I spend a lot of my time on the phone, pestering people. 'What's new in your lab? Can I come visit your lab? When can I come visit your lab?' I'm basically a professional pesterer.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The office is the laboratory and meeting your users is like going into the field. You can't just stay in the lab. And it's not just asking users what they want, it's about seeing what they're doing.
I missed the basic curiosity of being in the lab.
For the most part, if somebody approaches me and says, 'I'd like to interview you,' who am I to say no, when I spend all my days going, 'Hello, you don't know me. I'd like to ask you some questions. Do you have a little time?'
All of my books tend to be about things going on in labs that you wouldn't really expect.
I have a Lab, it's fun to hang out and hike with the dog, people come up to him, and pet him, it's fun.
I get into lab early and leave a bit early, too. So I like to have an hour or two before everybody comes in.
I have fallen in love with people in the lab, and people in the lab have fallen in love with me, and it's very disruptive to the science because it's terribly important that, in a lab, people are on a level playing field.
Show me a friend in need and I'll show you a pest.
Constantly probe the people who report to you, and encourage them to probe you.
When I go in, I find that it is not a lab but an office. There are a pile of letters to answer, phone numbers to call up, people waiting to have an interview, routine work that must be done.