Inspired by a similar list Austin Kleon ran on his Substack, here are ten questions I ask myself when making decisions about where to put my effort, evaluating ideas, and trying to understand complex problems. Some of these are explicit, some took more time for me to think about because they’re implicit questions I didn’t necessarily realise I asked.
I ask this whenever I see something that looks like it confirms my existing beliefs — or when I see something that seems extraordinary. We’re rewarded in research for novelty, which makes it dangerously easy to convince ourselves we’re seeing something important or exciting. I’ve had moments where I thought I’d found a genuinely novel ecological pattern, only to realise it was an artefact of the data. This question forces me to slow down and consider other explanations before getting carried away.
This is a useful question to ask because it forces me to see a problem from another angle. I am also conscious of being locked into a way of thinking or attached to a particular identity. Many disagreements persist because of ego, not logic. Some of the most important changes in my life have started with changing my mind. When I moved between postdocs in Germany and the US, I told my new advisor I wanted to slow down and do better, more meaningful work. This decision was triggered by becoming a new father. My productivity at the time was what earned me the position but I realised it was no longer a value I held, and the work I’ve done since is the work I’m actually proud of.
I’ve achieved enough goals now to know they rarely feel the way I expect. Having suffered from the slump that follows achieving a goal, I’m all too aware of the costs of focusing solely on the outcome, not the process. When I landed my ‘dream job’ (permanent faculty position), it felt like anything but a dream job — I struggled a lot with motivation and focus for a period. I think that reflected the fact I achieved what I set out to. Much of my postdoc life was motivated by the desire to land a permanent position (I had kids already and wanted the security). Goals matter but they’re terrible places to look for lasting fulfilment.
This one, inspired by Tim Ferriss, is huge! We are all motivated by external rewards, and research is full of them: publications, grants, awards, titles, citations. They can be powerful motivators. But I’ve learned that external rewards disappear as fast as they arrive. Whenever I find myself obsessively checking citations or subscriber numbers, I know it’s time to revisit this question. Asking this question helps me distinguish between things I genuinely care about and those that simply look good from the outside. In truth, the answers aren’t always what I want.
It’s easy to get overwhelmed in this career. There’s a constant stream of things to do. And there’s a constant stream of opportunities. Once they start arriving, they arrive in truckloads. It can be very hard to say no. But I’ve learned that ‘no’ must be my default answer or I’d sink. It’s not easy but I’ve said no to so many opportunities in recent years I would have jumped at a decade ago: collaborations, working groups, papers. The list goes on. Everything I say yes to is saying no to something else. I’ve learned the hard way — years of overwhelm. Being busy for the sake of being busy sucks! Asking this question is fundamental. One small tip is not saying yes to anything straight away. Sit on it.
The first five questions are the ones I consciously ask myself. They’re practical things I reach for when I’m stuck or trying to make a decision.
The next five are different.
I don’t always ask them explicitly. In many ways, they’re the assumptions sitting underneath the others — the questions about time, growth, discomfort, curiosity, and recovery that have gradually become part of how I see the world. They’re less about finding the right answer and more about becoming the sort of person I want to be.
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