vegreville

This site looks worthwhile

2006-04-16T21:14:00.000-04:00

simplicity

A blog about simplicity. Found through presentation zen

when I was in graduate school, I always wanted my work to be simple. And I sure try to teach students that my field is simple, but not easy.

Technorati Tags: academics, research

Moving

2006-04-03T21:30:00.000-04:00

This will be my last post at vegreville.blogspot.com. I have decided to move my posting to http://vegreville.wordpress.com Please visit me there. The wordpress software is easier to use, the site looks nicer, and I can even use tags for my posts to keep myself organized.

I have now been doing this for about 3 months. It has been very helpful to have some place to record my random thoughts about being an academic. I am kind of surprised how useful it has been. Sometimes just writing things down can get me going on other writing.

Now, back to my evening refereeing.

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I don't like this idea

2006-03-31T23:23:00.000-05:00

It seems that it is going to be more expensive for foreign students to go to university in the US: http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/001319.php

<snip>

A communication from Senator Feinstein's office about this provision reads:

The immigration bill creates a new student visa category for foreign students who will pursue an education here in science, engineering, mathematics, and technology -- fields in great need of graduates in this country.

Senator Feinstein's amendment doubles the application fee from $1,000 to $2,000 and the additional money will be pumped into scholarships and job training for Americans; as well as to combat fraud in the student visa program.

I don't like this plan. Why make it harder for talented foreign students to enter the US? What is the empirical evidence-how many stay and contribute to the US economy? .

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Testing

2006-03-30T22:20:00.000-05:00

I downloaded a new blog editor: Quman, and am going to see how well it works.

The first real day of spring here; a glorious day. The students were content, they laughed at my jokes in class, and they seem to be understanding the material. What more can I ask for?

I even enjoying reading working papers today, and I am learning a new technique that may be useful in future research.

I have the urge to purchase some new office supplies or a new office gadget. But soon. Real soon.

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Clarification

2006-03-28T17:37:00.000-05:00

I wrote about being first or second: here.

I should clarify what I meant. When you are in a race, its better to be first (ie, I bet that the first person who walked on the moon got most of the glory, etc.). But I meant that sometimes one paper has an idea and it does not catch on. The second paper that has that idea might use it in a slightly different way, but it's the second paper that seems to get the cites. Sometimes the papers are years apart.

There is an obvious statistical problem with this---I remember such cases because the second paper shows up in print in a good journal, meaning that the work passed some sort of hurdle. Many other 'second papers' probably never make it to a top journal anyway.

I am still puzzled, though.

Is it better to be first or second

2006-03-27T09:30:00.000-05:00

with the new idea, model, or technique? I used to think first, but now I am convinced that second might be best. Consider the first MP3 players (Rio?, IRiver?) vs. Apple. I also see it in academic research. Some literatures in my field began with one paper, but it is the second paper that gets the cites--formally in writing and informally in seminars, discussions, and so on. Why does it work that way? There surely are some interesting statistical issues to be dealt with in thinking about the issue.

Of course

2006-03-26T23:08:00.000-05:00

I paid for the big beer and airport food today. *ouch*

It's always funny when I talk to my relatives who don't travel for work, since business travel seems so glamorous to them. I simply have no credibility when I tell them that the hotel in X is pretty much like the hotel in Y, and that most of the time, all I see is the room, the conference room, the hotel bar, and bad late night TV. And why the heck do I always stay up late? I never, ever learn.

Random memories and thoughts

2006-03-25T21:16:00.000-05:00

*the faint smell of vomit coming from the airplane seat and/or air blowers.
*the very noisy kids running around airports (although mainly cute).
*the deer in the headlights look everyone had when the gate agents could not tell us what was going on.
*relearning that good idea + good technical execution does not mean a good paper, unless the author can explain it clearly. And realizing that some people will never figure that out, but instead spend time complaining about how unfair it all is, because d*mn it, they have good ideas. Why can't the d*mn referees understand them?
*realizing how interested I am in research, still.
*How much noise there is in academics.
*How much of it all is about getting into the right club, so that people will take you seriously. But I notice that most people do find a club---if they have good ideas+good execution+good explanations. Or at least at a similar level to the other people in their club. There are lots of clubs too.
*How much people use appearance to judge. And some people are as sholes about it, too.
*How much interesting research is being done, but also how much is uninteresting to me. But the joy of it all is that many people have different tastes than me.
*Why do I only eat crap food at airports. And enjoy it.

Skype

2006-03-24T20:57:00.000-05:00

How I love thee. You make travel much more pleasant and calling home so much cheaper. I am going to get a bluetooth headset soon. Then I can move around the hotel room while I talk.

I think I will tell this to the PhD students I deal with:

2006-03-24T19:13:00.000-05:00

from signal vs. noise: Dissatisfaction / Please yourself:

I believe that stuff should be easier than it is, and it pisses me off that most people are so content with the state of the art, because it means they're not helping make it better. -Steve Yegge

In order to create living structure, we must please ourselves
-Christopher Alexander, The Nature of Order, Book 4

There is a nice graphic in the original post, too. In the end, research should be about doing something you are happy with. My easiest to publish papers often ended up being the ones I liked best anyway. And not because they moved through the process easily, but instead because they had more creativity and thought in them. They are the ones I can still go back and reread, too.

More travel

2006-03-23T23:46:00.000-05:00

I had a long delayed flight, and so got to observe people in the airport. Most people are just tense, but this time I saw something new for me. While waiting, a businessman type goes to the counter and asks to be put on standby for our flight. By the time we leave, we were only about 15 minutes away from his original flight time. He still got on. After checking with the counter at least once every 5 minutes.

The flight attendant was like the high school teacher from hell---bossy and pretty exasperated with us all. We heard the no cell phone announcement at least 5 or 6 times, each time angrier sounding.

I happened to be sitting beside the business man. He was playing some sort of game on his fancy blackberry phone. He listened to each announcement, and then went back to playing the cell game. While we were taxiing up to the runway. The flight attendant finally came by and told him to turn the phone off. He actually said 'Yes.' But moved the phone to his belt clip so fast that she did not see that it was off. She asked. It was still on.

As soon as she left. back to the game.

When we got close to the ground, he turned the cell back on and started playing. Again 5 or 6 angry sounding no cell announcements.

I am not a stickler for rules, but I was getting a bit agitated about all this. If there is a safety concern, I don't really want to get into an accident because some guy loves his cell phone Breakout.

On the other I hand, my wife showed me an article that airlines are starting to sell airtime for cell phones on the flights; perhaps the safety issue is a myth.

What is it about the airport

2006-03-23T14:36:00.000-05:00

that brings out the worst in people. I was unpacking my laptop to enter into the security line at the airport today and a distinguished looking older gentleman just barged in front of my, slowly my progress. It was annoying, sure. But my anger level rose way too high---I was chanting 'as shole, as shole, etc' under my breath. No I am away from the situation, I cannot quite figure out why I was so damn upset.

One of the hardest things I have in teaching

2006-03-22T22:21:00.000-05:00

is grading. Not deciding on the quality of the work. Nor even assigning a grade to the work. But rather, dealing with students who just don't understand the material, past a certain level. I see a lot of heterogeneity in ability to learn what I teach. A lot is background. A lot is desire. But some is native ability in the topic. I just cannot seem to push all the students past a certain level. Some, even most, yes. But not all. And it bothers me--I could do better reaching those students. What to do? How can I improve?

Am I

2006-03-21T21:50:00.000-05:00

the only person who does 'just in time' course preparation? When it works, it's like a well-oiled machine. When it doesn't, I am in panic mode. Each year, I promise to myself that I will do more stuff in the off-peak times. But when the time comes, I work on other stuff, instead. You would think I'd learn. But no. Not me. I must like this. I damn myself to hell each year.

Perhaps we should follow this advice recruiting next year...

2006-03-20T20:21:00.000-05:00

Plus we have a seminar, too. But I wonder if trying this might be a good idea, with modifications for the academic environment...

From Guy Kawasaki The Art of Recruiting, Part II:

I received an email from Craig James that contained superb insights into the art of recruiting. With Craig's permission, I provide it below. As the chief technology officer of eMolecules, Craig is responsible for the design and development of the www.chmoogle.com chemistry search engine. Craig worked with chemistry, chemists and chemical databases his entire career, including management of a low-cost (<$50K) mass spectrometer project while at HP Scientific Instruments (now Agilent) and as director of core engineering for Accelrys. He can be reached at cjames@moonviewscientific.com.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I had the pleasure of being on the recruiting team at Hewlett Packard that had the highest success rate in the company, measured by the retention rate and the eventual performance of the people we hired. Our team leader taught me something that you don't mention at all in your chapter on recruiting.

Interviewing is a highly-specialized skill, and some people are MUCH better at it than others. Identify the good interviewers, the ones who seem to have a second sense, and intuition, about others. Make a team of these people, and have them do ALL of your interviewing.

In your book, you discuss what you're trying to learn, but not HOW to go about learning it. That's the real art of recruiting. We treated the interview like any other project. There was a team leader, and each person specialized in a particular task. Every interview followed the same “project plan.”

1. Host. This person's job is to greet the candidate, welcome them, give a tour of the facility (if appropriate), explain the interview process and the other people the candidate will be meeting, and answer initial questions. 20-30 minutes.

2. Technical #1. This person's job is to grill, HARD, on technical topics. This is the toughest interview of the day, and is designed to find out if the candidate is technically competent. Problems, often real-life that the team is currently facing, are presented and the interviewee must show competence in answering. The candidate must answer basic questions about his field, for example an electrical engineer must be able to solve circuit problems, find flaws in a circuit diagram, etc. This interview usually leaves the candidate rather rattled. 1 hour.

3. Project Manager. The hiring manager gives a non-technical interview, but with focus on the specific job: Does the candidate seem suited? Is the candidate interested? The candidate can ask questions about the project, etc. 45 minutes to 1 hour.

4. Lunch. Project manager, plus one project team member. Informal, chit-chat, ask about candidate's background, school, etc.

