Update

A programmer admires his finished project using a cutting-edge code library. He says, "Finally done!" In the background, a missile approaches his project. On the missile are the words, "Library Overhaul Update".

“I can now never touch the code again!” he says, clapping his hands together.

20 Jul 2024

Axes

Two scientists are walking, and one is reading a document with her data. She says, "My data doesn't look good..." Her friend exclaims, "Nonsense! You just have to find better axes. That's why people say research is an art and a science."

“There must be some axes where your data looks better than everyone else’s!”

13 Jul 2024

Reward

A line graph of time. People only see the milestones but rarely the bulk of the experience. Yet that's where the real reward lies!

It’s at the forefront of my mind any time I’m considering a new practice.

03 Jul 2024

Lift

A friend lowers a rope for another person to climb. Caption: Having a colleague to help me understand a new paper.

Seriously, it’s like a cheat code!

26 Jun 2024

Healthy Identity

Three examples of identity. On the left, a single big circle. In the middle (the "healthy identity") includes six medium-sized circles. On the right, there are many small circles.

Honestly, six parts might be pushing it, but you definitely need more than one!

19 Jun 2024

Mindset

A graph of "Get to" versus "Have to". There's a horizontal dashed line about 2/3 of the way to the top, and above it reads "The perspective I want".

Most of the time, it requires only a moment of pause.

12 Jun 2024

Overflow

Two friends try to keep one of the friend's Cup of Life from overflowing by adding extra walls at the top, but they are clearly struggling. The owner of the cup (which is me) says, "Just stay still! I'm sure this will hold."

“But what about my Cup?”

“We’ll get to it once mine is stable.”

05 Jun 2024

Memorize

A graph of "Number of distinct topics to remember in math" versus "Time". The curve initially goes up as you're learning new topics, but then decreases as you see the connections between topics and only have to memorize a few basic facts.

I used to hate it when, after either myself or a classmate complained about a lack of memory aids for a test, my mathematics professor would say, “Just rederive anything you don’t know! Then you don’t have to memorize it.” While I think they didn’t always appreciate the need for speed during tests, they were definitely on the right track for learning mathematics in general.

29 May 2024

Joy

A graph of "Joy" versus "Process". The "Thriving" curve continuously increases, while the "Quitting" curves goes up and then decays.

Distinguishing these curves for myself is a lifelong pursuit.

25 May 2024

Jockeying

A time series of arXiv submissions over the course of a day (in EST). Almost nobody submits between 00:00-13:59. There's a huge spike at 14:00, corresponding to papers that will be at the top of the list. The submissions then decay throughout the rest of the day.

This is probably a physics thing, isn’t it?

16 May 2024

To the past To the present