Your Own Personal Lab

Everyone needs a way to work through their ideas. You think about something, like a new direction to your career, and you try to think through the ramifications of what that means. Maybe you decide you want to learn more about fly fishing, so you start practicing, studying, learning.

You need a lab.

Laboratories are for Experiments

Working in a lab means having the opportunity to try variations, test out theories, work on things you’re learning. It’s an open environment, where people try not to be judgmental, and where the end result of failed experiments is still knowledge.

A Good Lab is Safe

Laboratories can’t be a place where you’re ridiculed. Instead, nurturing mentors should work with you on your projects. Lab staff are there to monitor your work, and make sure you don’t set yourself on fire via the bunsen burners, etc.

Turn Experiments into Repeatable Processes

If you can’t reproduce your experiment, it’s not scientifically valid. It might be of note, but it needs to be something you can do more than once. A good lab will test that out.

Labs have Measurements

Ah yes, the instrumentation of a lab is vital to measuring your progress, generating benchmarks, determining key indicators, and allowing for more objective observation.

What would your own personal lab look like? I’m building mine right now.

More about that after PodCamp.