5. Human Resources. HR presents company benefits, etc., asks for references, answers candidates questions about the company, and so on. 30 minutes.

6. Technical Interview #2. Like Technical #1, but usually less intense. Delve more into candidate's specific accomplishments, ask about candidate's best achievements and most dismal failures. Ask the candidate to describe one project in detail, and “deep dive” into the candidate's explanation. This puts the candidate on his own territory, where he should shine. 1 hour.

7. Host (reprise). Follow up questions, explain what's next, thank the candidate. 15-20 minutes.

We also arranged interviews so that for one job opening, all candidates would be interviewed in as short a time span as possible (usually in a single week). That gave us a good comparison of each candidate to the others, and also allowed us to give the candidates our final decision in a short time.

At the end of the interview day, there was a required team meeting. The leader would go around one time, each team member would give his/her findings and opinion. Then a discussion. It was remarkable how a concensus would almost always emerge -- I can't remember a time when it wasn't obvious whether to offer the job or not. Almost universally, if one interviewer said “no”, that was it.

It's critical that you keep the same members on your interview team. They get better and better at it, they get to know each other, and their shared experience gives them perspective, a set of common reference points for discussions. If one of your team isn't good at it, get rid of him and find someone else that has the intuition needed to be on your team. And just because you're the boss doesn't mean YOU should be on the interview team!

A curious thing about our interviews: We were VERY hard on the candidates (particularly the Tech interviews), but instead of resenting it, the candidates uniformly were impressed and wanted to work for us. They knew that if they joined, they'd be joining a top-notch R&D group.

I have been a candidate on interviews where it seemed like my interviewers didn't even know each other, their questions overlapped, they missed entire areas of stuff they should have asked me and so on. I turned down their offers.

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This is an example of a blog post so that I can remember something. In this case, recruiting strategies. I don't have much intelligent to add to the article.

Jargon

2006-03-19T21:54:00.000-05:00

Academic Coach writes about jargonized writing.

Simpler is better. But jargon---if used correctly---simplifies the writing. In my field, certain phrases and words have specific technical meanings, so that using them saves the writer from having to re-explain some idea or computation that everyone you are writing for already knows. I would even argue that the scope of the jargon defines the audience.

That being said, a lot of writers use jargon not to simplify, but instead use fancy words to make an idea seem more sophisticated. It may also indicate that I am not in the target audience for the writing. In that case, I will just ignore the writing and the ideas contained in it. That's the cost of the jargon; since the article should be meant to persuade someone, the jargon has reduced the size of the audience.

Perhaps the test might be: explain it in five sentences for your grandmother. If jargon shortens it and simplifies the writing and a first or second year PhD student can follow what you write, then use the jargon. If such a student doesn't get what you are saying, cut the jargon.

Thinking about it that way, being penalized for doing popular writing perhaps indicates something about the technical level of the material---and that is what tenure committees and outside letter writers are worried about. Popularizing an existing idea is not generating new knowledge. But I thought scholarship was generating new knowledge. Explaining existing knowledge is a valuable activity, but that is different than research.

*Last paragraph my be full of cr*p---I am not sure here.*

(Also written so I could try to do a trackback.)

random gibberish today

2006-03-18T12:50:00.000-05:00

A problem I have with blackboard/online grade entering systems is that the students see the grades before they get the exam back--leading to extra emails.
I read about the 'grandmother died' excuses on inside higher ed. I have had my share; I do wonder if journal editors get similar excuses for late reports?
My personal learning style is different than about 90% of the students. If I try to teach the way I would like to be taught, problems ensue.
The less complicated things are, the more students seem to learn in class. But if I make things seem too simple, the students don't work by themselves, and then don't learn the material deeply.
Over and out. Too nice a day to be online.
Addendum: forgot to add. I had to get files from an old XP computer yesterday, and I had lost my password (stupid, I know.) Googling 'lost XP password' let me change the password in about an hour. I have no technology skills to speak of. But now, I know how easy XP is to crack (I already knew it about some Linux distributions.) An eye-opener.

Starting a new research project

2006-03-16T22:23:00.000-05:00

is like starting a new relationship. For me, I start questioning if I should pursue this. Once I have decided to do it, the idea is the greatest thing in the world. For a few days, I am walking on clouds. Then, the first fight---the first place you make a tough decision on the paper. And then the project meets your friends and family; you give a seminar on it. Finally, the submission to a conference, and even the referee report. Good news: marriage. Bad news may lead to a divorce, eventually.

(badly strained metaphor today.)

One of the fun parts of writing papers

2006-03-15T21:17:00.000-05:00

is working with co-authors.

Sometimes, you just need to start the project

2006-03-14T10:56:00.000-05:00

Starting a paper is like taking a jump into the unknown. Sometimes you just need to get going. Perhaps that tells me that I am a bad planner. But for me, it's the discovery part that's fun about research-and why I like the research part of my job.

via www.swissmiss.typepad.com: entrepreneurial proverbs:

Momentum builds on itself -- just start. Do whatever you can. Draw a user interface. Write a spec. Make something, anything, that people can see and touch and try. A prototype is worth ten thousand words. One you start moving, you will find that people start to carry you along.

Entrepreneurial Proverbs, by Marc Hedlund.

Very inspiring!

(via aspiramedia)

What kind of student was I?

2006-03-13T17:20:00.000-05:00

I took the idea from Playing school, irreverently (link to come)

Preschool
I cannot remember much, except being uncoordinated with scissors. And messy with writing.

Elementary school
Good at math, messy, and often bored. A voracious reader.

Middle school
Lazy, bored, and with terrible social skills. I was the go-to guy if you wanted to tease somebody, as a result, I looked at the floor at lot. Great at math, and still reading like a madman. I would read anything, anytime.

High School
My first experience with a large school--I kept to myself. By this time, I had realized that the actual learning was easy, and I was bored academically. I still did well at math, but got interested in history, and some social sciences. I went to a free high-school, and was easily intimidated by all the other 'smart' and loud students. I probably talked seriously to anyone else less then about 20 times in high school. I spend a large part of my freshman year at the public library reading novels--skipping school to do so.

College
For the first time, the material was difficult, and I did not adjust well the first few years. I loosened up socially, but still tended to look at the floor a lot. I choose a major based on 'getting a job,' not on intellectual interest. In my senior year, I took courses in what I was interested in and suddenly school 'clicked.' I carried around a hard-sided brief case--I can only imagine how nerdy I looked.

Grad School
At first, I was completely intimidated by all the other students. But I outworked them, and found out how much enjoy the ideas in my field. Most of what I was learning seemed to be intuitive and fascinating; I found 'flow.' I also met other people with similar intellectual histories, and it was exhilarating. For me, grad school was a lot of fun, even when I was broke. It was the first time that I really felt like a star student. Now I realize that I should have spent less time on the fun stuff and more time on learning how to write. But gosh it was fun to learn, and everything fit together so nicely.

Grading exams

2006-03-12T13:48:00.000-05:00

I have forgotten how informative, exhilarating, boring, frustrating, and depressing grading can be. The temptation to write snarky comments is overwhelming once you have been grading for 6 hours straight. But then I take a deep breath and remember what it was like taking exams when I was a student. I put the snarky pen down.

Reputation

2006-03-11T08:19:00.000-05:00

When I first started out, I would present very early---even incomplete---papers in seminars. Now I think that for me, doing so is a mistake. Presenting the paper too early is helpful for the work. But even though academics is a small field, people still only observe your work a few times. So early observations are quite informative. And what do people infer from seeing not quite complete papers at a workshop? How permanent is the effect on your reputation?

It is part of me understanding yet again that IQ is necessary for success, but not enough. You need all the details to be good, too.

found this on digg

2006-03-09T21:02:00.000-05:00

I guess I should not be surprised that there is software to help you ferret out cheaters. The article amazes me. The italics are mine.

The ChronicleHerald.ca:
HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA | Thursday March 9, 2006

Mount Saint Vincent University has turned off Turnitin.com.

<snip>

"It’s an absolute win for us, and I’m thrilled that our senate is willing to recognize the issues that students have raised," student union president Chantal Brushett, one of four student members of the university’s senate, said Tuesday in an interview.

<snip>

Turnitin.com is an Internet-based subscription service that professors and others use to root out whether students’ papers contain material copped from other sources without giving proper credit. It maintains a database of millions of essays and compares submitted papers not only against those but also against websites and other published works.

It’s recognized as a leader in helping keep students, academics, and sometimes journalists, honest.

But many student groups believe that using a service like Turnitin is too punitive and automatically presumes guilt. Studies have shown that about 15 per cent of university students cheat regularly.

"Everyone has the right to learn in an environment that is free of guilt presumption and fear, and Turnitin.com does exactly what it shouldn’t be doing in a higher educational environment," Ms. Brushett said. "It creates a culture of fear, it creates a culture of guilt and to me, that hinders some people from pursuing higher education and doing it with an open mind."

She said the student union was also concerned that the U.S.-based service could be subject to searches under the far-reaching Patriot Act. Students were also worried about intellectual property rights.

Relying on recommendations from a joint faculty-student committee, the Mount voted to ban the service "and any other plagiarism detection software that requires that students’ work become part of an external database where other parties might have access to it."

<snip>

The Dal student union plans to ask administrators to allow students to opt out of the service. President Ezra Edelstein said his members share some of the concerns of Mount students and are also troubled about privacy and copyright issues.

Mr. O’Hara says he understands fears about the U.S. Patriot Act, but the service has a privacy policy. Because it’s a subscription-only service, even subscribers are limited in what they can see, he said.

"The opt-out, that’s just going to feed into people’s hands that . . . have been cheating their way through their education."

But professors also have a responsibility to get to know their students and to do their own homework to suss out the cheaters, Ms. Brushett said.

"We feel that Turnitin.com is a back-end approach. We need to promote academic integrity, we need to teach students what is plagiarism, what you should do, what you shouldn’t do and have more personalized ways of checking for plagiarism.

"I don’t think Turnitin.com is a necessary tool when it comes to teaching students."

