Academic Wishlist 2

A wishlist for the holidays. 1. The discipline to not take on too many projects (>= 3). 2. No (fewer) bugs in my code. 3. Regular (some) breaks from being always "on". 4. JWST safely in space (with no delays).

The sad part is that many don’t see item 3 as desirable.

24 Dec 2021

Paper Cut

A graph of paper length as a function of editing time. It begins high, and then decreases in steps as the authors implement the following strategies: Contracting words, using acronyms, moving all details to the supplementary information, and moving the methods to the figures.

Then there’s all the fun of playing with the font size and column width, as well as merging paragraphs. There are just so many options!

22 Dec 2021

Linchpin

Two female scientists discussing research. Scientist 1: "I've secured my spot in the research group forever!" Scientist 2: "How?" Scientist 1: "By ensuring I'm the only one who can navigate the codebase."

A few years later, she’s driven nuts by everyone asking her questions about the code.

20 Dec 2021

Research Realities

Two scientists are walking and discussing their work. Scientist 1 says, "I tried fifty different things today, and one worked. Maybe." Scientist 2 says, "That's progress!" Caption: Research realities.

And you thought the batting ratio in baseball was low.

17 Dec 2021

Expert

A scientist saying, "I know a ton about this." Caption above: A scientist discussing a topic they are an expert on. Caption below: Also shown: When they have no idea.

The exercise to the reader is to figure out which one you’re dealing with.

15 Dec 2021

Right

Left panel (School): A student sits at their desk, looking at their homework. "What's the right answer?" Right panel (Research): A scientist stands at their blackboard, and asks, "What's the right question?"

They don’t teach you this in school.

13 Dec 2021

Block

A scientist stands in a landscape and says, "Let's show X!" X is far away, but it is surrounded by a dotted line, with a label, "Obscure math theorem that keeps blocking you".

If only I could take this bird’s-eye view more often. It would save me a lot of time!

10 Dec 2021

Explanations

Left panel (Good Explanations): A student walks up a steep but manageable incline, saying, "Steady progress!" Right panel (Bad Explanations): A student looks up a series of sheer cliffs, like a giant staircase that they could never hope to climb. They say, "Well then."

The tricky part is that one giant step can ruin a perfectly good incline.

08 Dec 2021

Survivor Bias

Left panel (At the end): A prominent scientist declares, "The direction to my success was always clear." Right panel (At the beginning): The scientist holds a map with only a few spots filled in, and a huge question mark. "What am I supposed to do?!"

Don’t fool yourself by only listening to those who succeeded.

06 Dec 2021

Recipes

A graduate student holds a recipe book, whose back cover says, "The best recipes!". The student says, "There's nothing here telling me *how* to make my own recipes." Caption: The transition from classes to research was challenging.

Wait, you mean you don’t just solve more complicated equations as you go further in school?

03 Dec 2021

To the past To the present