebrates in a car without killing them, but why? Or what they actually do in the world.... I draw a blank!

Well, for me at least, this has been a big problem. I left it too late, felt too scared by all of the information out there, so I buried my head in the sand, and hoped it would all go away. Unfortunately it did not. In fact, it manifested itself in the form of a presentation I must give in three days time, followed by the fear of questions I cannot comprehend on topics I should have been an expert on three years ago.

So, what can we do? I know it all seems too great a mountain to climb, but there is a way! The way - the internet. With a small pinch of salt, an afternoon, and a computer, you too can become easily and quickly eased into the world of your supposed "expertise".

I found that with a simple wiki search on my overall broad topic, I not only was introduced nicely into the whole thing, but it also provided references to some of the more widely known papers etc, which can quickly lead onto more and more. Now I know that wiki could be written by a Dalmatian, but its a start right? It gets you going. Gives you a nice easing into things, and before you know it, you are actually understanding what you do.... and I'll tell ya, it's a good feeling.

So try it.... try it today. It IS scary, and yes, there is a lot to know, but we can all do it, it's just how to approach it! If you had never learned to swim would you start by cannonballing into the deep end of a pool? No. You'd put on some water-wings and paddle in the shallows until you felt braver!