Board Work

And the one that drives me nuts: A professor who continually erases and adjusts the bits of their letters while talking, as if the smudge-fest that ensues is clearer than the original writing!

Instinct

Sorry, it’s a knee-jerk reaction.

Gripping Conversations

My favourite example of this is when a researcher asks a question after a presentation that is all about showcasing their own knowledge instead of engaging in a dialogue.

Test Making

I wonder how many professors employ the strategy of building the train tracks as the train speeds along them?

Neural Network Tuning

You would be surprised how many people suggest I should just use a neural network to train the hyperparameters…

Few Pages

The conversion factor between the time you think it will take and the time it will actually take is somewhere around 1/0.

On Your Own

I think this is one of the few measurements I’ve made as a theoretical physicist where I can claim absolute certainty: 0 ± 0!

A Week

And that’s not looking at the unfortunate souls who find themselves climbing a never-ending ladder.

Meeting Stress

The trick to not worrying: Most people aren’t thinking about you.

First Step

My favourite part is when a term take’s the form of “Name’s X”. It gives almost no indication for what’s going on, but I guess it does give the researcher their mark in history…

(Though to be fair, it’s not the researcher themselves that often self-titles their own work.)