A Taxonomist's Notebook

entoderek:

In the same vein re: The Brain Scoop changes and change in general, I can never return to the magic of first learning about millipedes, when I knew nothing. Everything was new and exciting and not boring, whereas now I know much more and I’m not surprised as often (but I still do get surprised).

It’s easier to get bored by finding a big species I’ve already seen a lot, and if I’m hiking with someone who’s never seen it, they’ll be excited, but for me I want to put it back and keep going.

But the reason for that is because I know there’s another species that’s completely unknown or rare just around the bend in a ravine, because I’ve done lots of research to figure it out and already know about the other described species. But when we find that one, then I can get excited again.

And it’s a different feeling of excited. Not the giddy “what the fuck is this thing” but a content “so here it is, at last.” In some ways, it’s less fun, but it’s leaps and bounds more gratifying to be able to use what I know to better science’s knowledge about millipedes in general.

I think that’s more worthwhile, and better for more people than just myself in the long run.