Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

An opinionated take on how to do important research that matters

nicholas.carlini.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 51 posts

Re: An opinionated take on how to do important research that matters

#21

Post by paulpauper »

cgearhart wrote: post #16

I often find this kind of advice too vague to really be useful. “Have taste” in the problems you work on isn’t very actionable. (Unless perhaps you list examples of good and bad taste.) I’ll admit that I may just be immature at research as almost all my experience has either been attempting to replicate research or to put it into practice in production systems.

Yes this does not work as well for math or physics. The biggest problem in math is arguably the Riemann Hypothesis . Good luck getting up to the speed on the literature on that . You can invest a lifetime trying to solve the biggest problems in physics or math and get nowhere. You may have to choose more modest goals.

Re: An opinionated take on how to do important research that matters

#22

Post by cgearhart »

jltsiren wrote: post #19
cgearhart wrote: post #16

I often find this kind of advice too vague to really be useful. “Have taste” in the problems you work on isn’t very actionable. (Unless perhaps you list examples of good and bad taste.) I’ll admit that I may just be immature at research as almost all my experience has either been attempting to replicate research or to put it into practice in production systems.

"Having taste" is mostly about predicting the future. Which problems are worth studying, which problems you are capable of solving, and which solutions turn out to be important, in retrospect. If there was an actionable way of developing taste in something, the activity itself would probably be so predictable that it would not be a particularly good research topic. Taste is mostly about having a good intuition on the…

That seems even less actionable, and somewhat misaligned with the OP article. “Taste” implies an ability to distinguish between a good example and a bad one. If it’s only recognizable in retrospect then it’s just another name for survivorship bias.

Re: An opinionated take on how to do important research that matters

#23

Post by avaer »

I wish the original title was kept ("How to win a best paper award"). It seems a good list for that.

Most of this list is about how to dress for senpai; figuratively speaking. A pretty depressing take on "how to do important research that matters".

I would hope that would be of the most unimportant part of science, totally irrelevant to what's important and what matters. But maybe that's not true today.

Re: An opinionated take on how to do important research that matters

#24

Post by andai »

jltsiren wrote: post #19
cgearhart wrote: post #16

I often find this kind of advice too vague to really be useful. “Have taste” in the problems you work on isn’t very actionable. (Unless perhaps you list examples of good and bad taste.) I’ll admit that I may just be immature at research as almost all my experience has either been attempting to replicate research or to put it into practice in production systems.

"Having taste" is mostly about predicting the future. Which problems are worth studying, which problems you are capable of solving, and which solutions turn out to be important, in retrospect. If there was an actionable way of developing taste in something, the activity itself would probably be so predictable that it would not be a particularly good research topic. Taste is mostly about having a good intuition on the…

Unless you're too early in which case you get mocked for decades.

Re: An opinionated take on how to do important research that matters

#25

Post by jltsiren »

cgearhart wrote: post #22
jltsiren wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Having taste" is mostly about predicting the future. Which problems are worth studying, which problems you are capable of solving, and which solutions turn out to be important, in retrospect. If there was an actionable way of developing taste in something, the activity itself would probably be so predictable that it would not be a particularly good research topic. Taste is mostly about having a good intuition on the…

That seems even less actionable, and somewhat misaligned with the OP article. “Taste” implies an ability to distinguish between a good example and a bad one. If it’s only recognizable in retrospect then it’s just another name for survivorship bias.

If you need actionable guidelines, you may not be the right person to do research. At least not now.

Research is all about studying topics of uncertain value. You have to commit to a project long before you can say if it's actually worth doing.

Taste comes with deliberate effort and experience. It doesn't tell you that a topic is definitely worth studying, but it increases the likelihood that you will guess right.

Re: An opinionated take on how to do important research that matters

#26

Post by janalsncm »

jltsiren wrote: post #25
cgearhart wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems even less actionable, and somewhat misaligned with the OP article. “Taste” implies an ability to distinguish between a good example and a bad one. If it’s only recognizable in retrospect then it’s just another name for survivorship bias.