( rconrad@herald.ca)

The privacy and intellectual ownership issue is important. I don't, however, follow the argument that using the software assumes guilt. If someone is not plagiarizing, then absent privacy and intellectual ownership issues, why would they care?

I also wonder the effect this might have on the school's reputation. I honestly don't know.

I bet that Ms. Brushett has never taught a class of 120 students who write papers. And 15% of students cheat. Wow. Just wow.

From signal vs. noise (again)

2006-03-09T13:28:00.000-05:00

Art statements, Pitchfork, and fancypants analysis:

A nice piece about over intellectualizing art. Here is my favorite quote in the piece:

<snip>

It reminds me of a quote I once read on a bathroom wall: "Academics take simple ideas and make them complicated. Artists take complicated ideas and make them simple." If you can come up with a truly elucidating explanation of art, then, by all means, go for it. Otherwise, shut up. Actually, that's pretty true for any writing. If you're not making things clearer, stop typing.

I always feel slightly sheepish when a good student finally understands what I teach. They always say: 'This stuff seems so simple.' I think that's because the good ideas simplify complicated things. Not vice versa. Also true for good research; it makes complicated problems simple. And opens the doors to solving new problems.

Good academics simplify. But why do we have such a bad reputation?

Numbers

2006-03-08T22:25:00.000-05:00

As a graduate student and early in my career I was obsessed with the number of publications (A, please). But now I notice that numbers is much less important than quality or impact. Some people write few papers, but each one has big impact. That's what you really need.

Everyone in my field agrees on the top 5% of papers, and probably the bottom 25%. But it's anyone's guess for the rest. So quality is a tricky and often an unmeasurable thing. You can always measure them on being well-written and with good analysis. But hearing the phrase 'that's a good problem' about your paper is a good sign in my field.

I have heard many times: 'X writes too many papers,' usually said of someone with lots of publications in good journals, but no big impact ones. And everyone thinks that they know a good paper when they see one. Funny though that we can disagree about which ones are the good ones.

I'll just keep plugging away.

Faculty meetings

2006-03-07T20:54:00.000-05:00

Unknown Professor writes about faculty meetings, with some good rules:

Financial Rounds: Surviving Faculty Meetings

Here are my favorites:

Rule #1:Thou shalt keep thy mouth shut until tenured.

Rule#5: Do not take sides in contentious disputes. Just. Don't. If you take someone's side they won't remember it ten minutes later, and those on the other side may hold it against you.

I would add one more:

The first few meetings you go to, pay attention to who talks and the reactions that they receive. Watch people's body language as discussions happen. You can learn a lot about people's power by seeing the reactions they get in faculty meetings. Mainly you learn who is taken seriously and who isn't. It is always surprising to me the inverse relationship between talking and being taken seriously. After a few meetings, you might be able to predict what different people will say, and when.

You might want to correlate what was said at the meetings with the actual outcomes, too.

Microsoft word and answer keys.

2006-03-06T20:59:00.000-05:00

I use word to type up answer keys quickly. Every year I swear I will stop. Putting centered equations into the middle of nested numbered lists defeats me year after year. I finally remember how to do it it cleanly, and promptly forget it for 6 months, until I have to do it again. I would not make up new questions each year, but the fraternities/sororities keep all the old ones on file...

Struggle on V. If only I used a secretary to type this stuff. But it seems so wasteful to figure it out, handwrite it, and then get someone else to type it, relative to just typing it up as a I solve it.

Manuscripts as software applications.

2006-03-05T20:42:00.000-05:00

Substitute 'software' with 'paper' and 'user' with 'referee' in the article below.

From signal vs noise: Every time you add something you take something away:

What’s the most ignored paradox in software development? Every time you add something you take something away.

Screen real estate. Interface clarity. Simplified testing. Shorter development time. Certainty. Agility. Managability. Familiarity. Adding anything dilutes everything else. That’s not always a bad thing, just be aware of it. Be aware of the trade-offs.

The dilution effect is why maintaining a clear vision for your product is so important. Without a clear understanding of the limits and boundaries of your product, the product will morph into something you no longer recognize. Or worse, something you can no longer manage or control.

A product people loved can turn into a product people liked. Then the product people liked can turn into the product people can live with. Then the product people can live with can turn into the product people can live without.

Of course the reverse can also happen. A product people can live without can become a product people love, but once you’re at the love stage it can turn around on you just as fast.

This reality reveals itself on release day. The first thing you’ll hear from customers that love your product is how they’d love it even more if it did this or that also. How you handle the “also” is what separates greatness from mediocrity from failure.

vegreville shrugged

2006-03-02T23:04:00.000-05:00

I found this out today (I won't reveal my answers to the quiz, either)

take the WHAT BAD BOOK ARE YOU test.

and go to mewing.net. not as good as reading a good book, but way better than a bad one.

I was always under the impression that Atlas Shrugged was an important book. I haven't read it, but the quiz has made me curious. Perhaps it is my spring break reading.

I am thinking even more about tenure. One pro-tenure argument that I believe is the argument that tenured people are more inclined to be open to new, challenging ideas from new people because tenure reduces the cost of letting the new ideas in.

The flip side is that I wonder how tenure effects the college's ability to retrain faculty in new techniques. In my field, there have been important intellectual revolutions over the last 20-30 years. Some faculty did not necessarily have the technical skills or incentives to learn those techniques. But they were tenured---so some schools fell behind in having people who could teach the new techniques to students, even as the new techniques become important That is a cost of the tenure system, no?

Maybe it is an argument about who should be tenured, too.

My biggest failing

2006-03-01T23:06:00.000-05:00

is over-committing, then failing to do something I promised because I cannot do it all , feeling guilty (as well I should), and then falling deeper into a hole. Say no more often. I cannot repeat that enough to myself. But. I. still. do. it.

UPDATE: after posting this, I found AWOL (from Inside Higher Ed). I will follow the advice.
HT: bitch,phd

All that leads me to thinking about tenure. I read Dean Dad (too tired to link, sorry) argue that we don't need tenure, but instead rolling long term contracts. Seems sensible. I do notice, however, that many academics stay motivated long after they are tenured. In fact, tenure seems irrelevant to many. But not all, and that's the rub.

There are other, perhaps weak levers you can use, like bad teaching loads, lack of raises, not getting your voice heard, etc. Of course all those things isolate further someone who cannot be fired, and I guess worsen things. One answer might be to be even tougher for tenure, with ex-poste reviews with a bite. But that's like rolling long term contracts with a higher entry hurdle.

I am also puzzled about the mismatch between the number of PhDs and where PhDs are needed. The market is saying that we have too many type XXX academics per job and so they are treated badly. Seems like the solution is to reduce the supply. But the supply is partly set by existing academics, who are entrenched. Is that the problem? On the other hand, how many people with PhD's in fields with no jobs are surprised that there are no jobs. And if so, why? Overconfidence bias?

Why after seminar chatter might best be ignored

2006-02-28T20:53:00.000-05:00

I have heard such comments after lots of seminars for good and bad papers. In my field, many seminal pieces of research were rejected time and time again before finally making it into print. Short term impact does not always equal long term impact.

Original iPod announcement thread at MacRumors - Signal vs. Noise (by 37signals):

Original iPod announcement thread at MacRumors Jason 28 Feb 2006

I love this:

I still can’t believe this! All this hype for something so ridiculous! Who cares about an MP3 player? I want something new! I want them to think differently! Why oh why would they do this?! It’s so wrong! It’s so stupid!

gee! an mp3 player with a HD! how original! kinda reminds me of a JUKEBOX i once knew.

I’d call it the Cube 2.0 as it wont sell, and be killed off in a short time…and it’s not really functional.

All that hype for an MP3 player? Break-thru digital device? The Reality Distiortion Field is starting to warp Steve’s mind if he thinks for one second that this thing is gonna take off.

There are already two products similar to this on the market. The Nomad Jukebox and the Archos which can come with a 20 gig HD. The iPod is obviously a lot cooler and has firewire, but it is far from revolutionary. I for one am disappointed and think that apple is making a mistake by trying to get into this market.

Apple should have just listened to their customers and never released the iPod.

A shallow insight

2006-02-28T20:43:00.000-05:00

Even since I have put less on my slides, students pay more attention to me. You would think that would be better. Not always. Now I cannot just bullshit and be sure that they have a good record to use for solving problems. I need to engage them all.

Still need to work on handouts, I guess. Even thought the students have a perfectly good textbook that they don't read.

I still notice lots of great teachers have terrible slides. Maybe slides are not all that important.

Today I gave a lecture to 60 people in class. Three students were passing notes, and I finally had to ask them to stop. It was like a flashback to middle school, where I never got any notes, only watched everyone else pass them. Boo f*ck1ng hoo.

My faith was restored when good students asked quite perceptive questions in class. F*ck1ng A. Teach smart students interesting stuff, and they will get it. Don't baby them.

Impressed

2006-02-27T21:14:00.000-05:00

I am always impressed with how powerful incentives are for most students. And the benefits of being clear about what you expect of them. If you are clear, then most will deliver; or at least do their best given their constraints.

I am also reminded how important it is not to take anything too personally. Students are busy, and will not do something unless they can clearly see the benefits. If they push, I need to push back and be firm.

Of course, most is not the same as all.

Why I like being an academic

2006-02-25T22:11:00.000-05:00

The beginnings of a list:

You can work on intellectually interesting problems.
Almost everyone you work with is smart: other academics and the students.
It's great to see a student suddenly understand something new.
It's great to understand something new myself. Learning is fun, and that is what I mainly do.
Freedom. I set my hours (mainly) and my schedule. The flexibility is great. I can run mid-afternoon if I want.
The pay is good.
My academic work has the potential for a practical payoff--I could have a real impact on the world (not yet, but maybe one day.)
The topics I work on are fascinating to me.
Besides being smart, most other academics I deal with are reasonable people (although most does not equal all.)
In general, it is fun: you can be playful with it.
Most of the other people I deal with are pretty much geeks in the same way that I am. I am not weird, and I couldn't really say that until I entered grad school.

I am sure that I will think of more reasons, too.

Enthusiastic?

