Nice reminder of some general principles. I wonder how well it applies to young scientists given today's academic career prospects, though.
> If you want to make progress in any area, you need to be willing to give up your best ideas from time to time. [...] Medawar notes that he twice spent two whole years trying to corroborate groundless hypotheses.
Unfortunately, being willing to scrap your idea is only one part of the equation. Securing funding after 2 "failed" post-docs is an entirely different matter.
> If you want to make progress in any area, you need to be willing to give up your best ideas from time to time. [...] Medawar notes that he twice spent two whole years trying to corroborate groundless hypotheses.
Unfortunately, being willing to scrap your idea is only one part of the equation. Securing funding after 2 "failed" post-docs is an entirely different matter.