First in a possible series of musings on the nature of academic research and my (potential) role in it...
(Comments welcome.)

What is it that makes for good, publishable research? I came up with three distinct axes:

1. Priority (or, "novelty"): Being first in an area where no one has yet worked.
2. Depth: Diving down to the bottom of a field and doing ( Read more... )

I arrived at the office on Friday afternoon. I am leaving now.

It is done.

I can't believe we actually f**king submitted.

So, after all the craziness of the first week of the semester, I managed to get out of my TA assignment in a civil manner. Instead, I accepted the last-minutest of the last-minute offers, for a full RA to work on friend's systems-ish research project. It's not quite a typical project for the field (or for the professor -- she's a networking ( Read more... )

Spend several years with an advisor who ultimately doesn't work well with you and isn't willing to budge on his working style or accommodate any of your difficulties and disabilities. Become disenchanted with the research area because the standards are too low, the results too shallow, and the workflow difficult to stay motivated with ( Read more... )