What’s the real goal?

Reevaluate: is the thing you are aiming for the process or the goal?

As I wrote to a mentee, which was as much a reminder to myself: a conference abstract is a tool for thinking, a mechanism for giving ourselves deadlines, a chance to force ourselves to get input from the team. Whatever you submit will be good enough as a step towards those broader and more important goals. This is especially true with qualitative work where the analysis and writing evolve together.

The interim real goal is getting a paper under review.

The big real goal is making a positive impact on the world.