8/3/2019 My Take on How to Complete a PhD

1/4

My take on how to complete a PhD (in Computer Science):

1. Learn and use a version control system for everything you do (code, datasets, textetc.)

o Useful for backupo Useful for versioning

2. Learn statistics and experimental method (e.g. factorial design)o Universally useful, and makes you critical to what you reado T-tests seems to popular in CS-papers :)o Prefer confidence intervals over "significantly different" and p-valueso Be aware that thedifference between significant and not significant is not

statistically significant:)

o It isn't embarrassing to read the cartoon guide to statistics!3. Learn scientific writing, take a course!

o Always, and I do mean always support your claims when writing (e.g. withreferences proofs, empirical support or good rhetoric writing). Consider

dangling claims in papers as paper-eating bugs, if you don't feed them withsupport they will eat your paper. And augmenting why the research you are

presenting is important doesn't hurt.

4. Submit papers early and often (to conferences, workshops and journals)o The likelihood that external reviewers provide complementary input on your

work compared to your advisor and grad student colleagues is probably

significantly close to 100%

o Demand to be a "slave" co-author for your advisor on the first paper, e.g. doall ground work (experiments etc.), but you learn the skill of writing and

review process.

o As my father advised me half-seriously: "even write on the toilet"o Figure out the most important research events in your fieldo Do at least 1 unlikely-to-get-accepted submission in order to get a reject early

just to get heat. It is way better to get a reject (with explanation why it was

rejected) from a great conference or journal the first year, than getting it for

the first time from a medium quality conference a few months before you are

going to defend your thesis.

5. Submit code early and often.o Writing code keeps you sharpened. Spending several years developing some

kind of framework, model or algorithm sketch (without any implementation)

and then try to implement it in order to evaluate is likely to cause trouble. By

then your coding skills are about as sharp as a spoon, and the model orwhatever you are trying to evaluate with implementation is probably way too

abstract and requires a lot of massage in order to be implementable. And if

that isn't enough, you probably are about to run out of funding.

o You are way more marketable when you are finished than if you don't writecode

o Learn at least 1 new language that is not too close to those you know duringyour PhD

o The fundamentals of Computer Science are still software (and hardware).6. Least Publishable Unit papers are not bad because:

o It is like code, concise and shorter methods that do one thing well arepreferred over longer methods that try to a lot of stuff, don't get me started on

http://www.academicproductivity.com/blog/2006/the-difference-between-significant-and-not-significant-is-not-statistically-significant/http://www.academicproductivity.com/blog/2006/the-difference-between-significant-and-not-significant-is-not-statistically-significant/http://www.academicproductivity.com/blog/2006/the-difference-between-significant-and-not-significant-is-not-statistically-significant/http://www.academicproductivity.com/blog/2006/the-difference-between-significant-and-not-significant-is-not-statistically-significant/http://www.academicproductivity.com/blog/2006/the-difference-between-significant-and-not-significant-is-not-statistically-significant/http://www.academicproductivity.com/blog/2006/the-difference-between-significant-and-not-significant-is-not-statistically-significant/

8/3/2019 My Take on How to Complete a PhD

2/4

testing.

7. Try to get involved in the research community as a reviewer (probably not the firstyear)

o You'll be surprised how unpolished submitted papers actually are, and howdifferent the first submit and the final polished,.. eh published paper actuallyis.

8. Learn at least 1 drawing, 1 presentation, 1 word processor and 1 statistics toolo Leslie Lamport knew what he was doing..o Google Docs&spreadsheets for notes and calculations

9. Teach!o Being thrown in front of hundreds of students with the expectancy that you are

going to teach them something useful and interesting is an extremely valuable

lesson (and quite scary too I must admit). And this can save your career if you

forgot to code (read 5.) ;-)

10.Oh wait, create interesting MSc topics and get MSc studentso The payoff can be great (e.g. get you more productive by helping you

concretize your ideas into code and get them to do experiments).

o There is usual an at least linear (probably exponential) relationship on the PhDrelevant output you get and the input/support you provide the MSc students.

