Simple heuristics for an academic career
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SOME EASY THINGS TO DO TO IMPROVE YOUR CHANCES OF SUCCESS AS AN ACADEMIC
Decision Science News was recently asked to give a talk on simple strategies for doing research.
Rewrite things many times. Someone, perhaps Woody Allen, said “Writing is hard. Rewriting is easy.”
Write as if you’re writing the final version. If it looks nearly done, you’ll fool yourself into thinking it’s nearly done, and you’ll actually finish it.
Read every article someone has published. You can’t do this with Herbert Simon, but you can do it with Egon Brunswik and many other great minds. Read 10 pages every morning into a tape recorder. You’ll be surprised at how little time it takes and how empowering it is.
Find your secret weapon. Newell and Simon made early advances in Psychology and Artificial Intelligence in part because they had access to a computer when almost nobody else did. What do you have access to that others don’t?
Use catchy names. And otherwise write like someone whose job it is to write. Who doesn’t want to be entertained?
Bet. Bet on scientific hypotheses with your research group. It accelerates the pace of research.
Approach people in other fields and say “have you ever thought about combining what you do with what I do?”. If they’re bright, they have. It may lead to groundbreaking research.
Build simple models. If models were supposed to be complicated, they’d be called thephenomenoninquestions. Adding parameters reduces generalizability (proof).
Pose questions. And get people to answer. Questions turn passive listeners into active collaborators.
Use three-dimensional representations. Print things out, cut them up, tape them together, rotate them in space.
Understand statistics. Especially exploratory data analysis (EDA). You’ll find yourself in a valued minority.
