Todays lesson is a harsh one. Less haste = more speed.
Time and the again I find myself with a significant set back in running simulations due to some stupid, pathetic, rage-inducing idiotic mistake that if I had just taken an extra second to think about things and run through the logical steps of the programme, I could have very easily avoided it!
You would think, after 4 years of doing this that I would have learnt my lesson. But no. Here I am, with less than a month to go and I have just found another completely moronic mistake in model settings that means my lovely model output is now all wrong and has to be re-done. Whats worse is that to was actually *TWO* mistakes, leading to more food in the landscape and more individuals being introduced into the model so that I had a lovely stable long-term population.
I fixed the errors and my population now dies by year 30. This itself is fine, as it actually what I would have expected in the region I'm modelling, but what it does mean is that I now have to re-do the focus of my last chapter, re-think the order of experimental steps, re-think the implications for real-world conservation and what this means for interpretation and future recommendations for conservation management. *aarrgghh*
Some days I wonder how I've managed to survive into my thirties. I think I might just walk around with a giant DUNCE written on my head and be done with it.
Not a good day when I have 4 weeks and counting to hand in the final thesis!
Breathe. Think. Take a second. Fix the error. Check. Check. Double check. Look at the fix. Check it again. Breathe. Look at Facebook. Look at Twitter. Check. Check. .... Run....
(fingers crossed......)
