research process

This page describes some useful tips about the research process.

Tips

• It takes two to think
• The importance of stupidity in scientific research

Working with others

Working with advisors

TBD

Working with students

TBD

Asking for help

Asking for help is important and getting feedback often is important. Better to be embarrassed early on than when you try to publish! From AMA with Google Brain team

    I often tell new team members about the 15 min rule (I didn't come up with it): 
    when you're stuck on something (e.g. getting a script to run), you have to try to 
    solve the problem all by yourself for 15 min, but then when the 15 minutes are up 
    you have to ask for help. Failure to do the former wastes people's time, 
    failure to ask for help wastes your time.

    (the value 15 may vary)

When asking questions about code, hit the following points:

1. what piece of code
2. what you think it currently does and why,
3. what you think needs to be changed to get the desired behavior
4. what went wrong in terms of how the problem manifests itself and
5. what you think the issue is
6. Remember, the helper may not have dealt with your specific instance of this problem

Other resources

• http://stackoverflow.com/help/how-to-ask

Research Is Hard

Links about getting through self doubt and other issues in grad school/research

• How to survive Grad School as a Woman
• N=1 guide to the phd
• N=2 guide to the phd