2006-02-24T20:58:00.000-05:00

Either I am getting too old, or need a vacation. I am getting annoyed with seminars. I don't think that I ever noticed that before.

And now I am having trouble thinking about the paper before the weekly seminar. It used to be that I was obsessed with reading the paper beforehand and thinking about questions. Now, not so much. Why?

The field still fascinates me, and I like the technical stuff as much as before. But many of the papers don't seem to be teaching me much; nothing new under the sun.

Help! I want my enthusiasm back. Or I need to see some more rigorous papers again. Probably just the winter blahs.

Testing

2006-02-24T10:07:00.000-05:00

I am trying to use a google widget to post this morning. It seems pretty good so far.

I have been thinking about meetings again. There are proposals to replace meetings with electronic communications. That could work, but I think that decision making would change dramatically. I often notice at meetings that there is a wave---someone says something and then everyone starts to pile on. You can often see the current shift visually. It all seems so manipulable.

What's really important in my classes

2006-02-23T08:24:00.000-05:00

is getting good TAs. Ones who the students feel comfortable talking to. Ones who know the material. Ones who do the work on time. Ones who I can trust. Ones who take it seriously. But most importantly, ones with common sense.

It's not always easy to find such TAs, either.

Refereeing

2006-02-22T20:52:00.000-05:00

confused and badly written papers is much less pleasant than refereeing clear and well written papers. But often the confused papers have a gem of an idea hidden in them---you just need to find it. And the well written ones can be vacuous.

There is a theory that says that you should put all your ideas into the paper, hoping that the referee will figure out which one is good and help you figure it out. I never believed that theory, but I realize that I often unwittingly provide supportive evidence in my reports.

My head hurts today.

E-mail

2006-02-21T21:13:00.000-05:00

I read the linked article today from the NY Times: Why it's all about me in amazement. I teach large classes, and encourage questions via email, since it gives me a record of the students' questions and requests for meetings. Handy for revising the notes for the next time I teach. Hardly any of the students abuse my email. Perhaps because I tell them to be sensible, usually through a joke.

Also, complaining that students ask for copies of the teaching notes? Where the hell do the professors mentioned in the articles teach? Making notes available is so common where I work so as to be unremarkable. And you can say no, anyway.

Complaining about grades? Oh my---how could a student ever do that without my email address? It's useful to reply to the email; the student can reread what they wrote when they are calmer. It usually works to clear things up.

But being approachable yet also being clear about who is in charge is a fine line. I don't think I will give up my IM name yet, nor my cell phone number.

The tone of the article is also weird. The writer seems to have interviewed professors who think that they automatically deserve respect, simply because they are professors. No. You have to earn respect from the students.

Found this online

2006-02-20T14:13:00.000-05:00

and it seemed neat.

On Tuesday nights, we have bingo, coffee, and cabbage rolls.

picture from: www.churchsigngenerator.com

Missed exams

2006-02-18T19:10:00.000-05:00

Why is there always someone who tries to reschedule the exam to their own schedule? Even if I announce the exam the first day of class? And why do they seem so surprised when I say no? I am the only one the does not reschedule?

It never seems to matter on the number of people in the class.

I am, as always, puzzled.

A useful link

2006-02-18T16:42:00.000-05:00

Conversational terrorism. Found through lifehacker

(I should be reading files now.)

Useful teaching advice (for me)

2006-02-18T09:43:00.000-05:00

I usually try jokes to lighten up the class. And try to keep my cool, but sometimes I cannot. I found this advice useful: How to deal with difficult audiences (at www.presentation-pointers.com) from the valuable post at presentation zen.

I should always remember not to personalize anything when I teach. I usually don't take it personally, but the times I have gotten into trouble are the times that I do take it personally. Happy and cheerful people (or those who are in class) seem to be the better teachers. It does not mean pandering, either.

What great advice

2006-02-17T11:41:00.000-05:00

Original from Signal v. Noise: It just doesn't matter:

(Please forgive the quoting, I hope I don't take anything out of context.)
<snip>

My favorite answer to the “why?” question is always: “Because it just doesn’t matter.” I think that statement embodies what makes a product great. Figuring out what matters and leaving out the rest.

<snip>

The best designers and the best programmers aren’t the ones with the best skills, or the nimblest fingers, or the ones who can rock and roll with photoshop or vim, they are the ones that can determine what just doesn’t matter. That’s where the real gains are made.
Most of the time you spend is wasted time on things that just don’t matter. If you can cut out the work and thinking that just doesn’t matter you’ll achieve productivity you’ve never imagined. It’s there if you just don’t pay attention to the things that don’t matter.

<snip>

Building a model means ignoring what doesn't matter. A good model explains what matters by ignoring what doesn't matter. And explaining why.

Must

2006-02-16T22:32:00.000-05:00

learn to say no to extra work. Must learn to say no to extra work. Must learn to say no to extra work. Must learn to say no to extra work.

(I am hoping that if I write it enough times, I will do it.) But noooooooo. Not this year.

What matters for my salary? What matters for my mobility? Probably not the stuff I am agreeing to do.

/ramble

I hate microsoft word.

2006-02-15T11:40:00.000-05:00

Although I do most of my writing using latex, some things are best done in word. Today I updated an class syllabus, and I found a bug in the tables feature in the macintosh version of word--text mysteriously disappeared, as if the text was too big for the cell. Word wrapping did not work, it was like the Bermuda triangle of text. And when I emailed my version to someone with a windows box and they mailed it back to me, everything was fixed. Weird.

That program is possessed.

Technorati Tags: word, writing

Imagine all the reports I could write

2006-02-14T13:39:00.000-05:00

if I could go without sleep. And all the research I could get done. And committees that I could serve on. Etc.

More importantly, I could do all that stuff, and spend more time with my family.

HT: sploid

No sleep for 33 years:

Thai Ngoc is a 64-year-old farmer in rural Vietnam, similar in most ways to his neighbors in the agricultural commune.

But Ngoc never sleeps.

For more than half his life -- since 1973 -- he has not slept.

He is strong and healthy, doctors and his family say. While normal people slumber, he works on his farm or volunteers to help neighbors with various rituals.

"Ngoc often does extra farm work or guards his farm at night to prevent theft, saying he used three months of sleepless nights to dig two large ponds to raise fish," Thanhnien News reported today.

"Neighbor Vu said Ngoc volunteered to help beat a drum during the night and guard the house for the relatives of the dead during funeral ceremonies so that they could take a nap."

He has tried traditional Vietnamese medicines, sleeping pills and lots of booze, but none of those things will put him to sleep.

"Sleep is a necessary part of life, like food and water," according to the American Academy of Family Physicians. But Ngoc is living proof that some people can go without sleep for three decades.

I've noticed

2006-02-13T22:41:00.000-05:00

that sometime the tougher you are, the more that students like you. The nicer you are, the more wishy-washy you appear. And the less they respect you.

I should try to remember

2006-02-13T16:58:00.000-05:00

that sometimes, the students in class forget that you can see them. Nothing like giving a lecture and watching someone check their watch every 5 minutes. Or watching someone put their coat on 15 minutes before class. Or put their notebook down 15 minutes before class ends.

They must think they are invisible.

On the other hand, I doodle during a boring meeting or seminar, and might even bring my laptop. So I am not better, maybe just subtler.

But damn, it hurts my feelings when when even one student isn't into class. I must remember: You cannot please all the people all the time.

Update: I get OK teaching ratings, too.

Although February is cold,

2006-02-12T13:37:00.000-05:00

snowy days are fun. Sledding and hot chocolate---what is not to like?

It happens every year,

2006-02-11T20:40:00.000-05:00

February is the month that I become overwhelmed. Classes are now in full swing; there are new PhD folders to read; there is a surge or reports to write, since people submit papers after the holidays; seminars are going strong; and committee meetings are starting up. The students are stressed as well. And yes, the weather sucks.

My office begins to resemble a war zone---coffee cups, napkins, newspapers, scrap paper, and piles. I have to spend a day just cleaning my office and my hard drive, because the mess causes me so much stress that I just stare at the walls.

But the spring is coming. The spring is coming.

One of my favorite parts

2006-02-10T19:58:00.000-05:00

of my job is dealing with PhD students. Here are my rules.

I ask the students working with me to meet with me at least once every two weeks. Even if they haven't got much done. But that schedule means that most of them are getting stuff done. I only starting doing the meeting thing in the last few years and it works for me.
I try to provide honest feedback. If they are doing bad work, I tell them. If they are doing good work, I tell them. Most do good work.
I try to build their self-confidence. Many really smart students forget that they are smart. But part of that is being clear about what is good and what is bad.
I am all for tough requirements. If someone is not doing well at course work, early papers, and exams, then perhaps a PhD is not for them. You are not doing anyone a favor by keeping them around.
I don't believe in micromanaging. People find their own level---with encouragement.
No changing topics, once the student has decided.
I try to encourage students to work together. I think that peer group effects are important--I sure learned a lot as a student from my classmates.
I encourage them to present their work to others--in informal talks and in more formal settings.
I never to give students ideas to work on. I will help them refine their own ideas, though.
I am not a good editor. But I will tell them when the exposition needs work.
I try to remind them that once they get a job, they will have much less time than now. More generally, I try to give them some sense what it's like to be a faculty member.

I'm sure there are more. But I'm tired now.

random writing quirks of mine

2006-02-09T13:57:00.000-05:00

I read a lot of papers with the words 'due to.' I always want to strike that out and replace it with 'because of.'
With undergraduate papers, wide margins and big fonts are the norm. With bad papers, thin margins and tiny fonts are the norm, though thin and tiny are relative here.
'Therefore' and 'thus' are overused. Also 'Note that.'
I tend to write in a boring and monotone way. All my sentences are the same length. Unless I am very careful.
I am nervous of 'track changes.'
I now wish that I had needed to do more writing in high school, college, and graduate school.

Works for me

2006-02-08T10:17:00.000-05:00

Replace "critique" with "report" and "artistic works" and "design" with "manuscript."

