Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing.

The line wryly reframes “research” not as a tidy, linear procedure but as the disciplined activity that begins precisely when certainty ends. It acknowledges that genuine inquiry often starts from confusion, failed expectations, or missing theory—moments when one must probe, test, and iterate rather than execute a known plan. Read this way, the quote deflates the prestige of expertise by admitting that even accomplished practitioners spend much of their time in ambiguity. It also implicitly distinguishes research from routine work: when outcomes are predictable, one is applying established knowledge; when they are not, one is generating it.