We are soon starting our master thesis, which means independent research (scary!). I think this TED Talk by Uri Alon in 2013 provides a wonderful piece of advice that I would like to share:
“In order to discover something truly new, at least one of your basic assumptions has to change, and that means that in science, we do something quite heroic. Every day, we try to bring ourselves to the boundary between the known and the unknown and face the cloud.” (…) “Research in psychology shows that if you’re feeling fear and despair, your mind narrows down to very safe and conservative ways of thinking. If you’d like to explore the risky paths needed to get out of the cloud, you need other emotions — solidarity, support, hope — that come with your connection from somebody else, so like in improvisation theater, in science, it’s best to walk into the unknown together.”