It’s one of those nights again. It’s 2 in the morning, and I’m sitting at my computer sweating over job listings. I won’t be graduating for over three years, but I’m going at it like my life depends on it. In fact, I’ve been going at it for hours. Suddenly,[…]
The greatest improvement in the productive powers of labour, and the greater part of the skill, dexterity, and judgement with which it is any where directed, or applied, seem to have been the effects of the division of labour. These are the first words in The Wealth of Nations by Adam[…]
Guess what? The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies approved legislation last Wednesday that cuts into the budgets of the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and various other science-related grant programs. I realize that the deficit is an issue, but we have[…]
In my previous article, I hope that I made it exceedingly clear that working conditions in graduate-level research have gone off the rails. So now, what do we do about it? Where can we go? Are we totally screwed? No.
I consider myself lucky when it comes to graduate school life. I have everything in balance, and I feel that my productivity and creativity are enhanced by this fact. I owe a large part of this to the culture of my research group, and I am thankful to my adviser[…]
I’ve recently been reading Surely You Must Be Joking, Mr. Feynman! It’s a fantastic book, go read it now. It shows one of the greatest modern scientists, totally humanized in a down-to-earth, funny as all hell biography told through a series of anecdotes and stories from the man himself. Going[…]
In my review of the Checklist Manifesto, I promised to write a post about some checklist applications for scientists and researchers. At first I thought I had exhausted any content with the post about Adam Savage’s tips. However, there are important distinctions between those tips and a good checklist. In[…]
For a long time when thinking about game balance I fell into the trap of thinking that when something was “perfectly balanced” then all the strategies available to the player were equally viable. If they weren’t all viable, then what was the use of having those strategies available at all?[…]
At Makers Faire 2010, Adam Savage of Mythbuster’s fame gave a talk about his problem solving process. Even though he is a special effects guy by training, his advice applies very well for anybody doing scientific research! There may be a few steps missing for our purposes, but I believe[…]