An abridged version of the article could also go to students who fill out teacher evaluations.

from: Jason Santa Maria | Under The Loupe #3: Critiquing:

First off, let’s all get on the same page; a critique is a critical discussion or review, typically of artistic works. You might think you already know that, but there is an important thing to take away from that definition; you will notice the word “opinion” is nowhere to be found. This is not to imply that opinions have no place in critiques, rather, it is meant to show that the two are not synonymous. Critiques are about dialogue; a two-way conversation. There is critique etiquette to observe. Just because you may not appreciate someone’s work, does not mean it is without merit.

<snip>

When Giving a Critique

Ask questions. Critiques should be more of an investigation than an interrogation. Try to understand why the designer did something before suggesting that they do it another way. Basically, try to understand the problem they’re trying to solve.

A critique is not the time to show how smart you are. It’s also not the time to blindly state how you would do things as though the designer is wrong.

<snip>

Beware of nebulous design buzz terms.

<snip>

Keep it brief and poignant.

<snip>

“I don’t like it” is one of the least helpful things you can say. The fact that green isn’t your favorite color means very little in the grand scheme of things. Instead, stick to what is concrete. Did you have trouble finding valuable information in the design? Do you see anything that might be a problem when a design gets printed/programmed? Is there something vastly different than what the client is expecting?

Don’t make it personal.

<snip>

A critique is not only the time to bring up problems with a design, but also to highlight what is successful. Alternating praise with the constructive criticism is a good strategy for all-around happiness.

Think before you speak.

<snip>

When Receiving a Critique

<snip>

You are not infallible and neither is your design. Let yourself be wrong, you will learn more and become better for it.

Criticism by its nature is a tricky beast because it relies almost solely on subjective means. If someone is having a bad day, they can easily take it out on you in a critique. Don’t let yourself be drawn into a pissing match. Stick to the facts of the design and the challenges at hand.

Be open to all the ideas and feedback you receive. Try not to get defensive. You are often very close to your design work and may not see something that’s glaringly obvious to everyone else.

Sometimes you will need to prod people for their real thoughts. If people are stone-facing you with an “I don’t like it” angle, try and crack them. Ask questions to try and draw a real response out of them. Chances are, their problem may be with a small piece of the design and they are just having trouble communicating it to you.
By that same note, take feedback with a grain of salt. You should at least entertain comments from your peers, but if you feel strongly about an aspect of your design, stand up for it and make your case.

<snip>

When critiquing someone’s work, above all else, put real thought into what you are saying. Ill-conceived commentary usually feels as such, and will inevitably cause someone to call you out on it. Take the time to write or say what you mean, otherwise there is little point in saying anything at all. The person you are critiquing put time into what they created. If you are going to step up to the plate and offer criticism, good or bad, show them enough respect to put a bit of time and brain power against your thoughts.

Found through www.swissmiss.typepad.com

I don't normally whine,

2006-02-07T16:47:00.000-05:00

but today killed me. I got to the classroom with my laptop and a second laptop---an old tablet that I wanted to try out in class. And the AV equipment would not work; I could not successfully plug either one of them in. So my beautiful presentation, including some neat interactive graphics, went the way of the Dodo. Onto the board, which I could not erase to save my life.

Damn.

I did do some playful stuff, but I was so tense about the equipment that I was off my game. All this in front of 60 over stressed students. On the bright side, I finished a report yesterday.

This paper kicks ass.

2006-02-06T21:21:00.000-05:00

It's great to referee a manuscript in which I can say that. The more reports I have written, the better the papers that I get to review.

Here is how I write a report.

Try to figure out the point of the paper. Sometimes it's easy. Sometimes it's hard. If it's too hard, I may give up.
If I understand the point, then I decide if it's new or not (to me and the literature) and if the analysis in the paper is correct. If the point is new, correct, and interesting, then see if I can help the author improve the exposition, results, and scope of the paper. If the point is not new, or incorrect, or uninteresting, then clearly explain my position in the report.
If the writing is bad, I won't get the point. If the technical material is wrong or sloppy, I won't get the point. If the point is correct but the technical material is sloppy or the writing is bad, then it is going to take me a lot of work. I need to decide if the point is worth the work that has to be put in.
The subjective part here is deciding if it is an interesting point or not. The editor wants my opinion, or I would not be chosen to be the referee.
Sometimes what the author thinks the point is turns out to be different than what I think the point should be. Sometimes the author puts many points in the paper, so I need to help the author focus on a few of them.
I always try to help the author improve the paper, with specific suggestions, even when I think the paper should be rejected from the journal. This involves going through the manuscript carefully a few times with a pencil and pad.
I am always clear to the editor about what I think the outcome should be, and if it's a revise and resubmit I tell the editor and author exactly what I think would lead me to suggest acceptance.
I am never wish-washy about what I think should happen. That doesn't mean I rewrite the paper, but it does mean that I try to be specific as possible. I have been burned a few times myself by wishy-washy reviewers who don't tell me what is required to have a successful outcome. In all such cases, the paper has gone more than one round only to be rejected in the end. Probably my fault, but it did waste everyone's time.
I always try to take the work seriously.
I try never, never, never to be sarcastic or mean. Of course trying may be be the same as achieving. But that being said, the most useful report I ever got was full of sarcasm--intended or not. The report forced me to work on being precise and clear in that paper and in future research. Helpful in the long run, even though the paper did not get accepted at that journal.

Many of the journals I review for have double blind refereeing. But since I see so many papers at seminars and conferences, I always wonder about how blind it is. I try hard not to let the author's identity influence my refereeing.

I find that the best way to get a report done is to read the paper, think about it carefully for a while, and then start writing. I usually start by writing a short paper summary, and then by going through the manuscript with a pencil or my text editor open, noting unclear and incorrect things. I then write a few paragraphs about why I or do not think the paper is successful. Rinse, lather, and repeat a few times until I am happy with the report.

I hope this is not what the students think about my class

2006-02-04T15:00:00.000-05:00

photo taken by Max Sparber found through flickr retro records pool (the photo has a creative commons license, so I think I can post it like this.)

If you enjoy

2006-02-04T14:59:00.001-05:00

cool images. Check out the retro records flickr pool.

HT: swissmiss.typepad.com

(I have struggled to get blogger to post this.)

Every paper and lecture should have a

2006-02-04T14:59:00.000-05:00

"comma-stupid" phrase (from creating_passionate_users). Just replace user with the target audience for a paper, and replace use' with student for a lecture.

<snip>

I believe we all should spend time--a lot of time--figuring out exactly what should be in our "comma-stupid" phrase. We can start by asking, "What does the user care about?" Followed by, "OK, but WHY does he care about that?" Follwed by, "And why does he care about that? until we get to the heart of it. Then we pick a phrase... a message that expresses this in a way that everyone on the team can understand. Then from that point forward, every decision should include two questions:

1) How will this [thing we're about to do] support, enable, or amplify what the user cares most about?

2) How will this [thing we're about to do] potentially hurt or stand in the way of what the user cares most about?

And I actually believe that for 90% of us (my work included) the answer to the "comma-stupid" question is "the user kicking ass", but of course it's up to us to define exactly what "kicking ass" means for our particular context. So that's my challenge to you--ask yourself if you have a clear, "It's the [something], stupid!" Then ask yourself if it gets to the real heart of what is most meaningful to the user.

<snip>

One day, I would like to have the guts to write a referee report that simply says: "This paper does not kick any ass. Sorry."

(It was an exhausting week.)

Risk-aversion

2006-02-02T13:40:00.000-05:00

Taken from: passionate

<snip>

But whose fear? The metaphor Liz used (she got from someone else) was that many of the "leaf nodes" (what Microsoft and Sun and others refer to as "individual contributors") tend to be innovative and brave, but many of the "branches" (i.e. layers of management) can't stomach the risks. In their (admirable) desire to be strong and stable, the "branches" put safety above all else.

<snip>

So add one more skill to our career advice for young people: be willing to take risks! Perhaps more importantly, be willing to tolerate (and perhaps even encourage) risk-taking in those who are managed by you. Of course I realize that this is much easier said than done. I was a "leaf node" at Sun, and a zillion other places before that. I've even done a little time as a "branch" (and I sucked at it).

But can anything be done about all the spirit-squashing risk-aversion? Recognition is the first step. Unfortunately, those who recognize it tend to be the leaf nodes--the ones with the power to create and implement the ideas, but very little power to authorize them. Those with the most potential to create change are the branches. The Managers With a Clue.

<snip>

Regularly review your sacred cows

Regularly review the assumptions behind all your decisions
Are those assumptions still valid?

Practice LETTING GO
Here's where the Buddhists have an edge. Too many of us hold on to practices or ideas (including sacred cows) long past their sell-by date. If it doesn't serve us any longer, it's time to give it up no matter how well it served us in the past.

Of course, "letting go" means temporarily experiencing that painful, awkward, "I suck" stage again. But pro athletes do it if they want to break through plateus. Go players do it to move up in ranks. Musicians let go of habits and styles. Programmers do it (waterfall anyone?). Writers do it. Anyone who has switched from skiing to snowboarding (or switched from regular to "goofy foot") has learned to let go.

<snip>

Easy and familiar is safe, but often comes with built-in, unscalable walls. You can't get there from here.

Push the boundaries strategically, one-by-one
Whether you're a leaf or a branch, pick your battles carefully, one poke at a time. Better to live another day to keep fighting the good fight then, say, being fired for trying to do it all at once.

<snip>

Probably good advice for research, refereeing, and new course design. Taking chances leads to innovation, which leads to the big advances and payoffs. But you need to have some insurance. What if you do something risky and it does not pay off? That's the tradeoff. Since I can only write a few papers or prep a few new courses, I will try to mix them up. Try some base hits and also swing for the fences. Remembering that each is a paper, (or new course) and try to move on when the time comes.

In the end, base hits are often as tough as swinging for the fences.

And I will try to keep all this in mind when I review papers/grants and am acting as a branch.

Entrepreneurs?

