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PhD Productivity Strategy: Do Deep Work in Less Hours

nextscientist.com

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Re: PhD Productivity Strategy: Do Deep Work in Less Hours

#101

Post by arximboldi »

magic_beans wrote: post #80
a_e_k wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. I think the reason it bugs me so much is because my mind views it as a type error: int fewer; float less; is how I tend to remember the distinction. (Fortunately in my family, my wife is the language nerd who first called me on my misuse many years ago. Now I notice it everywhere too. It's weirdly viral.)

Fewer is for things that can be counted in numbers. Less is for non-numbered things. It's so easy that it really disturbs me when people get it wrong. Fewer people. Fewer zoos. Fewer cigarettes. Less hatred. Less abuse. Less misuse of power.

Even though one can say "two people", to me it feels that "less people" or "fewer persons" are more correct than "fewer people".

On another note, see how "fewer times" and "less time" means different things (might help clarify the distinction to some.)

(Non native speaker here though.)

Re: PhD Productivity Strategy: Do Deep Work in Less Hours

#102

Post by agumonkey »

xaa wrote: post #100
agumonkey wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aight, wonderful idea. I wish De Grey and his friends get to see this system.

Thanks for your interest. I've actually met him once -- a friend of his I was talking to over beers introduced us -- but at the time, he was seemingly more interested in his pending date with the blonde he had just picked up than talking with a lowly graduate student. Can't say I blame him :) His papers are excellent, though. A more philosophical and broad approach is needed in aging, I think. He has mellowed a lot f…

haha so not surprised by your anecdote, I met him only once but it seems very degrey. Doesn't waste time.

From I what I could hear, he has to spend a lot of time managing funding for sub parts of the foundation and other efforts. Maybe this dilluted his claims a bit in time. All of his friends seemed to be pretty high grade researchers, it was a bit of an SF experiment sitting among that crowd.

Thanks for the name, there's another Kirkland studying aged things https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Kirkland_(paleontologist... but well .. couldn't resist that joke.

The panel I attended was the ICSA 2017 at Paris (Pasteur) http://www.icsa2017-senescence-on-the-seine.org/

Kirkland wasn't there but a nice international bunch

They were supposed to plan for a sequel since a few hundred people attended their surprise talk; we'll see.

Re: PhD Productivity Strategy: Do Deep Work in Less Hours

#103

Post by sage76 »

altotrees wrote: post #50
throwawayaway12 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I largely agree with this, but in some fields I also think it is an over supply of PhD problem as well.

The oversupply problem is one that doesn't seem to be going away ay time soon, especially in the pure sciences. From my anecdotal evidence, it seems to be harder and harder to get into academia or cross into industry each year. I have multiple bio and chemistry PhD friends who have been either stuck in limbo at a postdoc position or who have left the field in frustration. I wonder if it will correct over time, or if…

Is it the same in CS as far as industry positions are concerned?

Re: PhD Productivity Strategy: Do Deep Work in Less Hours

#104

Post by cfusting »

UncleMeat wrote: post #31
cfusting wrote: post #26

"deep work"meaning concentrate. Breaks, of course. Innovation does not happen at the grind. Funny how concentration has gone out of fashion.

Innovation isn't the most time consuming part of a PhD. If you are doing benchwork there is an amount of time that is simply required to get experiments functioning.

I suppose I am thinking of it from math/coding perspective where the right idea saves a ton of time.

Re: PhD Productivity Strategy: Do Deep Work in Less Hours

#105

Post by xaa »

pgbovine wrote: post #21
Upvoter33 wrote: post #9

I think it's incredibly hard to give general advice about the Ph.D. process. Even within the same discipline, the work varies greatly from sub-discipline to sub-discipline, and from advisor to advisor.

agreed! i cover this topic here: http://pgbovine.net/PG-Vlog-26-what-does-academia-mean.htm

I have to thank you for your "Ph.D. Grind" memoir. There were many lessons in it, but the lesson I took from it, as I recall from reading it several years ago, was basically that you have to discard perfectionism to get anything done.

I'm not sure if that was even an intended message, but that's what I took from it, and I thought back to it during the dark hours of dissertation writing when I was repeatedly thinking "this isn't good enough". I also remembered the lesson that one should be willing to be flexible in the sense that the dissertation doesn't have to be exactly (or at all) what you originally intended it to be.

Re: PhD Productivity Strategy: Do Deep Work in Less Hours

#106

Post by altotrees »

sage76 wrote: post #103
altotrees wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The oversupply problem is one that doesn't seem to be going away ay time soon, especially in the pure sciences. From my anecdotal evidence, it seems to be harder and harder to get into academia or cross into industry each year. I have multiple bio and chemistry PhD friends who have been either stuck in limbo at a postdoc position or who have left the field in frustration. I wonder if it will correct over time, or if…

Is it the same in CS as far as industry positions are concerned?

Not from what I have read or heard. There still seems to be a need across the board for those with deep knowledge, especially when it comes to certain topics. The people I have known who have had trouble, and studies I have read about the topic point mainly to biology and chemistry as the two hardest fields to break initially with a PhD. But of course even that could change depending on specialization, etc.

Re: PhD Productivity Strategy: Do Deep Work in Less Hours

#107

Post by alphaalpha101 »

>The worst PhD productivity advice is to work long hours. This advice is shared by successful people in Academia, so it should be good advice, shouldn’t it?

Is it though? Because I've never heard this ever. I've heard over and over again to avoid working long hours. It always annoys me when articles start off on premises like these that I just don't think are true.

Re: PhD Productivity Strategy: Do Deep Work in Less Hours

#108

Post by alphaalpha101 »

aub3bhat wrote: post #3

This is stupid advice with sole purpose of keeping students engaged in publishing incremental research. So that no one questions vanity metrics like H-index and the ridiculous condition of academic research. As a PhD student the real secret strategy is to ignore academia, work only on very high impact projects ( with potential of becoming startups or revolutionizing the field), intern with production teams (in core a…

And if you don't think being an entrepreneur/startup founder/businessman is the pinnacle of human achievement? What then?

Re: PhD Productivity Strategy: Do Deep Work in Less Hours

#109

Post by neuromantik8086 »

sage76 wrote: post #103
altotrees wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The oversupply problem is one that doesn't seem to be going away ay time soon, especially in the pure sciences. From my anecdotal evidence, it seems to be harder and harder to get into academia or cross into industry each year. I have multiple bio and chemistry PhD friends who have been either stuck in limbo at a postdoc position or who have left the field in frustration. I wonder if it will correct over time, or if…

Is it the same in CS as far as industry positions are concerned?

CS and Econ PhD programs both benefit from an extreme amount of cross-pollination between academia and industry. The ability to jump ship from the academy isn't nearly as large of an issue as it is in the sciences (with the exception of physics perhaps). The humanities are mostly screwed.

Source (for econ at least; CS is anecdotal): http://noahpinionblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/if-you-get-phd-ge...

Re: PhD Productivity Strategy: Do Deep Work in Less Hours

#110

Post by neuromantik8086 »

altotrees wrote: post #50
throwawayaway12 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I largely agree with this, but in some fields I also think it is an over supply of PhD problem as well.

The oversupply problem is one that doesn't seem to be going away ay time soon, especially in the pure sciences. From my anecdotal evidence, it seems to be harder and harder to get into academia or cross into industry each year. I have multiple bio and chemistry PhD friends who have been either stuck in limbo at a postdoc position or who have left the field in frustration. I wonder if it will correct over time, or if…

Meanwhile, there's been a trend of major corporations closing their R&D facilities because they aren't as sexy on the quarterly balance sheets, which clearly isn't making things better.
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