Who bitches more: men or women?

You know, at first I was stunned by avianflu's comment that I complain too much and that women tend to do that.

Really?

First off, I have to say I haven't written because I got some awesome, kick-ass data last week.

So who has time for blogging? Data = much better than blogger. Sorry, but it's true. As I've said before, this blog tends to be more of an outlet for bad things than a place to extoll the wonders of the universe.

Can't be everything to everybody.

And my anger is getting nicely polished, I actually really needed to see that paper last week because it triggered a really useful survival response. Some smart person commented on here a while back that I should think of the most mediocre scientist I know, and say, if they can get a job, so can I! Well that is always a good sentiment to come back to. What makes me mad is that I ever let myself get so beaten down as to think I didn't deserve one. But it's really hard not to slide into that kind of thinking with some of the nasty things people post on here. I figure it's just a tiny representation of what people in general are actually like... let's hope your numbers are tiny.

Second, I can't honestly say that I agree that women complain more. I think women complain differently, and usually require less alcohol to do so.

The men in my lab complain- in their native languages, over lunch, or at the bar. The women complain while we're still working. One will say "Oh, and this was so annoying" as she's pipetting, cheerily going about her experiments despite the irritation. It's like we just have to vent. But I guess lots of other people have said that women like to vent, and men like advice.

I think the scientific culture has contaminated me that way. I like advice, provided that it's something more constructive than the "quit bitching and get back to work"- although sometimes that's actually constructive in its own way.

I made the mistake of trying to 'help' this girl who was complaining to me last week about her lab. Finally she said she just wanted to vent and really didn't want any advice on it. Next time I guess I'll just tell her to quit bitching since if she hates her lab so much she should leave, since frankly I'm tired of hearing it.

Somehow I think that attitude would be worse for my job prospects than my current one.