
Our job as scientists is to find the truth. But we must also be storytellers - laurex
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/20/our-job-as-scientists-is-to-find-the-truth-but-we-must-also-be-storytellers
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dekhn
The first time I was going to present my work in my graduate group, I asked a
senior postdoc for advice. I showed him my slides and he said, "But what's
your story?" I didn't understand, so he clarified: "you're not going in there
to present a bunch of raw data. You're going in a with a story- a narrative-
about how the world works, and show some data that supports that narrative.
It's your job to make up that story- you can crib from others if you want- and
it's your job to tell the story so other people believe you. A successful
scientist is one where many people believe their story is true."

After I got over the initial shock I realized this is how nearly all
successful scientists work. One of the best things about science is that it's
a collection of stories, which happen to be the ones we've not been able to
show are untrue yet. Nothing is absolute truth (well, unless you're a
superintelligent perfect brain), but some stories are less untrue than others.

