Authorship

Once in a while, you’ll hear the phrase “self-authorship.” It conjures up the image of a novelist, cloistered away in their study, hunched over a keyboard, tapping out a stream of thoughts and images from their singular imagination until it fills the previously empty page. It’s a compelling vision, but a misleading one.

I believe in storytelling as much as anyone. Telling stories is how we make sense of the world. But extracting meaning from life is not the same as actually living, and the lives we live are the product of much more than our untethered imaginations.

In the world of science, the author of any article or paper needs much more than imagination. Whatever creative leaps they attempt are launched from a platform of investigation and hard-earned knowledge. And although there may be the lead author, there are usually other authors as well, without whom the paper could not have been written.

So go ahead, be the author of your life, but do it as a scientist, not a novelist. Investigate, observe, question and learn. And above all, collaborate. Don’t try to create your life out of pure imagination and individual will. Build it on the discoveries of those who have come before you, and on the support of those who surround you.