Starting a career in research is one of the most uncertain professional ambition in modern societies. Besides the technical obstacles of becoming a world-class expert in a speci c topic (you have to!), it presents a diversity of daunting psychosocial di culties that might be conducive to harmful consequences. The talk is informal in nature and tries to re ect the speakers experience (as a computer scientist) at the beginning of his career and later as the mentor of students and postdocs. Besides expected de nitions about what research is or should be, it tries to discuss how students often tend to adopt the irrational idea of having perfect reasoning. It also will consider empiricism, as a democratic tool for entering research, and the language as a barrier for those who do not speak English as a rst language. The nal remark will be about silence as a bene cial or pathological aspect of both researchers and mentors.