training researchers

I didn't have a good intuitive understanding of the social landscape of being a researcher (and joining a research community). When other more senior researchers come to your school and offer to meet, what is the point of those meetings? Why should you take them and what should you try to get out of them?

• Why should you go to conferences? What should you do there?
• I'm not sure I have the heart to write a page like this, because I'm not sure any of the advice would have made a difference to me. The page would say things like 'ask them about their research', 'ask them what they think of your research ideas', 'ask them what they think is exciting in a particular area of the field', etc. Essentially, you can use a visiting researcher as a second (or third, fourth, fifth, etc) advisor to get independent feedback and inspiration.
  • But so what? I already had lots of profs at Berkeley I wasn't comfortable talking to. I didn't have a research identity, there was no particular area that I cared about. I had a vague feeling that the field of AI had been subdivided too far and that most of them were working on the wrong problems.
  • I could work in the environment of a college or a formal advising relationship, where it was understood that I'd already 'earned' the time of the professor I was talking to. But I wasn't comfortable presenting myself to someone whose time I hadn't already 'earned', because I didn't know how to earn it. I didn't think that I could authentically express interest in or competence at the stuff they cared about.
    • It must be an incredible privilege to just know that you deserve everyone's time, and to feel comfortable asking them basic questions. It has to start as unearned confidence. But this kind of confidence is also necessary for success in most fields including research.