• _NoName_@lemmy.mlEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      It’s just an absurd premise.

      Researchers are specialists in their fields and have carved out an academic niche. They study a single thing for years at a time before publishing a paper, and the process of studying anything is brutally methodical and likely quite often boring until you maybe discover something. It’s then boring again as you write your paper on your work, regardless of whether it discovered something or not.

      All of a sudden, your co-researcher just turns to you and goes “Fuck it. Let’s research something else tonight. Something fun as a treat”.

      • flora_explora@beehaw.orgEnglish
        2·
        2 months ago

        I don’t know any scientists that aren’t very passionate of their own research though. That’s making this even more absurd and nonsensical…

      • flora_explora@beehaw.orgEnglish
        6·
        2 months ago

        I’m serious, I really don’t get what this is about. That the research they’ve been doing isn’t fun? But why would this one scientist say this? Doesn’t make much sense and I clearly don’t get the joke. Maybe someone can explain?

        • sundray@lemmus.orgOPEnglish
          7·
          2 months ago

          It’s a joke about the difference between doing something for work, versus doing very nearly that same thing for fun. For example: there are many mechanics who work on cars all day, but spend their time off working on their own project cars for fun. Myself, I work in IT all day, and the go home and mess around with my home server for fun. Here you have two researchers who spend all day researching, and then are presumably going home and researching for fun, which is a silly extension to this concept.

          • flora_explora@beehaw.orgEnglish
            2·
            2 months ago

            Oh OK. Apparently I completely misread the expressions. I read the expression of the person on the right as surprise and dread. Like the person on the left said they want to do something more fun and the person on the right now remembered something not so fun or was offended by what the other person said…

            Thanks for explaining anyways!

          • flora_explora@beehaw.orgEnglish
            1·
            2 months ago

            The person on the right looks dreadful at the thought of sex then?

            And well, PhD students are in the lab at night working overtime and doing their research lol