PhD candidates explain the most thought-provoking proposition in their thesis. This time it’s Wouter Mol, who received his PhD on 27 September. His study was about the variations of sunlight under broken clouds.
‘During my PhD, I attended a stress session organized by our graduate school, where the group concluded that striving for perfection is harmful and causes stress. The advice was clear: don’t be a perfectionist. I disagreed with this view at the time, but I couldn’t tell why.
I think the process of striving for perfection is essential in science. It pushes you to be creative and lead to more meaningful work. Taking the time to make small improvements – whether it is tweaking a paragraph or refining a figure – not only makes your work clearer, but it can also inspire others. Sometimes a small improvement in quality can have a big impact.
However, I also believe that you cannot be a perfectionist all the time. My perfectionism shines in the aspects of my work that I enjoy the most. For example, I take great care to ensure that my datasets are well-organized and clearly described for others to use, and I enjoy spending good time on making clear, illustrative visuals. But when it comes to writing paragraphs, I often struggle and tend to stop short, and I am fine with that.
Striving for perfectionism is essential to the creative process, but focusing on perfection alone will exhaust you and limit progress. It’s important to find a balance – to know when to push for the best and when to step back and take a break.’
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