Sharks Don't Sink: Adventures of a Rogue Shark Scientist

by Jasmin Graham

A rule that applies only to some isn’t a rule; it’s a manipulation tool.

If you start making rules about people who aren’t sitting at the table, those people will always get the short end of the stick.

When you have a homogeneous group of people (in this case, scientists) addressing problems or questions and experimenting with answers and solutions, your chances of someone having the right combination of knowledge, skills, and background increase as your workforce diversity increases.

This makes me think of that one example where people wondered how women in previous civilizations got their hair into big intricate styles and it took a woman to tell all the male historians "they sewed their hair". Or how male historians will ponder an artifacts use, and female historian will quickly identify it as a crochet or knitting tool.

It means we can feel empathy and recognize that people, regardless of their background, deserve to live and experience the things that interest them, not simply just survive.

The science community often tries to get people to leave the rest of who they are at the door, but we should be encouraging them to bring it all with them, because that diversity of experiences they have lived is valuable.

A lot of people have negative feelings about the idea of quitting: they believe you should never give up, even if you want to. But I truly feel like the world would be a much better place if more people simply quit what did not serve them, leaving space for what did matter, even if it looked less prestigious or impressive to others.