Data Race

Three physicists sprinting towards a sign that says, "Publish here". The caption: Theoretical physicists racing to publish first on new data.

“Quick, we need to establish precedence first!”

31 Aug 2022

Homogeneous

A large space labeled, "All people". Inside is a dot representing a person, with a small circle around them labeled, "The only people you interact with". The dot says, "Why is everyone like me?!"

In fact, this is the best response, because the alternative is thinking that the little circle represents everyone.

29 Aug 2022

Rent Free

A frequency bar graph showing how many mistakes occur versus successes, as well as the proportion of space each one takes in my mind. While I have many successes and few mistakes, the few mistakes take up much more space in my mind.

Don’t let the mistakes linger more than they need to.

26 Aug 2022

Work Cycle

Two words: "Work" and "Celebrate". They are joined in a cycle by two arrows, and there is a third arrow that creates a self-loop for "Work". The label for that self-loop says, "A bad shortcut".

It’s always worth it to rest and celebrate.

24 Aug 2022

Astrology

Two aliens are flying above a hill on Earth in a spaceship. The first one says, "I don't understand it. They have hundreds of telescopes, so they must know *something* about the stars!" The second replies, "Not according to these 'astrology' books I found."

“Wait…What if they know more than we do?”

22 Aug 2022

Time Estimates

A bar graph of frequency for different projected time estimates. The largest bar is the "Underestimate", there's a smaller bar for estimates that correspond to the "Actual" time, and a minuscule portion for the "Overestimate".

I can settle for being wrong with all my time estimates. Just please make them overestimates!

19 Aug 2022

Learning Curves

Top-left: Gentle, with a curve increasing slowly. Top-right: Linear, with a curve increasing linearly. Bottom-left: Steep, with a curve rapidly increasing. Bottom-right: Discontinuous, with a curve as a series of steps.

Not pictured: Non-monotonic, which is what I suspect most of us end up experiencing.

17 Aug 2022

Questions and Confusion

A graph of two curves as a function of time. The first one increases exponentially with time has the label "Time required to clear up confusion", while the second one decreases linearly with time and has the label "Time left to answer questions". The caption under the whole comic is "Most presentations".

“We have time for two questions.” Pauses and checks the time. “Make that two quick questions.”

15 Aug 2022

Time Management

Two friends walk together. The first one says, "I really learned a lot about time management during my PhD." The friend says, "Oh yeah? So you're more efficient now?" The first one replies, "Not at all, but I now keep expectations super low."

“I also learned that research is super-duper hard. Maybe I should have realized that going in.”

12 Aug 2022

Reach

On the left is a person standing, and above them is a dotted line representing their height, with the label, "Research conclusions". On the right is a person standing with their arm extended high into the air, pushing the dotted line higher. The label is, "The hyped-up version in a paper".

You wanted a study with a lot of reach, right?

10 Aug 2022

To the past To the present