Comics about mathematics, science, and the student life.

Citation Trail

Graph of the overlap with the original claim as a function of citation trail. The message gradually has less overlap, and becomes corrupted later.

This is why you want to deal with the original source.

28 Mar 2022

Tweak

A graduate student is with their supervisor. Graduate student: "Here's my work." Supervisor: "Hmm...why didn't you try what I usually do?" Graduate student: "But look at what I *did*!" Supervisor: "Yes, yes, that's great. Now, can you do this?"

Ah, the joys of being blinded by your usual ways.

25 Mar 2022

Paper Space

A winding journey from "Start Writing" to "Paper Complete". Includes "Initial burst", "Heavy revision", "Multiple dead ends", "Finding the story", and "Final edits".

My hope is that I will be able to set up trail markers to avoid chunks of this winding path in the future.

23 Mar 2022

One Sentence

A scientist and a friend are discussing. The friend says, "You have one sentence to describe your work." The scientist replies, "Is a 2000 word, jargon-filled sentence okay?" Caption: We scientists need to work on our communication skills.

No, it’s not.

21 Mar 2022

Approximate

Left panel: Two scientists are talking to each other. One says, "Those physicists are so smart. I bet they're doing rigorous work right now!" Right panel (Meanwhile): Two physicists are at a blackboard, thinking about a problem. One says, "How can we approximate our troubles away?"

When in doubt, approximate.

18 Mar 2022

Decisions

Left panel (Unimportant, Short-Term): A person throws their hands up in the air and says, "Oh, I just can't decide!" Right panel (Important, Long-Term): The person says, "I'll just ignore this."

And then I wonder why I’m not happy with where I’m going.

16 Mar 2022

Ease

A graph of the "Level of ease" versus time. It begins high, with people saying, "This is easy!" Then there's a dip, with the label, "Maybe not". Finally, the ease increases again, which marks becoming an expert.

That dip may take longer than pictured.

14 Mar 2022

Opinions

A person talks to their friend who is pulling a wagon with a bunch of things in it. The person says, "What's all that?" Friend: "My opinions." Person: "It looks like some are from other people." Friend: "Oh, I just let them hop in."

I wonder about this all the time. Was I the person who put that opinion there?

11 Mar 2022

Freedom

Left panel: A scientist says, "I love being an academic. So much freedom!" Right panel: The scientist is worried and says, "But what should I do?"

The eternal question for those trying to navigate their early academic career.

09 Mar 2022

Generalize

Two mathematicians discussing a problem. Mathematician 1: "I'm stuck on my problem." Mathematician 2: "Remember the first rule of mathematics: Generalize until the problem becomes easy!"

The mathematicians that call a problem “trivial” are probably those that have gone up the ladder of abstraction way past where you can see.

07 Mar 2022