I’ve been thinking a lot lately about experimentation, mostly as it relates to financial independence (FI). So many of those who have reached FI in the past have stated, after the fact, that they weren’t necessarily happier after attaining this milestone. They spent so much time getting to FI that they didn’t think about life after FI. One of the big reasons I decided to take a slow path to FI, in addition to wanting to enjoy more of life along the way, is to take time to figure out what I want to do after I reach FI. This is where the power of experimentation comes in.
Google’s dictionary (provided by Oxford Languages) defines experimentation as “the action or process of trying out new ideas, methods, or activities.” I love this definition because it highlights what, to me, is the key to experimentation: trying. Trying new things. How do we know if we’re going to like or look good in that dress if we don’t try it on first? I hate spending money on clothes anyway, so I have to really know I’m going to like it! How do we know if we’re going to enjoy doing something (a job, a volunteer activity, a hobby) if we haven’t even tried it?
Really, in a way, we’re all going around experimenting with our lives all day each and every day. But I think that, for most of us, we’re not even aware of it. We’re not intentionally experimenting. We don’t realize the power of experimentation.
I think if we were to pay more attention to it, we could really harness the power of experimentation, especially when it comes to our FIRE (financial independence retire early) journeys.
My history with experimentation
After some reflection, I realized that I have experimented a lot in the past (I mean, I am a neuroscientist after all) without even really knowing its power. Some really important outcomes have come about for me from unknowingly experimenting.
Experimenting in college
When I was in college, one of the careers I was considering was a clinical psychologist. I remember being SO excited when I finally had the prerequisites under my belt to take the clinical psychology class offered at my school. I had heard great things, and that we would actually get a really good feel for what it would be like to practice in that field because of how “hands on” the class was.
I am so glad I decided to take that class because, turns out, I did NOT enjoy it, and I learned quite quickly that I did NOT, in fact, want to be a clinical psychologist. We did a lot of role playing, which was great, but really showed me that I had not given any thought to what it would ACTUALLY be like to be a therapist. Thank you, Clinical Psychology 101, for unknowingly providing me with a valuable experiment to steer me away from a potential career path that would not have been a good fit.
But another college experiment did steer me toward a career path instead of away. I decided to stay on campus the summer after my sophomore year and work in the lab of one of my neuroscience professors. Turns out, I LOVED the work she was doing. I loved the routine work of laboratory science, the (somewhat) predictability of it. And, honestly, I loved those rats (yes, I worked with lab rats). By the time I reached my senior year, I knew what I wanted to pursue next: I wanted to try to be just like that professor. She was awesome (not only because she loved Salt-N-Pepa). She modeled for me what it would be like to be a professor at a small, liberal arts college, where research was more about teaching than securing funding and getting big fancy grants. At the time, I wanted that. That experiment led me on my next path, to graduate school to get my PhD in Neuroscience.
Experimenting in graduate school
In graduate school, it was a forced experiment that changed my trajectory.
When one is looking at graduate programs to get a PhD in Neuroscience, at least in the states, you typically have an idea of what lab you want to work in. In fact, many of the schools I applied to were because there was a particular lab, a particular researcher, I wanted to study under. Part of the process of picking out a graduate school is seeing if the lab you want to work in actually has funding to take you on, meaning, they can pay you.
So, when I got into graduate school and arrived on campus, I already knew the researcher I had planned to work with while getting my PhD. I had already met her during interviews, I knew she had the funding to take me on, and she really wanted me to join her lab.
However, the particular school where I got my degree made the students do rotations in 3 different labs in your first year.
I did not like this rule. Why waste my time working in other labs when I could be getting a head start on my graduate research? (I am a recovering go-getter, after all.)
This ended up being a blessing in disguise.
I did my first rotation in a lab I definitely knew I didn’t want to join. This lab did mostly molecular biology work, which I was not all that interested in. Unlike most of my peers, I wanted to get my PhD to be able to teach, not to do lab work all day (I learned quickly that bench science was just not for me). The research I was interested in was behavioral neuroscience (in the most ridiculously simplest form, think watching rats run around a maze).
My second rotation was with the lab I was certain I wanted to join. I LOVED the professor. She was a strong, confident woman and was a pioneer in her field; she was someone I wanted to emulate. The rotation was just what I had hoped. I LOVED the research (doing surgeries on rats and observing the outcomes), and I liked the people who worked in the labs around me and who I’d get to see every day.
But there were other things I learned during the rotation that I didn’t expect and that gave me pause. For one, she didn’t have any lab technicians. There was no one who worked in the lab who would be helping with the day-to-day chores. Along with one other graduate student who was more senior, I would be in charge of EVERYTHING that was needed to run the lab. Second, the other graduate student in the lab was already in her 5th year, and she was nowhere near close to graduating (for those who don’t know, getting a PhD in a science is this weird situation where everyone graduates at different times depending on 1) how your research goes and 2) how quickly you can get things done, among several other factors that would be a whole other blog post in and of itself).
The final big red flag was learning that my advisor went to Emory University every summer, all summer, where she had previously worked and still did research. I had not known this before, and the thought of having basically no mentor all summer really threw me off. I was starting to realize I may not be very well supported if I joined this lab, and it may take me forever to graduate!