If you need actionable guidelines, you may not be the right person to do research. At least not now. Research is all about studying topics of uncertain value. You have to commit to a project long before you can say if it's actually worth doing. Taste comes with deliberate effort and experience. It doesn't tell you that a topic is definitely worth studying, but it increases the likelihood that you will guess right.

What is the point of writing the prescription to “have good taste” then?

Either the reader already has it, in which case there’s no point in being told that. Or the reader doesn’t, in which case you have declared that good taste cannot be taught.

Perhaps the author’s next article should be How to win the lottery: be lucky which is just about as actionable.

Re: An opinionated take on how to do important research that matters

#27

Post by devonkelley »

cgearhart wrote: post #22
jltsiren wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Having taste" is mostly about predicting the future. Which problems are worth studying, which problems you are capable of solving, and which solutions turn out to be important, in retrospect. If there was an actionable way of developing taste in something, the activity itself would probably be so predictable that it would not be a particularly good research topic. Taste is mostly about having a good intuition on the…

That seems even less actionable, and somewhat misaligned with the OP article. “Taste” implies an ability to distinguish between a good example and a bad one. If it’s only recognizable in retrospect then it’s just another name for survivorship bias.

[dead]

Re: An opinionated take on how to do important research that matters

#28

Post by jltsiren »

janalsncm wrote: post #26
jltsiren wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you need actionable guidelines, you may not be the right person to do research. At least not now. Research is all about studying topics of uncertain value. You have to commit to a project long before you can say if it's actually worth doing. Taste comes with deliberate effort and experience. It doesn't tell you that a topic is definitely worth studying, but it increases the likelihood that you will guess right.

What is the point of writing the prescription to “have good taste” then? Either the reader already has it, in which case there’s no point in being told that. Or the reader doesn’t, in which case you have declared that good taste cannot be taught. Perhaps the author’s next article should be How to win the lottery: be lucky which is just about as actionable.

The author's answer was:

> But if I had to summarize it in one sentence, it would be that taste comes from practicing the skill of research, keeping your focus always on identifying what works and what doesn't.

Instead of following general guidelines, focus on figuring out what works and what doesn't in each specific situation. Keep doing that for many years, and your taste will develop. Remember that you are training your intuition, not developing a set of exact rules.

Re: An opinionated take on how to do important research that matters

#29

Post by rsaarelm »

janalsncm wrote: post #26
jltsiren wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you need actionable guidelines, you may not be the right person to do research. At least not now. Research is all about studying topics of uncertain value. You have to commit to a project long before you can say if it's actually worth doing. Taste comes with deliberate effort and experience. It doesn't tell you that a topic is definitely worth studying, but it increases the likelihood that you will guess right.

What is the point of writing the prescription to “have good taste” then? Either the reader already has it, in which case there’s no point in being told that. Or the reader doesn’t, in which case you have declared that good taste cannot be taught. Perhaps the author’s next article should be How to win the lottery: be lucky which is just about as actionable.

It's helpful to tell people that they are in uncharted territory and can't rely on running on autopilot even if you don't have a new map to give them. Whether they can make their way or not is unclear, but the first step is just making sure they understand that they're now in a place where they need to make their own way and can't fully rely on existing maps. Otherwise they might not even realize they need to start asking "am I doing the right thing right now" by themselves.

Re: An opinionated take on how to do important research that matters

#30

Post by tptacek »

Best bit:

Put in an unreasonable amount of effort

> Earlier I made an analogy to being an explorer; here's another I like even more. Think of yourself as a wildlife photographer. Obviously you need to be in the right place (you won't get a great picture of anything from your couch) and you need to be skilled at your craft. But once you've met those preconditions, the way to get the best picture is to just spend an unreasonable amount of time waiting for exactly the right circumstances to arise.

Post reply on HN