Fine line between "figuring it out on my own" and "asking for help" in research labs?

Question

For some background: I'm very new to graduate school, in fact I just started unofficially doing research a few months ago, my official PhD program starts in the Fall (I moved out there early). Currently, I'm at a big R01 institution, coming from a pretty low ranking obscure undergraduate school, and there is an intimidation factor when I'm surrounded by accomplished postdocs (they pushed out more papers than my professors with tenure in my undergraduate). It's slightly amplified when I consider that, so far, I effectively only have a Bachelor's degree.

Anyway, I was given some code to modify for a specific device. I'm not really pestered or swarmed for deadlines, and I'm trying to figure it out. I honestly think there is an error in the syntax that prevents me from being able to carry out a colleague's request. I have prior coding experience. I'm a traditional "I want the challenge of figuring it out so I can develop and learn" kind of guy, but where do you draw the line between the latter mentality and requesting help? I don't want to come off as stupid or needy, and I want my lab to be able to depend on me. So far I have been pretty reliable (and that's saying a lot considering I'm a big critic of myself), and I don't want to kill the momentum.

Answer 1

Can you ask your colleague (or whoever wrote the code) a quick question to ascertain whether it's a simple error in the code, or some more complex hurdle that you need to work around?

Don't be afraid to ask for help! You'll be a lot more productive if you ask for help when you really are stuck, rather than waiting too long.

A more experienced mind can usually tell quite quickly whether it's an easy or difficult problem to solve. There's no use banging your head against a brick wall for days if your supervisor has a sledgehammer hidden in his cupboard!

Answer 2

This is purely opinion, but in the lab setting I see delivery as more important than determination. Put another way, your colleagues will respect you if you consistently deliver your project components effectively, and on-time.

As a postdoc and PI I would vastly prefer a student asking questions when stuck, rather than having them spin their gears. And keep context in mind - if you really are troubleshooting a syntax error, no one wants you spending days on this. Situation might be different if you were radically improving the efficiency of an algorithm, etc.

I don't think there is a fine line between asking questions and asking too many questions. The students who can't hack it in the lab are pretty obvious - so if you find yourself consistently flummoxed there might be a question of fit. That said, it doesn't sound like the case here.

Answer 3

You are a RESOURCE in your group, and you need to be managed appropriately. Let's say you can do this request, but it will take you three days full time to do it. If you ask for the help of somebody who is experienced with the system, maybe it will take you one day, and it might take two hours of that person's time to help you. There are also the issues of who is waiting for the job to be done, and what is being held up because it's not done yet, and if there are any important deadlines looming.

These are questions only your group manager can really answer, but we can offer some tips.

Personally, I'd recommend putting a bit of time into defining where you're stuck as accurately as you can, and drafting a short memo describing the problem, just to help you wrap your brain around it a bit differently. After staring at that doc for an hour or so, if you're still drawing blanks, I'd send that description to the boss man, asking him who the best person to approach for help would be, and if its OK to do so.

This way you show that you've given it a thorough try, that you're trying not to waste your own time, and that you don't want to waste anyone else's time on it either.