I wanted answers to questions that were important in my life.
So when I was in high school I first got very sick with a
disease called lupus. And I wanted to understand how people
cope with that. So when I was in college I had the opportunity to
do an honors thesis, a research project, that would be original
research, develop new knowledge. And so I chose to study how kids
with a chronic disease like lupus, and their families cope,
and what leads to successful outcomes.
Take it a day at a time. Because if I looked out, you know, and
here I sit. I am a tenured Harvard professor. And I'm
promoted to the highest level, you know, as an academic. And if
I had, way back years before, said, you know, well, that's my
goal, you know. And I would have just sort of packed it in right
away and said, forget it, you know. It's like too much. And,
but instead taking it a day at a time, following my passion, has
been so important. And when there are bad days, like a
grand proposal doesn't get funded, you know, I
think of that as, that's, you know, that's today.
This doesn't mean I'm not going to, you know, have a career, that
sort of thing. And when I've had serious health setbacks, many
of which I've had, you know, my initial temptation is sometimes
to think, that's it. It's over, you know. I better give up. And
instead I take it a day at a time.
I wanted to see what would happen if my older sister rode
her tricycle down the stairs. And would she, because these
stairs were so big, hit the second step- it was just the
front steps to our house- and then start to fly. Of course as
soon as she went flat down on her face, we realized,
oh yeah, that's, we should have realized that would
happen. But we somehow thought that the force would lead in,
lead to take flight.
Getting at the truth is my favorite thing. And you know,
there's so much misinformation out there, and intuition. And I,
I am thrilled to discover what's really true of human nature.
You have to be curious. And the curiosity needs to be a passion.
Because it's such a long process, you know, when you
come up with an idea versus when you actually get a result. And
so if you're not curious, you'll, you know, if you want
answers quickly or that sort of thing, then it won't be fun. So
I would say that really wondering about the world in a
serious way is critical.
I taught classes for directors from various United Nations
organizations and- about how they can improve organizational
performance by understanding more about how emotion and
decision making play out in the brain. And that is again one of
those experiences where they say, I wish I'd known that
sooner. And you know, they can really make key changes.
Well, I have many academic heroes. And one of the most
influential would be Herb Simon, the Nobel Laureate who passed
away a few years ago. He was a man ahead of his time. And I
think he's been the most influential on me because he had
no reverence for academic disciplines. He really felt
like, if we want to get at the truth, if we want to get at the
answers, we have to bring all different fields together and,
and you know, look at this like a prism. And, and just try to
get it right, rather than try to advance a particular
field. And so I like that approach to science.
I am an interdisciplinary scientist, and that can be
dangerous, because you can end up knowing a little bit, but not
enough, about many things. But Herb Simon managed to know a lot
about many things.
I know nothing about therapy. I'm not a clinical psychologist,
and I don't work based on feeling or intuition. I work
based on scientific methods. In the popular sort of portrayal of
psychologists, we're therapists. But in fact there is this whole
other part of psychology where you get totally different
training, you get trained as a scientist. And, and our goal is
to understand how the mind works, using data
and scientific methods.
My computer.
I have to confess that what I listen to is NPR, yeah. And then
whatever my daughter and husband want to hear.