In industry, the more ‘top level’ thinking I got asked to do, as I started to do more leadership, the more I felt like I was getting dumber. When I picked up here I started to feel smarter again as I was engaging with other researchers, reading more publications, interacting with students, and teaching. Lately though, as I’ve been heavy on grant-writing and less-so on manuscript drafting/editing, I feel like I have been getting dumber. I’ll try to solve a problem or direct a student’s research and I feel I’m missing the ball sometimes. This might also be just a motivation thing. I am feeling more tired and moody (the moods swing both ways lately). I’m considering supplements for the first time in my life, which myself and SO are reading up on like crazy.
Now that the big NIH deadlines recently passed I can get back to just pure science so I’m hoping my brain perks up. Grant writing is nice because it allows me to focus my thoughts into a cohesive research directive that will inevitably change, but it’s not as problem-solve-ey as I prefer. This ‘getting dumber’ feeling is translating into my personal life where I’m lacking motivation and missing things that I feel my smarter brain would have picked up. I wonder if this is also because I have too many balls in the air right now, and neurons are being pre-allocated?
academic infiltration 