3 ms·

Staying Sane in Academia

34 points by gnosis 16y ago

jey 16y ago
Interesting to contrast this with Richard Hamming's advice: Another trait, it took me a while to notice. I noticed the following facts about people who work with the door open or the door closed. I notice that if you have the door to your office closed, you get more work done today and tomorrow, and you are more productive than most. But 10 years later somehow you don't know quite know what problems are worth working on; all the hard work you do is sort of tangential in importance. He who works with the door open gets all kinds of interruptions, but he also occasionally gets clues as to what the world is and what might be important. Now I cannot prove the cause and effect sequence because you might say, ``The closed door is symbolic of a closed mind.'' I don't know. But I can say there is a pretty good correlation between those who work with the doors open and those who ultimately do important things, although people who work with doors closed often work harder. Somehow they seem to work on slightly the wrong thing - not much, but enough that they miss fame. PG has posted the full essay at http://www.paulgraham.com/hamming.html http://www.paulgraham.com/hamming.html
- regehr 16y ago
  The source article is one of my absolute favorites. But CS department != industrial research lab...
  - hugh3 16y ago
    The main difference probably being hundreds of undergraduates?
    - regehr 16y ago
      And also grad students. Everyone who stops by has a legitimate reason (need signature on some random form, question about a homework, etc.) but the cumulative effect is to prevent coherent thought.
  - jey 16y ago
    Yes, they're different, but what's the relevant difference between the two?
- joe_the_user 16y ago
  Hamming's essay looks to be sixteen years old. Maybe things have changed in sixteen years - especially, perhaps the world outside has gone from occasionally-intrusive to constantly-intrusive.
mbateman 16y ago
Sounds right to me, except maybe #1. I'd add: 9. Keep organized. My experience has been that young people who do well in academia are exceptionally good at keeping on top of things: correspondence, deadlines, juggling different projects, etc. This is especially true the less you work collaboratively. If you're on your own, it's very easy to become a chaos.

34 points by gnosis 16y ago

jey 16y ago

Interesting to contrast this with Richard Hamming's advice: Another trait, it took me a while to notice. I noticed the following facts about people who work with the door open or the door closed. I notice that if you have the door to your office closed, you get more work done today and tomorrow, and you are more productive than most. But 10 years later somehow you don't know quite know what problems are worth working on; all the hard work you do is sort of tangential in importance. He who works with the door open gets all kinds of interruptions, but he also occasionally gets clues as to what the world is and what might be important. Now I cannot prove the cause and effect sequence because you might say, ``The closed door is symbolic of a closed mind.'' I don't know. But I can say there is a pretty good correlation between those who work with the doors open and those who ultimately do important things, although people who work with doors closed often work harder. Somehow they seem to work on slightly the wrong thing - not much, but enough that they miss fame. PG has posted the full essay at http://www.paulgraham.com/hamming.html http://www.paulgraham.com/hamming.html

regehr 16y ago
The source article is one of my absolute favorites. But CS department != industrial research lab...
- hugh3 16y ago
  The main difference probably being hundreds of undergraduates?
  - regehr 16y ago
    And also grad students. Everyone who stops by has a legitimate reason (need signature on some random form, question about a homework, etc.) but the cumulative effect is to prevent coherent thought.
- jey 16y ago
  Yes, they're different, but what's the relevant difference between the two?
joe_the_user 16y ago
Hamming's essay looks to be sixteen years old. Maybe things have changed in sixteen years - especially, perhaps the world outside has gone from occasionally-intrusive to constantly-intrusive.

mbateman 16y ago

Sounds right to me, except maybe #1. I'd add: 9. Keep organized. My experience has been that young people who do well in academia are exceptionally good at keeping on top of things: correspondence, deadlines, juggling different projects, etc. This is especially true the less you work collaboratively. If you're on your own, it's very easy to become a chaos.