"Algorithm" is probably an overly grandiose and organized way of putting it. "Meta-goals" would be closer: I've started to figure out how to figure out what my goals should be.
For instance, I've decided that it would probably be best, for the time being, for me to have a job that involves me mostly working "on-site". Working at home occasionally has its points...but it means that I _always_ feel like I ought to be working, and also has more than the usual number of distractions. I'd like to be able to come home and feel like I can relax.
I'd also like to have the option of working from home at least sometimes, but this is probably not that difficult to swing in the kinds of places I'm considering (industrial research).
I want to do research in a group that has people that like to work and write papers together. The quality and pace of my work improves considerably when I have people to bounce ideas off of that actually have a stake in the project themselves; it also makes it much easier for me to get work out the door (both in terms of getting things in shape and writing papers). Exempli gratia: there's one research project that I've been working on for over a year now, off and on. Circumstances have caused me to be working on this with another student; he's mostly doing scut work, but the fact that his ability to get stuff done depends on me getting data to him helps to motivate me. As a result things are moving much faster now, and I'd say that it's likely that I'll be drafting a paper on this research by the end of the summer.
This means that working in academia, right now, is overall probably not what I want. I'm not saying I won't consider it, but much as I enjoy teaching, it takes over my life, and I'm sort of hoping to get some of it back when I finish here.
(Now all I need to do is to find an industrial research lab in Portland or Seattle...)
I agree with most of the statements in your essay. My main point of contention right now is whether they form an accurate representation of how academia actually works (at least, the sector in which I find myself right now) at the postdoc level and above.
Not sure what you mean by this. Which of the statements are you thinking about in particular?
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branchandroot
Re: an algorithm for discovering goals?
Date: 4 August 2005 23:56 (UTC)For instance, I've decided that it would probably be best, for the time being, for me to have a job that involves me mostly working "on-site". Working at home occasionally has its points...but it means that I _always_ feel like I ought to be working, and also has more than the usual number of distractions. I'd like to be able to come home and feel like I can relax.
I'd also like to have the option of working from home at least sometimes, but this is probably not that difficult to swing in the kinds of places I'm considering (industrial research).
I want to do research in a group that has people that like to work and write papers together. The quality and pace of my work improves considerably when I have people to bounce ideas off of that actually have a stake in the project themselves; it also makes it much easier for me to get work out the door (both in terms of getting things in shape and writing papers). Exempli gratia: there's one research project that I've been working on for over a year now, off and on. Circumstances have caused me to be working on this with another student; he's mostly doing scut work, but the fact that his ability to get stuff done depends on me getting data to him helps to motivate me. As a result things are moving much faster now, and I'd say that it's likely that I'll be drafting a paper on this research by the end of the summer.
This means that working in academia, right now, is overall probably not what I want. I'm not saying I won't consider it, but much as I enjoy teaching, it takes over my life, and I'm sort of hoping to get some of it back when I finish here.
(Now all I need to do is to find an industrial research lab in Portland or Seattle...)
I agree with most of the statements in your essay. My main point of contention right now is whether they form an accurate representation of how academia actually works (at least, the sector in which I find myself right now) at the postdoc level and above.
Not sure what you mean by this. Which of the statements are you thinking about in particular?