Insecure

Left panel (Start of Graduate School): A student scratches his chin and says, "I've got to show everyone that I know a lot." Right panel (End of Graduate School): A student shrugs and says, "Eh, I know a little, and that's enough."

Graduate school: Learning to be okay with all that you don’t know.

26 Apr 2023

Answers

A graph of "Difficulty to answer" versus "Simplicity of the question". The graph is positive and linear.

There’s a reason why there are big open research questions that are simple to state.

24 Apr 2023

Despair

A graph of "Checking job postings" versus "Despair as a graduate student". The checking quickly rises with despair.

The time-honoured tradition of daydreaming to get away from my current research problems.

21 Apr 2023

Margin

A person arranges a series of boxes that represent tasks along an axis labeled "Time of day". The axis is almost completely full, and the person is trying to squeeze one last task box that clearly doesn't fit. He's saying, "Why do I feel like I have no time?"

“You know, you could give yourself a little space between each task. It’s called ‘margin’.”

“But then I wouldn’t be able to fit this task in!”

(Hat tip to Shawn Blanc for his generous work on margin and an inspiration for this comic!)

19 Apr 2023

Valley of Expectations

A person struggles to get out of a deep valley with a rock at the bottom labeled "Expectations". He's saying, "But I don't even want this!"

The problem is that I often only notice the valley when it becomes super deep.

17 Apr 2023

Canadian Quantum Winter

A man with a hat and a woman are standing outside in the snow with a quantum device partially covered by the snow. He says, "And it just runs perfectly?" She answers, "Yep. It turns out Canadian winters provide ideal conditions for quantum devices." He says, "No wonder there's so much funding here."

Happy World Quantum Day!

14 Apr 2023

Research Garden

An overhead view of a garden. The top of the comic has a box of plants labeled, "Staple research crop". To the left is a research tool shed. In the middle are two circular containers representing collaboration experiments. To the right is another box, but this one has idea seedlings.

What else is in your garden?

12 Apr 2023

Revising

A graph of "Improving my writing" versus "Staring at it". The curve initially increases, then plateaus and crashes back down to zero. There's a label pointing to when the curve is going downwards that says, "Need fresh eyes".

This is also why it’s good to have someone you can share your writing with as you’re revising so that they can see things you will never be able to see from such a close vantage point.

10 Apr 2023

Editing

A graph of "Time spent editing an email" versus "Care for recipient". The curve increases roughly like a quadratic function.

And as a corollary, the length of the email tends to decrease with editing. (As with this quote that inspired the comic.)

07 Apr 2023

Tech Issues

A woman from IT says, "So after 10 hours of digging, I found the issue." The researcher says, "What did I do?" The IT worker answers, "Oh, it was an issue on our side." The researcher pumps her fist and exclaims, "Yes!" Caption: I'm always relieved when IT tells me my issue wasn't my fault.

But honestly, the issue is usually me.

05 Apr 2023

To the past To the present