Conclusion: Nothing Satisfies Like Meaningful Work

Abstract

Thomas Edison once said, “I’ve never worked a day in my life. It was all fun.” Personally, I think he was lying (either to himself or to the reporter who jotted down the comment or both). No matter how much you love what you do, work is not endless fun. And in any career there are sure to be hours or days or weeks or months or even years of drudgery that can at best be considered merely “acceptable” as you seek out your initial funding, work through difficult experiments with conflicting results, have what you consider a great and important paper being rejected repeatedly, and work in deteriorating conditions because of a change in leadership in your department.