Sharks Eat Small Fishes: The Forgotten Triumphs of Science

In the grand ocean of academia, everyone wants to be a shark. A big, bold predator swimming toward the next high-impact publication, the next breakthrough discovery, the next career-defining moment. But in the relentless pursuit of being the shark, we forget the small fishes—the quiet victories, the tiny steps forward, the unnoticed successes that keep science alive.

The modern scientific world thrives on data—endless data, fed into machines, analyzed, rewritten, and polished into something deemed worthy of journals like Cell or Nature, hoping for a change in our future. Every experiment is a stepping stone toward an end goal, and if that goal is not met, the effort is often dismissed as failure. We chase statistical significance to make a splash in our field while ignoring the small ripples we create.

That moment when an experiment finally works after weeks of troubleshooting? Brushed off.
The first time a dataset shows an interesting trend? Not good enough—yet.

We celebrate only the published results, the citations, and the impact factor, rarely pausing to acknowledge the small wins that got us there. Our sprint to publish our results overshadows the tiny blooms along the path. Science is not just about the final product; it is about the process. The eureka moments happen in the quiet, between failures, in the unnoticed sparks of curiosity that keep us going.

But academia, in its current form, conditions us to think otherwise. A paper in a top-tier journal can define a career, open doors, and secure funding. Meanwhile, the daily struggles and triumphs that build toward that success remain invisible. This mindset leaves many researchers feeling unfulfilled, always chasing the next big thing without appreciating the journey.

What if we changed that?

What if we celebrated when someone finally optimized an impossible protocol? What if we recognized the emotional and intellectual investment behind every dataset? What if we, as researchers, took a moment to acknowledge that progress is made up of small, quiet victories—each one as important as the final, published result?

The big fish will always dominate the ocean, but small fish matter too. Without them, the ecosystem collapses. Without our daily perseverance and incremental steps forward, groundbreaking discovery remains out of reach.

So, here’s to the small wins. To the failed experiments that teach us something new! To the moments of curiosity that spark something bigger! To the unseen efforts that build the foundation of great science! If we only value sharks, we forget that the ocean is made of millions of small fish that swim tirelessly, making science happen.

Let’s free ourselves from being mere intellectual machines churning out never-ending data and take a moment to embrace the human side of science. Celebrate the little wonders that data cannot capture!