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I wonder, as a research scientist, how one reconciles the fact that your mostly a consumer of academic literature.
by jmpeax 15y ago
I wonder, as a research scientist, how one reconciles the fact that your mostly a consumer of academic literature.
- roadnottaken 15y agoThis is a difficult balance to master: you undoubtedly need to read a lot... both deeply and broadly. But there is such a thing as reading too much. It can curb creativity and become a goal in and of itself. I have not solved this problem... :)
- stevenkovar 15y agoQuick observation: With research science, there is an end goal; something you would like to achieve with your reading outside of burning time and general malaise.
- user02138 15y agoTry to peruse academic literature in light of your own research and interests. Related is Richard Feynman's method, quoting https://findings.com/joejanowski/document/18782 https://findings.com/joejanowski/document/18782: Richard Feynman was fond of giving the following advice on how to be a genius. You have to keep a dozen of your favorite problems constantly present in your mind, although by and large they will lay in a dormant state. Every time you hear or read a new trick or a new result, test it against each of your twelve problems to see whether it helps. Every once in a while there will be a hit, and people will say: "How did he do it? He must be a genius!"
- jakeonthemove 15y agoWell, you've got a goal, right? So match everything you read with your research and see if it can help. A lot of times, it will. Reading digital copies has a major advantage in that you can search by keyword and only read the stuff that is pertinent to your research/goal. The rest is useless and you don't even have to skim through it...
- Agathos 15y agoReading academic literature takes a certain amount of effort. In a sense you are producing an analysis of that journal article (perhaps for other people's consumption if you're presenting at a journal club; for your own otherwise).