Page 199 - The Love Hypothesis

“Adam, I’m pretty sure that if we were to ask anyone to describe you

with one word, ‘brutal’ would come up one or ten times.”
She saw him stiffen before she was even done speaking, the line of his
shoulders suddenly tense and rigid, his jaw tight and with a slight twitch to

it. Her first instinct was to apologize, but she was not sure for what. There
was nothing new to what she’d just told him—they’d discussed his blunt,

uncompromising mentoring style before, and he’d always taken it in stride.
Owned it, even. And yet his fists were clenched on the table, and his eyes

were darker than usual.
“I . . . Adam, did I—” she stammered, but he interrupted her before she

could continue.
“Everyone has issues with their advisers,” he said, and there was a
finality to his tone that warned her not to finish her sentence. Not to ask

What happened? Where did you just go?
So she swallowed and nodded. “Dr. Aslan is . . .” She hesitated. His

knuckles were not quite as white anymore, and the tension in his muscles
was slowly dissolving. It was possible that she’d imagined it. Yes, she must

have. “She’s great. But sometimes I feel like she doesn’t really understand
that I need more . . .” Guidance. Support. Some practical advice, instead of

blind encouragement. “I’m not even sure what I need, myself. I think that
might be part of the problem—I’m not very good at communicating it.”
He nodded and appeared to choose his words carefully. “It’s hard,

mentoring. No one teaches you how to do it. We’re trained to become
scientists, but as professors, we’re also in charge of making sure that

students learn to produce rigorous science. I hold my grads accountable,
and I set high standards for them. They’re scared of me, and that’s fine. The

stakes are high, and if being scared means that they’re taking their training
seriously, then I’m okay with it.”

She tilted her head. “What do you mean?”
“My job is to make sure that my adult graduate students don’t become
mediocre scientists. That means I’m the one who’s tasked with demanding

that they rerun their experiments or adjust their hypotheses. It comes with
the territory.”