I didn’t think too much of it until I was well into my 3rd and final rotation. This was a lab where, going in, I didn’t have much interest in the research. The lab studied inflammation, which didn’t float my boat. However, this lab had some key components that were lacking in the other. For one, there were 3 lab techs at the time. That is 3 more people than the last lab had: to make buffer solutions, to keep the supplies stocked, to help take care of the rats when I was away or sick, the list goes on. There was also a more senior graduate student in the lab who was on track to defend after only 4.5 years. AND I learned that this mentor had a track record for having graduate students who graduated within 5 years…
My gears started turning. I slowly began to realize that picking a lab was not going to be the easy choice I thought it was going to be. It wasn’t until I met with the professor who ran the lab right next door that my decision was solidified. He really helped me see that there was more to picking a lab than love for the research. The lab you picked in graduate school did NOT have to determine your research path going forward. And, especially if I wanted to teach and not be research-driven, I may want to be part of a supportive lab where I could graduate in a timely manner and “go on to the next thing”.
It was an incredibly hard decision, but ultimately I knew what was right for me and what I had to do. The other professor was very disappointed and didn’t take it super well, but we ended up having an amicable relationship, and I don’t at all regret my choice. In true form, I graduated in just under 5 years, and I had a tremendous time in the lab (and I ended up loving my research). It was a win-win situation.
But, it wouldn’t have happened without experimentation.
Experimenting in post-graduate life
After graduate school, I thought I had made it. I had a dream professor job that didn’t turn out to be the dream job after all. I was solidly on the hamster wheel and knew I needed to get off, so I started experimenting with freelancing before I left my stable professor job.
With my background, I was easily able to get academic editing and writing-type jobs, and within about 6 months, I had the 5-6 clients I needed to say “see ya” to my professor job.
But I didn’t stop there with the experimentation. Although I was thrilled that I was able to get 5-6 clients in 6 months, they were all in science writing, and I was noticing that medical writing gigs were much better paid. Medical writing sounded like something I’d be interested in, but without knowing too much about it, I couldn’t be sure. I did a lot of research on medical writing that solidified that 1) yes, it was better paying and 2) I would really like the work. However, I wasn’t getting any bites on medical writing jobs. I knew I just needed to break in to the field somehow.
After more research, I decided to keep experimenting by taking an online course, both to get experience in medical writing and to make sure I really liked the work. It was more expensive than what I wanted to spend, but the selling factor for me was that if you “graduated” top of the class, you would likely get taken on as a freelancer by the course creator, who had her own medical writing business.
It seemed like a no brainer for me given that I had done my research and knew medical writing would be a good fit.
Sure enough, the course solidified all these thoughts, and I was taken on as a freelancer upon graduating. In my first month as a “full-time” medical writer, I more than made my money back from the course.
How I still experiment today on my slow FI journey
Nowadays, I use the power of experimentation all the time and every day to see what makes me happy and sparks joy.
After I left the soul-sucking professor job and ultimately took on a job that paid less but took less effort, I realized that I had all this time. And with this time, I started to discover things about myself that I never knew, or that I had just suppressed with work and the desire to constantly be busy and climb the success ladder.
Discovering all these interests outside of work led me to my current slow FI path. I realized that I didn’t want to get to FI as quickly as possible. I wanted to enjoy the path along the way. I wanted to take the time now to start to explore some of these other passions I was learning I had. I wanted to listen to the creativity whispers.
By tuning in to these whispers and figuring out what sparked joy for me outside of work, I started to build my Financial Freedom List (FFL), a list of things I wanted to do or at least explore as I gained more financial freedom, and thus time.
I’ve worked hard to find a more traditional 9-5-type role, where I can actually work “only” 40 hours a week (for the majority of the time), so that I have more time and space in my day to do things that I love outside of work. This also gives me time to experiment and try out things I think I might like to do more of once I have more time, things that are on my FFL.
I make space to volunteer for causes that I might want to get more involved with once I have more time. Living in Vermont, I very much enjoy nature and the outdoors, and I’ve considered maybe serving on a conservation committee when I retire. For now, I’m volunteering at a visitor center that’s run by the Department of Fish and Wildlife. As a volunteer, I’m always kept up-to-date on wildlife issues going on in our county. And my actual volunteer work fits in to my schedule perfectly. About once a month or so (I can choose how often I work), I do a 4-hour shift in the visitor center where, on a slow day, I get to read and/or work on this blog (win). On a busier day, I get to talk to visitors and see how much they enjoy the beauty of the visitor center (also win). Yep, it’s a win-win volunteer situation for me, and I love doing it.
If you’ve been keeping up with the blog, you also know I loved theater as a kid, and so one of the things on my FFL list is performing in plays and/or musicals when I retire. This experience feels like it’d be way too much to take on while I’m still working, but I’m considering signing up for a choral group that is planning to meet 1 hour per week, on Wednesday evenings (well before my bedtime) from October to December, and is only 15 minutes from my house. This is a way I can experiment, with something relatively low commitment compared to being in a play or musical and that fits with my current schedule, to see how this type of activity feels.
One more example, and then I’ll leave it there for today. Another item on my FFL is to be a death doula. This is something I have been fascinated with for some time now. Obviously, this is a huge commitment (it would be taking on a new job), so what is the first thing I plan to do to experiment when I downshift, likely to part-time work? I plan to be a hospice volunteer as a way to experiment with whether I like the work enough to want to go through the training involved to become a death doula.
What do you think? Have I convinced you about the power of experimentation? Maybe you didn’t need convincing in the first place! If so, thank you for reading anyway. What has been your biggest or most impactful experiment, and what was the outcome? I’d love to hear from you!