1/ So, so many emotions this morning. Relief & anger amongst them: just imagine if that crowd storming the Capitol was Black.

Never thought I’d be grateful for @VP Mike Pence - but I am. He gave one of the finest speeches of any politician last night.

I’ve put together my list of top 10 tips for early career researchers and I’m going to share it here as promised. But first a disclaimer...I don’t know everything. This list is based on my experience in academia. I would love for others to add and augment. With that in mind....🧵

1: Decide what you want your LIFE to be. This career could consume you completely if you let it, but it won’t always love you. Focus on the other things in your life that bring you joy and fulfillment and cultivate those just as much as you cultivate your research career.

2: Decide what you want your CAREER to be. What are your values? What are you in this for? There will be hard times. But knowing your values and what success means to you can help guide you through them.

3: Decide whose opinions really matter to you. Mastery requires feedback and you will get a lot of it, some useful some less so. Identify the small circle of people you can really trust to give it to you straight. This includes forming a no committee.

4: People are people are people. Don’t be afraid to email someone about a postdoc or job or grant idea. We’ve all been there. Some people are not generous people. This is good information to have. Move on to other colleagues and mentors if you encounter these people.

Rules of Happiness

💖 Have friends around you
🌳 Have freedom
🎨 Do meaningful work
💳 Spend $ on experiences, not things
🤝 Help others with what you're good at
👇 Lower your expectations
💪 Exercise + eat healthy
🤔 Reflect on thoughts

via

(A THREAD)

18 Things I Would Do At 18:

I was a dumb 18-year-old. I thought I had the world figured out. I didn't.

I stayed up till the wee hours. Drank every liquor invented.

Partied non-stop. Woke up after noon.

Surfed the web aimlessly.

Read BS self-help.

Repeat.

If I could do it all over again, here's 18 things I would do...

PHASE ONE: GET MY MIND RIGHT

ACTION #1: Break the chains - I wish I made the decision earlier. I didn't. I was scared. Anxious. Nervous. I knew once I made the decision, there was no going back.

Don't be like me.

Make the decision at 18. The decision to pave your own path in life. To go against the herd. To choose your own adventure. To commit to whatever sets your heart on fire.

ACTION #2: Cut off every negative person in your life.

Scroll through the contacts in your phone...

Notice how the names make you feel.

Delete any and all names that fill you with doubt and negativity.

ACTION #3: Condition your mind to embrace the producer mindset instead of the consumer mindset.

Consume 20% of the time. Produce 80% of the time.

Case closed.

ACTION #4: Set an intention to make $10k a month and write it out every MORNING and NIGHT as if you already achieved it (in the past tense).

Visualize yourself already having the money as you write.

Cheesy?

Yes.

Does it work?

Yes.

PHASE TWO: EDUCATION

Soon to be mother, Mrs. Gemma Edwards was never a believer of miracles until it was time for her to deliver...

Gemma and her husband Craig Edwards had already chosen a name for their unborn child, they named her "SKYE"and she was truly a miracle from the sky...

#OdogwuTales

She was already booked to deliver her baby Skye via Ceasarian Section because she had an extra bone in her pelvis making her birth canal questionable

It was 4days before her due date but she just felt the urge to go to the hospital and she went...she was rushed in for surgery...

Baby "Skye" was delivered and she just cried a little and stopped and that's when the doctors knew all was not well...

Baby Skye had rashes and bruises all over her body, she also had severe heart, blood and lung problems...

Her internal orgrans were practically shutting down!

Doctors told the Mr & Mrs Edwards that if she had spent another 3hours at home, Baby Skye would have died in her womb that her coming in early gives her a chance at survival...

Doctors worked hard to save Baby Skye but no one could figure out what was wrong, after a few hours...

All hope was lost for Baby Skye and the doctors called the hospital chaplain to say prayers, Craig and Gemma were told to take pictures before it was too late

Family members flocked to the hospital to say "Goodbye" to the little girl that had just arrived..BUT GOD WAS NOT DONE!

Multiple friends have been reaching out lately, asking some version of "how did people get radicalized to such an extent?" and, more importantly, "why not us? why was I immune." As someone who's extremism in person, pretty much my whole life, here are some thoughts:

These are EXACTLY the questions we should all be asking ourselves right now. Studies have shown that no 'type' of person is immune to radicalization or falling prey to cults or cult-think. There's no such thing as being "too smart" for that.

So, for starters, many of us were just in the right place and the right time, and didn't get radicalized. That is an important realization. It's important because as we begin to try to de-radicalize our friends, family and "good people" who fell prey to white supremacist thought

We need to start with compassion, or they will just shut down. Understanding deeply that it can happen to anyone is a big part of that. Now let's talk those who were primed for it, more likely to fall into conspiracy thinking and the Q cult.

In this case, those white people who see the movement towards equality for everyone as white people losing (which is true in a way, we have to give back much of the privilege we obtained from those who took it by force or manipulation) were much more susceptible to the rhetoric.