A lot of the advice is good but this is sad: > First, the problem must be timely. You can define this in many ways, but one strategy that works well in AI is t

A lot of the advice is good but this is sad: > First, the problem must be timely. You can define this in many ways, but one strategy that works well in AI is to seek a problem space that will be 'hot' in 2-3 years but hasn't nearly become mainstream yet. I think about research as, what can I bring that's unique? What can I work on that won't be popular or won't exist unless I do it? If it's clearly going to become popular than other people will do it. So why do I need to? I'm useless. Yes. You'll increase your citation count with that plan. But if you're going to do what other people are doing go to industry and make money. It seems crazy to me to give up half a million dollars a year to do something obvious and boring a few months before someone else would do it.