2006-02-01T21:26:00.000-05:00

Most successful researchers are good entrepreneurs. Getting funding, access to data, getting good PhD students, finding co-authors, organizing sessions at conferences, getting new courses listed, recruiting new researchers to your ideas, and so on, all require a certain amount of drive and networking. Researchers work in the (cliche alert) 'marketplace of ideas.' Not all the markets are large, but there are markets you need to service.

Sure there are lots of entrenched people in academics, but even they had to be entrepreneurial at some point in their careers Although it may not take a lot of home-runs, it takes some. (Home run is surely a relative term here.)

And there is institutional power--once you are a professor at school X, you control lots of resources. But it requires a certain amount of entrepreneurial effort to become a professor at school X.

I always laugh when I see how academics are portrayed on TV shows. Corduroy-jacket wearing, dreamy wankers. With glasses, too.

Lateness

2006-01-31T22:14:00.000-05:00

Post inspired by Mungowits End: Sorry I'm Late.

An interesting study would be to correlate a researcher's output with the speed at which the researcher writes referee reports. I bet the late report writers are often the less productive researchers. Just a hunch, though.

(Can you tell whether I am often late on my reports or not?)

Resolutions

2006-01-31T21:54:00.000-05:00

It is the end of the month. How am I doing with my New Year Resolutions?

Well, I have one paper under review, so I am not meeting the three paper rule. But two are close (only counts in hand grenades, as the saying goes, though).
I have actually speeded up writing reports and have even started turning some down (but I still have 6 to do. Painful.)
No conferences yet, but I did agree to go to one later in the spring.
Just get on with it. Doing that.
Important topics. No time for new papers now. Who am I kidding-6 reports to write. But I am thinking in the correct direction.
Refusing PhD students. Not yet-but we don't have new students yet anyway.
A project with a student: I have started moving on this one.
More commenting. Yes.
Enjoy my job. Yes. Writing about it here has helped with that. A lot.
Seminars. Not yet.
Weekly GTD. Yes.
Less worried. Yes.
Remember: Output not input. You betcha.

It has turned out to be valuable to have a semi-public record on this site.

Fairness?

2006-01-30T22:50:00.000-05:00

Unknown Professor pointed out an article from Inside Higher Ed. (It's offline as I write this so I cannot link. But I will fix it tomorrow.) The comments are fascinating.

The article is about fairness in grading. I am not sure that any system that assigns a numerical score to someone can be fair, or that I even know what fair means. But the system can be transparent, and clearly define what the students are supposed to be do. That seems to be the best you can ask for. And you cannot measure the students' effort, only what they hand in and how they act in class.

The article did lead me to think about what grading is for.

Certification.
If the student can pass the course, the student should have demonstrated some basic competence in the material. For example, in a basic statistics class, the ability to explain what a confidence interval is, and compute a confidence interval in some specific cases. Certification is probably most binding for the pass/fail decision. But it is also important for other letter grades: a C student can do the minimum requirements and no more, a B student can do more than the minimum but cannot make the extra step, while an A student can make the extra step.

All that is important because one use of the grades is for future courses, future schools (like grad schools, law schools and so on) and employers to figure out information about the student. And perhaps because they will actually use the material. Grades during the course help the students understand how well they are following the material, too.

If we had no grades, would simply being accepted at a good school automatically guarantee better future prospects? That puts a big burden on admissions, no? I probably should think about that more carefully in the future. A bad grade also tells people in the future useful information about the student.

Motivation.
Some students are motivated by grades, so the grading scheme keeps them working. Sad in some ways, but they are people and respond to incentives. (This is why I am not a big fan of grading PhD students too much---they should be motivated anyway.) It also helps students recognize that outcomes at least partially depend on effort. For some small number of them, a useful lesson, even in college. A downside of motivation is the students who argue about everything. But I have found that many of them will work hard at the material if you make it clear that's what is required.

There always are students who really get the material and so earn A's. You see it in their test scores, homework, presentations, attendance, questions, concentration in class, and sometimes even eyes in class. Of course there are always marginal cases--A vs. B, B vs C, and so on. I try to err on the side of moving people up. Interestingly, in my courses there pretty much always is a gap in the grade distribution to make the cutoffs. I wonder how common that is?

The students who fail generally don't show up to class, hand in their homework late (or try to ), and cannot even do the basic calculations in the course.

I am playing around with wordpress. I imported my site to vegreville.wordpress.com; I am going to cross-post for a few days and decide. Wordpress is also free, looks nicer than blogger and has tags, but you cannot customize the site as much as blogger.

Any comments?

A good quote

2006-01-29T15:31:00.000-05:00

I have always liked Steven Soderbergh's moves and Guided by Voices' music. Today's NY Times had a nice article about the collaboration between Robert Pollard and Steven Soderbergh: NY Times (I suspect that the link will go away thanks to anonymous, a permanent link). Anyway, I think this quote is a good one to keep in mind for writing papers:

<snip>

"He has that magpie eclecticism that I really respond to and appreciate," Mr. Soderbergh said. "He and I are alike in that we're just not very precious. We both feel like, you just do it and it shouldn't be a big hassle."

<snip>

In my experience, the PhD students who view their thesis as a really important project often get stuck. And that's also true in my own research: if it's too important, I don't write anything because it's not good enough. If I obsess over perfection, no output. Nothing to revise. Far better to give it my best shot, submit it, and then get on to the next thing. Sometimes you lose. But keep moving.

The work has to be good; I'm not saying do like those students whose homework is done the night before the due date, written in a spiral notebook, ripped out, and then handed in (often unstapled).

I guess that's why I admire Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris, Robert Pollard, Steven Sonderberg, Woody Allen, Paul Westerberg, Los Lobos, Yo-Yo Ma, and many, many other artists--they keep going. They finish the project in reasonable time, and then get on with it. Sometimes the project turns out well, sometimes not. But they keep going. It helps that they are talented, but I suspect that for Bob Dylan, a song is a song. Finish it, and then write the next one.

Why my slides usually suck

2006-01-27T22:25:00.000-05:00

even though I spend a lot of time on them.

okdork is getting attention (from rob poitras). I found him through a comment on signal v. noise.

<snip>

I am in my biz, gov, & society class, the teacher is reading directly off the power point slides so I am catching up on my rss reader and browsing the net on my ibook.

<snip>

Based on the site profile, he wants to learn, too. He is giving more useful feedback than going to www.ratemyprofessor.com.

It's dull when there is too much on the slides for me at the talks I go to. I cannot read and listen at the same time---so I read the slides. But that's faster than the speaker can talk, so I have time to doodle, or edit hardcopies of my own paper. Why should students be any different?

I am probably the last one to figure this out. Oh well.

Mechanical pencils

2006-01-26T17:24:00.000-05:00

I wonder how many non-academics love mechanical pencils (and really all things stationary) as much as I do? When I was in grad school, I was obsessed with the $25.00 mechanical pencil. One of the first things I did when I got a job was to get a really fancy mechanical pencil. Even now, I could happily window shop for them. I have also become obsessed with the fisher space pen, and the perfect pad.

Might be tough if I have too many lectures in one day.

2006-01-25T15:20:00.000-05:00

From yahoo news

Found through sploid (so you know that the article is going to be tabloid).

More on writing

2006-01-24T22:10:00.000-05:00

freerange librarian.com has some writing tips. They are all useful. Here are some new points (to me).

<snip>

2. Read a lot. Read writers you like, writers other writers like, writers you can't stand but know you can learn from. I prayed for the Rapture to come and release me from the pain of reading W.G. Sebald, but I learned a lot.

<snip>

11. Reduce, reuse, recycle. If you like a riff (or scene, or character), but it doesn't fit in the piece you're working in, boldly whack it, and save it separately. I had an entirely essay grow out of a paragraph I cut from another essay where it really didn't fit at all, and the cutting grew the better, stronger plant.

That would also work for class material-slides and notes.

<snip>

12. Back up your work. Back it up electronically. Back it up in paper. (Last week I reconstructed a three-page section from a printout.) Back it up in a way that if your office goes up in flames you still have your work somewhere. N.b.: it is that last step I still haven't accomplished to my satisfaction, but I am thinking hard about off-site backup (in addition to local backup and local hard copies).

Not really new to me, but I've been burned badly in the past on this. So repeating it will remind me to check the office computer tomorrow so see that backup really is working.

<snip>

15. If you do any fact-based writing, save and organize your citations. You are likely to return to these facts for future work, and you never want to have to reconstruct them again. I subscribe to RefWorks, a Web-based citation management software which I adore, but if you aren't immersed in research-based fact-based writing, then a spreadsheet, a document file, or even a legal pad might suffice.

All great. Found through Lifehacker.

I wonder

2006-01-23T20:25:00.000-05:00

In my field, research output is measured by publications in journals. But not all publications are equal.

I remember hearing in graduate school: 'It's OK to publish one paper there--that's not too bad. But don't publish two. The second subtracts from your vita, not adds to it.'

Is that really true? Is a publication in a some outlets worse than shelving the paper? (I have had my fair share.) I used to think worse. But now, getting the paper into print is a win. And all publications take lots of work--as long as the publication is refereed, the referee is going to want some revision. Never minor, either.

Confused

2006-01-21T22:25:00.000-05:00

Whiteboard?
Chalkboard?
Transparencies?
Powerpoint on laptop?
Tablet pc?

The whiteboard pens make me high. I cannot erase the chalkboard well enough so that they can see. Transparencies are OK, but I am a leftie—I will never forget the smile on the students’ faces the first time I taught and they noticed my red, blue, and black hand.

Powerpoint is dull for the students. I am reading Presentation Zen and the ideas there seem promising; it might work to combine a stark powerpoint presentation with the blackboard and handouts that are not simply printouts of the powerpoint.

A tablet pc might be good, too. But that’s another computer that I don’t want to buy. And then I would have to post the written up slides on a web site, giving the students yet another temptation not to pay attention in class.

*sigh*

I am confused.

