Sunday, March 28, 2010

Getting Residual Value Out Of Reading Technical Papers

If you're getting a Ph.D., reading technical papers is a necessary part of the process.  And when you first dive into a research area, getting up to speed may seem like an insurmountable task. Take heart; it isn't :o). 

It just takes a hella long time.

Doesn't it suck when you've read a paper some time ago, but can't quite recall what it was about?  Me too.  So here's a nice time saver you can implement.  Consider it "The Reader's Digest Method" for your research area.

A typical bib entry might look something like this:

@Book{abramowitz+stegun-64,
author = "Milton {Abramowitz} and Irene A. {Stegun}",
title = "Handbook of Mathematical Functions with
Formulas, Graphs, and Mathematical Tables",
publisher = "Dover",
year = 1964,
address = "New York",
edition = "ninth Dover printing, tenth GPO printing"
}


Using The Reader's Digest Method, the above bib entry would look something like this:

@Book{abramowitz+stegun-64,
author = "Milton {Abramowitz} and Irene A. {Stegun}",
title = "Handbook of Mathematical Functions with
Formulas, Graphs, and Mathematical Tables",
publisher = "Dover",
year = 1964,
address = "New York",
edition = "ninth Dover printing, tenth GPO printing",
tags = "TERMS TO CLASSIFY THIS ENTRY",
summary = "PROBLEM ADDRESSED, APPROACH, WERE THEY SUCCESSFUL?",
analysis = "DRAWBACKS (IF ANY) OF THIS WORK"

}

I imagine it's immediately obvious why the additional three elements at the bottom of this bib entry are useful.  But something tells me that the tags entry *may* deserve some elaboration.  Remember that your .bib files can grow pretty large over the years you're doing your Ph.D.  And you'll want to be able to quickly search for papers that are classified differently in your research area (e.g., I need to find all "Intrusion Detection" papers I've read). Tagging helps you find these papers quickly. 

Imagine if your .bib file was full of these extra bib elements!  You'd rarely have to go back and reread an entire paper!  So give this method a spin.  Get some residual value out of all the hours you spend reading a paper for a change.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Visiting Graduate Programs

College seniors are now making their visits to institutions they've been admitted to for graduate school.  At a visit, invariably these students have meetings scheduled with an array of faculty members. And, invariably students rarely know what to ask these faculty members.  So graduating seniors, this post is for you.

Believe it or not, the first questions you pose are not to a faculty member, but to yourself.  The Ph.D. is something you pick up on your way to putting your full dent in the universe.  So the million dollar question you must ask yourself is: "What the hell do I want to do AFTER I get the Ph.D.?"  For some of you, I'm sure, this can be answered without thinking. However, I'm willing to bet that for most of you, asking this question will produce no meaningful answer.  Hence, for the rest of you, the hundred thousand dollar question you must ask yourself is: "What the hell do I NOT want to do AFTER I get the Ph.D.?"  Although it's possible that you may not arrive at a definitive answer, this 2nd question at least narrows the answer space to viable alternatives for the 1st question.

Once you've answered one of the above questions, read the faculty members' websites.  You'll often find that faculty members actually have advice for students looking to work with them on their Websites.  So please, please, take notes on all faculty members you'll meet based on their Websites. Review your notes before the meeting.  Your preparation should show in your meeting.  Beyond earning you brownie points, it may earn you a Research Assistantship (among other things).                

Ask if there are any current students you can speak with.  Notice that I say "students" and "speak." Not "student" and "email."  Talking to students is critical because one student's opinion can vary dramatically from another student's.  You never know what underlying drama may be present. So by talking to as many students of a faculty member as possible you increase your chances of discovering the truth.  Speaking to these students is critical because graduate students are busy (or at least think they are) and can very well ignore your emails.  It's far more difficult to ignore a living, breathing human being standing in front you.  Lastly, when speaking with someone, you can detect physical ques that may clue you in to things that "just don't smell right." 

Do NOT forget to ask if there is anyone they've graduated that you can talk to. It may not be possible to speak with these folks, but if you can, absolutely talk to them!  Why?  THEY HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO REASON TO LIE TO YOU.  They already have their Ph.D.s.   You see, professors usually have contracts that require they produce some artifact.  And this artifact tends to the be the result of their students' effort.  If the faculty member has no students coming in to work with him/her, the member may "HOLD ON" to their current students (i.e., postpone current students' graduation timeline).  This creates an incentive structure where students may be less than forthright with you if it might mean you not working with their advisor. 

Although these are not all the things you should do and ask, they should give you a hell of head start!  Good luck!

Monday, March 1, 2010

The Definitive Guide to Spending Less Time on Facebook

The first thing you must cultivate is a strong disdain for lots of information.  Let's face it, Facebook (FB) has gobs and gobs of information.  Just silently tell yourself that all the information that FB bombards you with is highly undesirable.  Got it?  Now we can move on with the guide.
  • Ignore the "Live Feed" option.  Pretend that it's not even there.  If you want a live feed, go to Twitter, the originator of live feeds of people in your network.  The Live Feed will only steer you into trouble so treat it like a bastard stepchild...because it is.
  • Look at only your "Home Feed."  FB has an algorithm to try to bring certain things to your attention.  Let FB's algorithm do its thing.  Yes, it kind of sucks at finding interesting things in your network, but so what?  What's the most you'll miss?  A new hiking trip photo album from your roommate in college?
  • "Hide" ruthlessly.  If you find there are certain line items that cause you to engage FB more than you want, "Hide it" from your FB feed.  If there's an item on your Home feed that generates even a hint of disgust, you must hide it.  You don't want that negativity clouding your thinking for real work.    
  • Reply from your email when you can. FB has integrated the ability for you to reply to comments from your email account.  USE IT!  If you respond from your email, you'll be less tempted by all the other candy dancing around FB.
  • Get off other people's schedules.  People tend not to be on FB Friday afternoon through the evening.  The same can be said for Saturday afternoon through the evening.  If you want to get on FB and stalk people, these are the times to do that.  There won't be much ongoing activity to keep you on there very long.  I know what you're thinking though.  "If everybody does this, then won't people be active on FB and make this an ineffective strategy."  Theoretically, yes everybody could read this article and start putting this strategy into practice.  However, the chances of this happening is about the same as getting struck with lightning 10 times...under water.
  • Batch process the "FB pulls."  The folks at FB are pretty smart.  They send you numerous emails to engage you in FB (e.g., messages, comments on your wall, comments on your posts), and I refer to them as "FB pulls" because they try to pull you back into FB.  Good thing FB isn't your boss--whew!  You can respond to those FB pulls whenever you damn well please.  Exercise that power!  A corollary of this point, is that if you have no FB pulls, you have no business on FB.     
Hopefully, with the above points as guides, your time can be a little less FB-filled.  Cheers!