see also [ communication is processing ] Developing an idea with someone else applies regularization to the idea. It guarantees that the…
Thoughts drawn from my experience doing a CS PhD at a top-4 school around 2010-2016. They may be somewhat applicable to PhDs in other areas…
Pretend that some other group has published the paper you're imagining: are you excited to read it? Write down ten ideas and ask a mentor to…
People on Reddit worry that there are hundreds of new ML papers every day---how could you possibly keep up? How can you filter the firehose…
For me, imposter syndrome felt like knowing that there was something deeply wrong with me, something I was missing or didn't get, that would…
There's a tendency to focus on things that we have the (conceptual/mathematical/societal) tools to understand, even when we know this is…
People who do research have a very ground-level, zoomed-in view of their field. They know where the current obstacles are, how incredibly…
(see also: [ impact ]) I've been feeling depressed partly because the actual PhD research I did was (in my view) pointless, and more broadly…
In order for a group of people, like an academic field, or a political elite, to meaningfully converse about a complex topic, they have to…
Pointed out in this tweet: https://twitter.com/AmandaAskell/status/1311776280128479238 but also in many other places over the years…
I didn't have a good intuitive understanding of the social landscape of being a researcher (and joining a [ research community ]). When…