Meetings that are not evil

2006-01-20T21:47:00.000-05:00

Not all meetings are useless. Academic research seminars are often good meetings. Here why I think they work, when they do:

There is a clear meeting leader—-the seminar speaker. It is obvious who should be in control at the seminar.
The goal of the meeting is not to make a decision (except about the speaker quality, I guess) but instead to learn.
Since the speaker knows that he is going to be judged, the speaker prepares.
The audience knows that they are going to be judged too—-by the quality of their questions. So they pay attention.
Someone in the audience has usually paid for the speaker to come, and so at least one person in enthusiastic about the seminar. (Unlike many other meetings.)

Here is when they don’t work:

One of the audience members tries to show superior intellect to the speaker. Sometimes it works. Sometimes not. But it’s always tense.
The seminar speaker loses control of the seminar——deferring to the audience (I routinely did that when I started out. I gave terrible workshops.)
The seminar speaker assumes that the audience knows more than they do. Also a big problem when teaching.
The seminar speaker really does know less than the speaker thinks (I have seen this one many times.)
Someone asks a question that demonstrates that the paper is wrong or the results are not new. And everyone in the audience—-including the speaker—- knows it. If that is your goal, ask that question nicely. I once had a senior colleague who was killer at this. That person is probably the nicest person you will ever meet, and usually asked the question because of genuinely trying to figure something out in the paper (I think)—-at least that’s the way that it came across. Which is why it usually killed the speaker.
When the crowd is too small, or when no one asks questions (that one is probably discipline specific.)

I am sure there are more. But I cannot think of them now.

Update: Unknown Professor has a good follow up, and the advice he gives from Ben Franklin is good too. I will be ‘jonesing’ during the next workshop.

Reports

2006-01-19T15:54:00.000-05:00

Most of my research leads to 20-60 page papers, which need to go through a refereeing process in order to appear in print. I have received positive, negative, and indifferent reports.

The positive ones are the nicest to receive, and they often contain lots of useful suggestions for improving the paper.

The negative ones hurt the most. I usually cannot read them the entire way through without shaking. Negative reports are generally are one of two types. Either the referee does not like the paper's idea and also complains about the implementation. Or, they think that the idea has some promise, but argue that the implementation would require too much effort to improve. Both types are helpful, if the reports are not wishy-washy. I can fix the implementation, if I think that the idea is good enough. Then it's time to try another journal. I have often found the negative reports the most helpful---for that paper and for improving my future papers.

But it's sometimes a game. I now try hard to write the paper in a way that they only can complain about the idea, not the implementation. Impossible, but I try.

The worst reports are the indifferent ones. They usually are rejections, and that means that the reviewer did not like the paper. Fine. Indifferent reports often don't help me move ahead on improving the paper, though. So then its just a quick polish and off to another journal to play the roulette wheel again.

My overall impression is that refereeing helps the paper---if I can figure out what the referees did and did not like. But referees may not always be truthful. Or the letter to the editor may be different than the referee report.

Not much to add to this

2006-01-17T12:19:00.000-05:00

Meetings considered harmful: (from signal vs. noise)

Researchers in organisational psychology have confirmed that meetings are, well, evil. A study conducted by the University of Minnesota found that the amount and length of meetings correlate with “negative effects” (burnout, anxiety, and depression) on its participants.
No surprises here. A few reasons why frequent and long meetings are th3 sucK:

They break your working day into small, incoherent pieces on a schedule incompatible with the natural breaks in your flow
They are normally all about words and abstract concepts, not real things (like a piece of code or a screen of design)
They usually contain an abysmal low amount of information conveyed per minute
They often contain at least one moron that inevitably get his turn to waste everyone’s time with nonsense
They drift off subject easier than a rear-wheel driven Chicago cab in heavy snow
They frequently have agendas so vague nobody is really sure what its about
They require thorough preparation that people rarely do anyway

Please do expand the list.

Here is one reason that the information flow is so low---after you have been meetings with the same people for a while, you can predict with 98% accuracy exactly what everyone will say. Somehow the meeting causes people to 'dig in' to their original positions.

As a rule, the less you say in the meeting, the more that people pay attention to you when you do speak.

Work leads to (new) work.

2006-01-16T21:09:00.000-05:00

I have started reading this book by Robert Boice:

It's great. Thanks, Unknown Professor.

The book strongly recommends (really says do it, or don't be a researcher) that you to do some writing on your research every day. I really like the idea of writing everyday---and doing it before you do the fun stuff (like say, writing your blog, or reading other blogs).

Anyway, one of the benefits when I get going on writing a paper is that 'Work leads to new work.' I mean that writing my ideas down carefully and clearly leads to new ideas for research. When I procrastinate on writing a project, I don't get anything done on the current project, nor do I get any interesting new ideas. But once I am working, things happen.

Revising a paper for the nth time (after it has been through a few journals), that's another story!

Technorati Tags: academics, research, writing

A funny joke

2006-01-14T10:57:00.000-05:00

Here (from Rob Bushway). It's a bit like those seminal unpublished working papers that you track down using interlibrary loan.

The Golden Rule

2006-01-13T20:54:00.000-05:00

I always believed that The Golden Rule (wikipedia link)---treat others the way you want to be treated--- is a good way to run my professional life. I have tried, and of course sometimes failed.

But it's not so simple, anyway. The real issue is that the way I want to be treated is not the same way that others want to be treated. Conflict therefore is unavoidable. Then what to do?

A corollary: People you think of as jerks generally don't view themselves as jerks.

Technorati Tags: academics

Saying the same thing 5 times

2006-01-12T21:34:00.000-05:00

does not make it clearer. It's a paper, not a lecture to undergrads.

I may kill myself if I have to review another paper in which each section goes: I am going to do XX. XX. I just did XX. And a long winded introduction listing AA, BB, ..., XX and a conclusion restating AA, BB, ...,XX.

I don't think that the extra pages improve the chances that I will understand the paper. They just bore me. I am smart enough to figure it out --- if you explain it clearly, one time.

</rant>

Also for research papers.

2006-01-11T12:52:00.000-05:00

The point is about fiction, but it applies to academic writing, too.

From nielsenhayden.com/makinglight

Making Light: Parsimony and refinement:

<snip>

The reason writers use implausibly inefficient approaches is that they start with a big dramatic thing they want to do, then come up with some sloppily pasted-on justification for doing it. A good way to study this is to refuse the stewardess' offer of headphones on long flights. When a movie has an implausible plot, the visuals will have all the stuff they wanted to put into the movie in the first place. The dialogue will have all the stupid contrived reasons why the plot supposedly has to happen the way it does. When you can't hear the dialogue, the moviemakers' true motives are much clearer.

Twister, for instance: (1.) “Hey! We can do a pretty good-looking tornado!” (2.) You Will Believe A Cow Can Fly. The rest is just noise and rubbish. Speed is about a city bus that can't slow down, no matter what. Jaws is about the shark coming to get you. The Warlock in Spite of Himself is about how cool it would be if a bunch of SCA people had psi powers and their own planet.

<snip>

Yay, good parts. But if I can wrap this around to the beginning again, the other parts—the supporting and explaining and incluing bits—are just as important, even if they're not what's remembered. When that stuff is logical and proportionate and properly connected, we're happy. It blends near-invisibly into our general map of the world, and the cool stuff becomes part of our world as well.

When the support structure doesn't work, the cool stuff may still be theoretically and abstractly cool, but we don't connect with it. It's like meeting what at first you think is the most beautiful [gender of your choice] in the whole world, only as soon as they open their mouth you realize that not only do you not want to hear their voice; you wish you didn't know they thought those things. Regretfully, you fold your heart up and put it back in your pocket. They're still beautiful, but they're beautiful like an artifact, not like someone you could love.

<snip>

Now, back to working on achieving that in my own papers.

Technorati Tags: academics, research, writing

Free powerpoint?

2006-01-10T22:05:00.000-05:00

I like the image. I could imagine using it in a powerpoint slide; maybe for class, or maybe for a seminar presentation.

That brings me to my point. I have tried a few times using powerpoint slides provided by textbooks. What the hell are the publishers thinking when they provide such terrible slides? Even relying on them to discuss the examples in the text requires so much editing as to be a waste of time. Too much on the slides, long rambly sentence bulletpoints, gratuitous animation, terrible color schemes, no flow, and so on. Not that I am an expert, but they never seem to work for me in class. Perhaps I have just had a bad sample.

Yet the textbook reps always take pains to point out that the books have powerpoint. Why do they bother?

(Written because I wanted to test out posting an image.)

I should

2006-01-09T23:33:00.000-05:00

have been editing a paper tonight. But instead, I fucked around with my blog template. I still need to get the colors right.

I cannot even pretend it is work, unlike fooling around with my syllabus, or class web site, or vita, or organizing my files.

But it was fun. I am starting to understand bit of css. For me, probably a useless skill.

This kind of stuff is why sometimes the helpful colleagues---those who can help you the most with your computer and software problems---end up having fewer publications. (Sometimes they have more publications, though, too.)

Slow academic publishing

2006-01-08T22:34:00.000-05:00

This post (at mkbadb.blogspot.com or breaking into the academy) discusses the speed, or really slowness, of academic publishing. It certainly is the case that papers take forever to make it into print from first submission. Even if things go well.

But is that really bad? Does it really slow things down that much? I notice in my field that I often see many good papers at seminars and conferences long before they are in print. Publication is the final certification stage. And working papers are so freely available on the web that you do not need to wait for publication to see the paper anyway. So what is the cost of the delay? Waiting for the certification?

I would imagine that much of the delay is in the refereeing. And that is a finite resource. How could we speed it up? How costly would it be?

Technorati Tags: academics

What I look like at the end of a conference

2006-01-07T11:06:00.000-05:00

Is it because I am spending the evenings at the bar? Kind of. But when I go to my room early, I simply flip the channels watching stupid TV, and have a beer from the mini-bar; I end up getting no sleep anyway. I hardly ever watch TV at home, either. Nor stay up late.

I notice that I am not alone in this. Almost all my friends are the same---everyone is sleep deprived by the end of the conference. It does not matter if I am presenting, discussing, interviewing, or doing nothing.

That CD at the top is pretty good, too. Even if you are well-rested.

Should I write this up?

