research

What is research taste?

A particularly important and fuzzy type of skill is called research taste. I basically think of this as the bundle of intuitions you get with enough research experience that let you do things like come up with good ideas, predict if an idea is promising, have conviction in good research directions, etc. Check out my post on... See more

Besides textbooks, I recommend reading PhD theses of researchers whose work interests you. PhD theses in ML usually are ordered as follows: (1) introductory and background material, (2) several papers that were previously published at conferences (it’s said that you just have to “staple together” your papers to write your thesis), and (3) a... See more

Richard Hamming describes setting aside time each week for “Great Thoughts”, time in which he would focus on and discuss with others only things that he believed were of the highest importance

institutions have long memories, so changes that you make in your environment will stick around for a long time. This means that once something is working well, chances are it’ll continue to work well without much help from you – and you can move on to improve some other aspect of your environment. Furthermore, each positive change you make... See more

I believe that you can stay quite current by (a) quickly skimming a great deal of work, to keep track of what is known, and what sort of problems people are thinking about, and (b) based on that skimming, picking a dozen or so papers each year to read deeply, in the belief that they contain the most important research results of the year.

In targeting areas of development, an important goal to keep in mind is that you want to develop unique combinations of abilities. You need to develop unique combinations of talents which give you a comparative advantage over other people. Do what you can do better than anybody ; to mangle a quote from Lincoln, nobody can be better than everybody... See more

I believe all researchers should publish at least a few papers each year, essentially as an obligation to the research and wider community; they should make some contribution, even if only a small one, on a relatively unimportant topic.

When a researcher stays out late, sleeps in, and gets a late start, no-one minds; when a professional athlete does, they’re likely to receive a blast from their coach.

Access to a social environment which encourages and supports the development of research skills and research excellence can make an enormous difference to all aspect of one’s... See more

In the context of research, this means constantly reminding yourself that you are the person ultimately responsible for your research effectiveness. Not the institution you find yourself in. Not your colleagues, or supervisor. Not the society you are living in. All these things influence your research career, and may be either a help or a hindrance... See more