The Color of the Grass

Of all the things to think I suddenly was reminded that this platform existed. I had last thought about this over four years ago when I had taken my first industry job. And now I think of it again as I had moved to another company within the industry to pursue a new opportunity.

It's always interesting to change jobs and leave the first company you work for after leaving school. Each company approaches the same problem with different approaches, and it's always an adjustment to how another company operates. But there is always a motivation to make the move, and it's not until after we've crossed to the other side we learn whether our intuition and analysis was how we imagined it.

I've been with my current company for about 6 months now and am finally getting a hang of how the business is executed and the expectations of scientists. Even though the industry aims to deliver medicines to patients, there's always a balance of operation excellence (speed to patient) versus scientific excellence (best science at first filing), and my former company are leaders in the former and my current company are leaders in the latter. This leads to different questions needing to be answered, with my questions changing from those such as "what questions about this molecule need to be answered to enable clinical trials?" to "what levers can we pull in cell culture to create the best possible process?" I think deciding which is the better approach is more a matter of personal preference and there is a fairly narrow range in balancing the two to be able to successfully deliver medicines to patients, and learnings can be taken to improve how other companies in the industry operate.

For me this is an important opportunity to learn more about the nuances of cell culture and become a contributor to our knowledge of cell culture. At the same time there are a number of operational inefficiencies where I believe there can be significant gains in efficiency. However the balance is to not stifle scientific innovation in the name of speed at all costs. What I can say if that I've learned significantly more about the ins and outs of cell culture in the short time I've been at this company and there have been many opportunities to explore exciting side projects beyond delivering the pipeline.

So what does this hold? The view might be more short-sighted since this is mostly only a plan for the next few years. The grass is greener-for now-since the scientific aspects of cell culture was an important driver, in addition to a few other factors. I don't have delusions of this being a long-term move, partially because the locale is not ideal. So maybe the grass isn't greener everywhere; maybe I need to keep the neighbor's dog from peeing on my lawn both figuratively and literally.

Transitions

After four months the main difference between grad school and a real job is actually getting paid a livable wage. However in biotech there are still opportunities to work nonstop...

On Research Presentations

Recently I've been giving a number of research presentations again, and I've been noticing a particular trend. When I'm practicing or preparing a talk, I've noticed that I'll pause pretty often and think about how to improve a talk. While this is normally good for me, it does make it difficult to practice timing. So what ends up happening is that the first time I end up seeing how long the presentation lasts is when I've presenting it to an audience. At least when I'm actually presenting the talk I can give it without stopping or having any unnatural pauses.

Every Once In A While Cricket Produces A Gem

The US Open is Still Unwatchable

So this year I once again made the annual Labor Day weekend trip to New York to eat food and watch tennis, though as the years have gone on it's become more food-focused and much less tennis-focused. This has primarily been to the American fan base that shows up to the US Open.

I understand that the home crowd will support the home player, but the behavior of American fans borders on rudeness, especially in the sport of tennis. Fans will applaud when the opposing player faults on the first serve, and will continue to call out during the service motion or unnecessarily during the point. This year was the first time I went to Louis Armstrong Stadium as opposed to Arthur Ashe Stadium, and the atmosphere was significantly better. All those loud casual "I want to do the prestigious stadium and only see the top players" fans will go to Ashe and as a result, fans who follow the game more closely will end up all over the complex instead of just one stadium. Even when John Isner was playing at Armstrong, the crowd was much more respectful for his opponent, Milos Raonic. As a side note, Armstrong also has much better air circulation than Ashe, as anyone who watched matches on Ashe saw players dripping sweat (Coric, anyone?).

Otherwise when I'm watching on TV or streaming it, the US Open is the only grand slam I watch on mute all the time.

Slow Dinner

So recently I went to Germany and Austria, and one thing that struck me was the overall slow pace of the meal. While I realize that's generally a European thing, especially compared to the faster pace of American dining, it's something I really payed attention to since I was traveling and dining alone.

It may also be a function of eating at a lot of beer gardens and related establishments with extensive outdoor seating. Oftentimes you seat yourself and a waiter will eventually notice you and ask if you want a beer. When you're ready for the menu (or another beer), you eventually wave the waiter over and then order a while later at your convenience. After the dishes have been cleared I was never asked for the check, and I was generally let be to nurse my drink and look around. Eventually whenever I felt like leaving I'd go settle the bill and leave. I personally enjoyed this style of dining, when everything happened whenever I wanted to and the establishment didn't dictate the pace. Of course there were always Americans complaining about how slow the service is, since they wouldn't take the initiative to have their meal at their desired pace.