2006-01-05T09:07:00.000-05:00

For me, it takes about a year to write a paper --- if I am lucky. And that is just to first submission to a journal. After that, god knows how long it will take to make in into print. Sure, I can write a first draft in a few weeks. But that first draft will have lots of holes, be poorly written, and be full of problems. It will take many seminar presentations, conferences, and rewrites before it is a polished piece.

So I am a bit nervous about starting out a new paper. My papers rarely end up the way that I planned them. Once I get going, I find out what the paper is really about. Usually the paper starts short, grows, and then shortens back up as I finally figure out the real point.

My rule is that I do not start a new paper until an old one is accepted, or close to being accepted. Like many people, I keep an ideas file although it is not really necessary. Ideas are easy. Papers are hard.

Technorati Tags: academics, research, writing

Bibliographies from the web?

2006-01-04T10:24:00.000-05:00

Seth Godin thinks that bibliographies should be done on the web: Stuck systems:
<snip>

A young friend of mine needed to create a bibliography for a school project this weekend.

I had forgotten how annoying this task was. I was also pretty sure it was obsolete.

Why, exactly, does a teacher or reader need to know the city a book publisher is based in?

If your goal as a reader (or someone checking for plagiarism or quality of research) is to get to the books that the writer used, you need exactly one piece of data: the ISBN.

A quick online search didn't turn up what seemed obvious to me: a free service that would allow a writer to type in all the ISBNs used in creating a paper and then generate two things:

1. a bibliography based on looking up the data onlline and
2. a web page that would allow the reader/teacher to see the books, their covers, links to Amazon, libraries, online references, etc.

Then, when the student hands in the paper, she appends the bibliography created by the site, and there, right on top, is the web address with all the links.

Now, the typical middle-school teacher is going to explain that kids need to learn to write biographies because it's part of literacy. And a college professor is going to want to keep the tradition going because no one wants to be the first to end it. And an entrepreneur is going to hesitate to build the site I described because she's worried about how hard it will be to spread this idea and how much effort will go into making it the standard resource.

And no student wants to risk a grade by breaking the system.

<snip>

Some random questions:

Does everything that a student might need to reference have an ISBN number? I don't think so. But maybe you could get around that.
Do all students have access to the web?
How would an entrepreneur make money from doing this?
Could we quantify the wasted effort in doing bibliographies.
I am a college professor. Why does Seth Godin think that I do things just to keep tradition going?
How tough is it to type in all that information anyway? A lot of it is already on Amazon, and a cut and paste is pretty easy.
A related question. Why are there so many different bibliography styles. Each journal seems to have a different one. Why? I know that software makes it easy to deal with, but still.
Do you always want things to be easy for students?
Are there some privacy issues associated with the Godin proposal?
Making it easier to do bibliographies will probably lead to more entries in the bibliographies. Is that what we want?
Why do we have the current system?

(Hello to readers from Mungowit's End and Financial Rounds.)

UPDATE: How much of the required stuff is in 'Endnote' (which I don't use). Of course that is not a web app. But why not?

Technorati Tags: academics, technology, writing

What I say to myself before the first lecture each semester

2006-01-02T21:45:00.000-05:00

The Bene Gesserit Littainy against Fear.
Pg 19 of Dune

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

And 5 minutes into class, the fear is gone. It happens every semester.

Literature review?

2006-01-02T14:16:00.000-05:00

Why do so many people write literature reviews with laundry lists of tangentially related papers? When I read a paper, no sentence annoys me more than:

‘AA(2004), BB(1990), and ZZ(2005) all study a related topic.’

Edit that crap out, or actually say something real about the work and how it relates to yours.

I read that sentence in about half the papers I review.

Technorati Tags: academics, reports, writing

New Years resolutions

2006-01-01T14:11:00.000-05:00

This (www.mungowitzend.blogspot.com) post led me to start this blog. I needed to have a blogger account to comment on that post. The advice in that post is good.

Here are my academic resolutions for the year:

Make sure that I have at least 3 manuscripts at various stages of review all the time. Currently, I have one manuscript under review (second round), 3 revise and resubmits to finish, 2 manuscripts almost ready to submit, and two new projects under way. Once I figure out how to use the side columns of this site, I am going to use that to record output.
Write my referee reports quickly. Each report now takes me about a day---good or crappy paper. Right now, I have 5 reports to write. Start refusing some refereeing assignments.
Go to more small and focused conferences, and talk more at the conferences I do go to.
Less whining about how unfair academics is. Just get on with it.
Spend more time thinking about topics that I think are important, and that I have comparative advantage with. Stop 'chasing the herd.'
Start refusing some PhD students; right now I have 6 students and not enough time to spend with each one.
Start a project with one of the PhD students.
Spend some more time commenting on other people's papers when they send them to me.
Enjoy being an academic. It is a pretty fun job.
Go to more seminars outside my direct field. I have lots to choose from . I need to learn some new tools and seminars are a cheap way to do so---or at least to figure out what tools are available.
Start doing my weekly GTD reviews. Right now, I am using some of the GTD tools (lists, empty mailbox) but not all (weekly reviews and longer term strategizing).
Become less worried about pleasing everyone else.
Remember the thing I learned when first starting out: Output matters, not input.

Some of those things contradict each other.

Technorati Tags: academics, productivity, resolutions

How not to be a session moderator at a conference

2005-12-31T14:50:00.000-05:00

Leave the session immediately if this happens: Funny and Extreme Videos–Laughing Interview–Funny Video Clip–KillSomeTime.com.

From George Sessum by way of ALLIED by Jeneane Sessum.

UPDATE: the comment on Allied explains what they are talking about---diseases of the larnyx. It makes the video clip even more similar to some academic conferences that I have attended. That moderator did not prepare. It seems less funny now, too.

UPDATE II: According to gary turner, it is fake.

Technorati Tags: academics

Academic research: Objective or subjective?

2005-12-30T14:27:00.000-05:00

It’s a stupid question—its both.

Getting papers into conferences, published, and cited means that other people are paying attention to your work. You need to have a good idea, the paper must well-written and clear, but most of all, other researchers need to find the work interesting. Interesting to me may not be interesting to you. Even the same idea, or even paper, will be viewed as interesting if written by a one author (with an impressive track record) and uninteresting if written by another. Or more precisely, people will take more effort to figure out a paper from some authors and less effort to figure out a paper from some other authors.

And there is lots of persistence. Once you are known as a ‘good person’ people will take your new output seriously. It only takes a few good papers to be known as a good person and a few bad papers to be known as a joker. Once you are known as a joker, then good luck. Because then no matter how good the work is, you are screwed. No one will take it seriously.

Finishing matters a lot. Once you submit your paper, it will come back. Joural rejection rates are high, so you will need to keep submitting to many journals. Taking advantage of the feedback you receive. But keep going—-don’t let the paper sit on your hard drive. Ideas depreciate. If the idea is good, other people will write the same paper and scoop you. If the idea isn’t good, its probably at least moving the frontier somehow. But the frontier may move away from your paper. Then you are fucked.

Once you get a revise and resubmit, do it. Do it quickly. Do what the referee says-why fight? You can always write another paper later once the current one is in print.

Technorati Tags: academics, research

How to discuss a paper at a conference

2005-12-29T22:09:00.000-05:00

You are trying to help the authors-not to show how smart you are. Be constructive. The more constructive you are, the more the author will get from the discussion, and the more likely it is that he/she will help you in the future. It’s a small world. The more helpful you are, the more likely that people will figure out that you are smart, anyway.
Do not say ‘This is a great paper,’ or ‘I really like this paper’ and so on. Everyone says it, and therefore it means nothing. Don’t be phony. Be helpful.
If you find a problem in the paper, or you think the paper is really stupid (it can and will happen), clearly and calmly explain the issues. Do not ignore them. But whatever you do, try not to make the author look stupid; see point 1. Telling the audience calmly but confidently the problems in the paper shows that you are a serious and thoughtful person. That’s what you want.
Be prepared with professional looking slides.
Don’t go over your time. Be short.
If you can add some intuition to the paper, do it. The author always runs out of time.
If you can bring additional information, data, or examples to the paper, do so. I have seem some great discussions in which the discussant redid some of the analysis with new data, or used a slightly simper analytical model to expland and explain the paper’s results. Those discussions surely saved the author a round or two at a journal.
Be creative in expanding the scope of the work.
Don’t be an asshole, only the big shots can do that successfully. And you never know which person in the room will be reviewing you for something in the future.

Testing

2005-12-29T12:21:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Vegreville

vegreville

This site looks worthwhile

Moving

I don't like this idea

Testing

Clarification

Is it better to be first or second

Of course

Random memories and thoughts

Skype

I think I will tell this to the PhD students I deal with:

More travel

What is it about the airport

One of the hardest things I have in teaching

Am I

Perhaps we should follow this advice recruiting next year...

Jargon

random gibberish today

Starting a new research project

One of the fun parts of writing papers

Sometimes, you just need to start the project

What kind of student was I?

Grading exams

Reputation

found this on digg

From signal vs. noise (again)

Numbers

Faculty meetings

Microsoft word and answer keys.

Manuscripts as software applications.

vegreville shrugged

My biggest failing

Why after seminar chatter might best be ignored

A shallow insight

Impressed

More presentation tips

Why I like being an academic

Enthusiastic?

Testing

What's really important in my classes

Refereeing

E-mail

Found this online

Missed exams

A useful link

Useful teaching advice (for me)

What great advice

Must

I hate microsoft word.

Imagine all the reports I could write

I've noticed

I should try to remember

Although February is cold,

It happens every year,

One of my favorite parts

random writing quirks of mine

Works for me

I don't normally whine,

This paper kicks ass.

I hope this is not what the students think about my class

If you enjoy

Every paper and lecture should have a

Risk-aversion

Entrepreneurs?

Lateness

Resolutions

Fairness?

A good quote

Why my slides usually suck

Mechanical pencils

Might be tough if I have too many lectures in one day.

More on writing

I wonder

Confused

Meetings that are not evil

Reports

Not much to add to this

Work leads to (new) work.

A funny joke

The Golden Rule