11.My experience is that "doers" are more likely to finish their PhD than "smarties".o Thinking doesn't create your thesis, but writing might!o Hopefully you are both a "doer" and a "smartie" :)

Hm, can't think of anything else, and no guarantees about that you will manage to complete

your PhD if you follow these advice :)

Note: I don't think these approaches will help you complete any large project (as Shane

Lindsay's recipe claims to), but it probably won't hurt either.

How to complete your PhD (or any large project): Hard

and soft deadlines, and the Martini Method

January 7th, 2008 byshane

Having recently completed a PhD, I will share with you three indispensable nuggets of advice

for how to get the monster vanquished: use hard deadlines, soft deadlines, and the Martini

Method. With a small amount of imagination these can be applied to any large project.

Perhaps the most important determiner when a PhD gets finished is the HARD DEADLINE.

While hard deadlines are supremely important, giving advice to have one is somewhat

pointless, since they are also a factor that you have little or no control over. The main hard

deadline is that which your institution has determined your maximum amount of time

allowable for completion of your PhD. At my institution, this was four years. And withoutfail, graduate students would be frantically printing their thesis the day before this deadline

http://amundblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/increase-automation-of-test-driven.htmlhttp://www.academicproductivity.com/2008/how-to-complete-your-phd-or-any-large-project-hard-and-soft-deadlines-and-the-martini-method/http://www.academicproductivity.com/2008/how-to-complete-your-phd-or-any-large-project-hard-and-soft-deadlines-and-the-martini-method/http://www.academicproductivity.com/2008/how-to-complete-your-phd-or-any-large-project-hard-and-soft-deadlines-and-the-martini-method/http://www.academicproductivity.com/author/shane/http://www.academicproductivity.com/author/shane/http://www.academicproductivity.com/author/shane/http://www.academicproductivity.com/author/shane/http://www.academicproductivity.com/2008/how-to-complete-your-phd-or-any-large-project-hard-and-soft-deadlines-and-the-martini-method/http://www.academicproductivity.com/2008/how-to-complete-your-phd-or-any-large-project-hard-and-soft-deadlines-and-the-martini-method/http://amundblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/increase-automation-of-test-driven.html

8/3/2019 My Take on How to Complete a PhD

3/4

8/3/2019 My Take on How to Complete a PhD

4/4

The new version of MS word makes word counting much easier - when you select text it

shows you the word count at the bottom. One tool that can be used to stick to a daily habit is

thechain method. The comedian Jerry Seinfeld marks a cross on his calendar every day, and

aims to create an unbroken chain of crosses. Online daily goal tracker and habit maker Joes

Goals now implements the chain method, which could be used instead of a paper calendar if

you are that way inclined.

Jerry Seinfeld's Productivity Secret

He revealed a unique calendar system he uses to pressure himself to write. Here's how it

works.

He told me to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a

prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker.

He said for each day that I do my task of writing; I get to put a big red X over that day. "After

a few days you'll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You'll

like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job

next is to not break the chain."

"Don't break the chain," he said again for emphasis.

Over the years I've used his technique in many different areas. I've used it for exercise, to

learn programming, to learn network administration, to build successful websites and buildsuccessful businesses.

It works because it isn't the one-shot pushes that get us where we want to go, it is the

consistent daily action that builds extraordinary outcomes. You may have heard "inch by inch

anything's a cinch." Inch by inch does work if you can move an inch every day.

Daily action builds habits. It gives you practice and will make you an expert in a short time.

If you don't break the chain, you'll start to spot opportunities you otherwise wouldn't. Small

improvements accumulate into large improvements rapidly because daily action provides

"compounding interest."

Skipping one day makes it easier to skip the next.

I've often said I'd rather have someone who will take actioneven if smallevery day as

opposed to someone who swings hard once or twice a week. Seinfeld understands that daily

action yields greater benefits than sitting down and trying to knock out 1000 jokes in one day.

Think for a moment about what action would make the most profound impact on your life if

you worked it every day. That is the action I recommend you put on your Seinfeld calendar.

Start today and earn your big red X. And from here on out...

Don't break the chain!

http://lifehacker.com/software/motivation/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-secret-281626.phphttp://lifehacker.com/software/motivation/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-secret-281626.phphttp://lifehacker.com/software/motivation/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-secret-281626.phphttp://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-secrethttp://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-secrethttp://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-secrethttp://lifehacker.com/software/motivation/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-secret-281626.php