Stephen came. CL and Dave are both with Lee Dong Yup so he talked to me. About uni, phd, science, research..

What he said..
Have fun during undergrad. Have loads of fun, have sex, take drugs, but do reasonably well in school. Figure out which field am I interested in and passionate about, preferably in a field that's marketable, not like the digestion system of toads or sth like that.

Always keep in mind that there are much more brilliant pple than me around. People who send spaceships to Mars, Nobel laureates.. They will be competing with me. It sucks to be 2nd in science, like you discovered something after someone discovered it 2 min ago. It's only fun when you're the first, like Watson and Crick with the structure of DNA. (But this is not what the IMCB guy said, he said that you can always make modifications to the discovery and make it better)

So always be proactive. I'll be competing with the guy who loves puffer fishes since young and has won a Nobel prize for his work on puffer fishes. I'll be competing with those pple whose grandmothers died of cancer and are motivated and passionate to find cures for cancer.

This is interesting. Work takes up 1/3 of a person's day. Work 8h, sleep 8h, do rubbish the other 8h. So I'm deciding what I'm doing with 1/3 of my working life now. I'd better choose something that I'll enjoy doing.

Other stuff: Choose the right supervisor. A brilliant guy who doesn't guide much or a not-so-brilliant guy who guides every step? Research is not that hard if you have some common sense and don't get distracted by all the politics and competition. (is it?)

And most impt of all, if I don't like it, quit early.