A thoughtful visit

As it was Monday, I only had half a day at school.  The morning I did spend on campus was primarily spent visiting with an academic from Switzerland.  This was a great opportunity to meet with an experienced researcher from one of the fields relevant to my work.  However, I realised during the meeting that while I have an idea of what I am doing, I know so little about the bigger picture.  In my case, my research is strongly interdisciplinary, which means there is lot of background literature.  I struggle to know how much of an "expert" I need to be in the various fields that compose my research and after days like today, I feel like a fool when it's obvious how little I do know.