I have considered writing a book on how my interests evolved over the decades, with the aim of motivating other scientists to do the same and to try to distill and present some of the critical ideas that I think I learned during my path to today. Not many people want to read the blow-by-blow history of someone else. Everyone has a potentially interesting story to tell – if they present it in an interesting manner. Mine may be no more interesting than the career path of most other scientists. Except that very few write their path for others to read.

Although I have been considering such a book for many years, my reading of E.O.Wilson’s short book titled “Letters to a young scientist”, where he lamented that few scientists write about their career path to help others.