Scientists enjoy a special place in society, I think that sometimes television pushes an unquestionable persona for scientists.  The truth is scientists are just like everyone else in society.  They struggle with the same issues, the same frustrations, they have the same political leanings and conflicts. So this “know everything” persona I think is a well constructed fantasy.

A good scientist is a professional learner.  Science is a learning technique, not a group of unquestionable elites or opinionated professors. A good scientist is a benevolent pursuer of knowledge who learns, teaches and then creates useful things and understanding with his/her knowledge.

Non-scientists can learn to use the tool of science to gain understanding and to even create new things by understanding the following four secret tips.  I call these secret only because you wont learn most of  these by listening to societal ideals of the scientist and if you’re not a practitioner of science you may not think of these.

1. Respectfully question everything, we are becoming too trusting in this society, especially of government and of scientists.  It is ok to challenge people when they try to persuade you to something.   Even the most intelligent people in the world do not know far more than they do know and they often make bad assumptions.  Start to challenge people, start to look for assumptions and respectfully call people out on them.  Start to challenge what is taught, this is healthy if its done not a in a rebellious defiant way but in a curious learning way. If a person can not explain something then chances are they don’t really understand it.
2. Begin to research, other people have learned and have documented a great deal of knowledge, choose your topic and start researching, compile a note-book on a topic and start to collect information.
3. Realize that anyone can learn by experimenting:  Experimentation is a powerful process of learning new things, we don’t always need to be taught new things by other people.  We can press into the unknown and create our own knowledge. Identify a problem that you or others are facing, develop several hypothesis as to what is causing the problem or issue and what might solve it, then determine to test the hypothesis and try to prove or disprove them.
4. Start Your Experiments and Pay Attention: After you start experimenting pay close attention, there is much to be learned by observation. Enjoy the process of learning and don’t get too uptight about it.

Why Would You Want to Do this:

Simply put; a lot of the information out there to solve our problems or to understand reality is just not reliable.

For example, a great deal of the medical community in the US is based on medical science alone.  There are other health care sciences that may be a much better solution to your medical problem. However for financial and often political reasons most of the time only medicine (chemicals) are pushed as the solution which often only mask symptoms.

Another example, a child may be struggling with learning, the public school may or not be able to help this child, what often happens is the parent just trustingly listens to the counsel of a misguided administrator, takes the child to a doctor who diagnoses a syndrome then medicates.  When all the child really needed was special attention from a parent or loving teacher.

I could give dozens of other examples that drive me nuts however my main point is don’t just accept what is fed to you as your solution, become a learner, if at all possible experiment for yourself, research for yourself, you might find that you can solve your problems in a better way by just thinking like a scientist rather than like a trusting child. Of course I am not suggesting you experiment with medicine, I am suggesting however that we take it upon ourselves to understand and sometimes experiment as a means of learning.

Remember to teach as you go to help others benefit from your knowledge.

How do you think like a scientist? leave comment below

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