A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.
Rules
This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.
My PI: "Oh, we don't use that microcentrifuge, it will ruin your results" Me: "Oh damn, how long has it been broken for?" PI: "No, it's not broken. It's cursed "
I thought this was just exasperated hyperbole, but nah, there's a lot of superstition here.
I work at an MSP and we all have little shrines of random shit on our desks that we've collected. The one guy has a mini filing cabinet under his desk of tech shit that's nearly as old as I am (I'm 27).
If we are ever told that we can't have our shrines, we'll all be devastated.
In the corner of our office we have an old Win2k workstation. It is our pinball machine and the glue that holds our department together
That's hilarious. We had a desk dedicated to Datto devices. It was the Datto Desk. We were really upset when it had to be cleared for a new employee. Now we have another desk dedicated to empty phone boxes and tissues.
We are moving to a new building next year, so I'm sure we'll come up with all new stuff to enshrine.
Science is about empiricism, so i would expect scientists to try out the occult from time to time.
Pascal's wager with respect to machinery, maybe the toys don't help, but what if they do?
My occult phase was from a different angle: I really enjoyed immersing myself in something I didn't have to explain or justify objectively, where I could just enjoy the vibes and not think too hard.
I think of it as analogous to how some of the people who are most into being submissive in a BDSM/sex context are people who seem the opposite of that in their careers/regular life. The contrast is a relief.
Knowing what works is more important than knowing why that works.
Either that or the lab equipment is infused with the souls of children.
Orpheus: "It's powered by a forsaken child?"
Dr. Venture: "I didn't use the whole thing!"
So scientists are warhammer orcs?
More like the Mechanicus. The machine spirit will be displeased if we dont give it the required stuffed animals and proper awakening rites.
Well now I gotta build a shrine in my lab. The COF tester, GC, and our UPC tester are all behaving badly.
01010100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01001111 01101101 01101110 01101001 01110011 01110011 01101001 01100001 01101000 00100000 01100100 01100101 01110011 01101001 01110010 01100101 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101111 01100001 01110011 01110100 01100101 01110010 01110011 00100001
WTB 1 toaster.
You need to treat them nicely and maybe show a bit of romance. Poems, flowers, even a printed picture of flowers, something nice that will last is all it takes and your instruments will work perfectly for you. Each person may need to contribute individually to the shrine.
I swear, some damned tech came in on a PM and removed my poem from my favorite HPLC and now it's been acting up for me nonstop.