Why I free up time to give lectures (and about ChatGPT)

This week a colleague whom I highly respect asked me if I was already so busy (regularly close to overworked), why did I give talks and often free up my time for that. A valid question. The Drew-reaction here is to say "it is part of scientific communication and dissemination". But does that hold when writing deliverables (also communication and dissemination) should take priority?

So, here's my Gun-reaction. I think there are two aspects I take into account on top of the "this is what scholars do" and "I learned it like this": the need for debate, the need for human collaboration. Arguably, these are the same thing, but intuitively I think the first is actually more about deepening our understanding, while the second is more about gratification. Interestingly, the first is more about Gun while the second is more about Drew. The second is why so many people like ChatGPT, the immediate gratification: it fills our immediate needs for facts. ChatGPT is however Drew, not Gun: it associates and does not reason.

So, how about the debate. Reading science books, watching Veritasium, these are communication and an attempt at dissemination. But without the sparring, without the debate. And we know from theory that importance of saying out loud what you think you know. Think Feynmann's claims about teaching.

Interestingly, this is why I enjoy data curation: it requires me to teach others what I think I know. Annoyingly, it also makes me very aware of the tiniest mistakes people make. This has helped me (somewhat) as editor, but at the same time found this very tiresome and frequently depressing.

That brings me back to the giving of lectures and presentations. If I do my job well, I will get questions. I will be challenged and demands me to activate my knowledge. This, of course, is the scientific debate. This is why there is so much to say for open peer review of journal articles. It does wonders with peer reviewing open source (we have been employing peer review in the Chemistry Development Kit for almost two decades now).

A lecture, a talk, it is for me an essential part of ensuring the quality of my research. Explaining to others what I know is part of my research. Absolutely worth making time for.