What I also enjoyed was that at these places there would be many large tables, so oftentimes you'd be sitting near other people and it's a great way to chat with the locals. Usually it would involve all of us laughing at me for being an idiot in some way or another, but always in good fun.

The Big Game

For the most part I generally don't make plans for big sporting events-no viewing parties, bars, etc. Usually I'll watch games by myself at home or the office, mostly because other people are annoying and I don't really do large groups. Every year during the Super Bowl I try to go skiing since there are fewer people on the mountain (yesterday on the other hand...). Going to work during home football games requires some planning to avoid crowds and traffic.

Occasionally I'll end up somewhere by chance during big games and it is curious to gauge how people react to them. Several times big games have been broadcasted on flights I've been on, most notably the Alabama vs. Clemson national championship game in 2017. During big moments of the game you could hear some cheering (or unhappy reactions) throughout the plane. During this year's Super Bowl I was at the gym, and there was absolutely no audible reaction to anything. The only sounds that could be heard were standard gym sounds-no cheering, and not even a gasp.

Browsing Homes

Recently when I get bored or want a distraction during the day, I've been browsing through the local house listings. Given that we've been seeing a large influx of people and with a lot of money coming into the area some of the listings are pretty impressive. Naturally all of that is currently a dream, but browsing through all the listings has reinforced certain preferences in living quarters. As an example I strongly prefer below-counter sinks versus countertop sinks and rainfall showers that aren't directly above the drain. I've come to realize a whole host of preferences I have for every aspect of a home, including materials and layout. Unfortunately this kind of comes with my picky nature. Naturally inspired by architectural design, I went ahead and started playing Prison Architect, because I'm a terrible person.

That C-Pop Kick

So somewhat recently I've been on a bit of a mandopop/C-pop kick (though I did post a track a couple of years ago). For the longest time I didn't listen to Chinese music, especially while growing up (though to be fair I didn't listen to much of anything growing up outside of classical music).

Towards the end of undergrad and the beginning of grad school I started to travel a bit more and thus had the unfortunate circumstance of passing time by watching movies on airplanes. After exhausting the classics (because honestly nothing new from Hollywood is really that great), I ended up turning to Chinese movies (though to be fair they're not much better). The soundtracks of the movies were pretty catchy (much more than the movies themselves), and I was able to find the tracks pretty easily. Eventually I ended up finding (now defunct) 1g1g, which functions as a Chinese version of Pandora and the rest kind of went from there. I'd stumble upon new artists and playlists, and now my phone is starting to fill up with Chinese music. Oops...

Some of what I'm currently listening to:

The US Open Is Almost Unwatchable

As we wind down the final Grand Slam event of the year, I'm almost glad as it means that the upcoming events will be away from US soil. The watchability of the US Open is below that of other majors despite it being in a more accessible time zone. Naturally, the thing that gets in the way the most of the US Open is the fans.

American sports fans are a different breed of sports fan compared to other sports fans. It starts with the sports we watch the most, where being noisy and boisterous are not only commonplace, but encouraged. We don't take kindly to taking orders (yay the American spirit?), and value loyalty to our team above all else, including etiquette. And this lack of etiquette makes Americans poor spectators of sports where fans are expected to be respectful and, at times, quiet.

This is painfully obvious within the US Open itself. During matches featuring an American player, fans will loudly cheer when the opponent faults on the first serve. This is very rude and disrupts the flow of the game with the chair umpire constantly telling the audience to be quiet (for example S. Querry vs. M. Zverev or S. Querry vs K. Anderson). On the other hand, when there is no American on the court there is very little noise between the first and second serve (P. Kvitova vs. C. Murugurza the match before) and what cheers are made are often shushed by the crowd. (for example when Federer is playing). It's also pretty obvious at other slams, where this behavior is minimized when the hometown favorite is playing (like Murray at Wimbledon). While I still go every year, I always hope to avoid seeing American players in my session in the hopes of having somewhat watchable tennis.

I never really understood this blinding sense of loyalty in sport. A lot of it seems to be related to a lowest common denominator, where it's just easy to follow along. For example, chanting "USA" at the US Open is just beyond petty. Or maybe it's just time for me to get a lawn so that I can yell at everyone about staying off of it.