How-to-PhD

A collection of resources and information for concrete skills that are helpful when pursuing a PhD in computer science (specifically in ML/AI or related disciplines)

View the Project on GitHub mmcdermott/How-to-PhD

Intrapersonal

Overview

Under Construction Please check back later!

Balancing Priorities

Guiding Questions

  1. How do you balance priorities?
    1. … e.g., how much to read generic papers of the field for general education vs. project-specific literature reviews?
    2. … e.g., how much to do independent learning (e.g., a new ML package tutorial or a class on some ML theory aspect) vs. project-oriented work?
  2. How do you prioritize different projects? Taking classes?
  3. What should be the priorities at the various stages of one’s PhD?

Overall Commentary & Key Take-aways

Under Construction

Specific Resources

Interview Highlights

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Time management

Guiding Questions

  1. How do you manage your time?
  2. How many projects are too many projects?
  3. Are there any technologies or philosophies you use to effectively maintain productivity?
  4. How do you avoid The Grad Student Fallacy”? (… Also what is The Grad Student Fallacy?)

Overall Commentary & Key Take-aways

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Key Concepts

The Grad Student Fallacy

The Grad Student Fallacy is the fallacy of believing “I just need to wait until this next round of deadlines passes, and then things will finally calm down and I’ll be able to take a breather.” This is a fallacy because, of course, things will not calm down after the next deadline, and you’ll soon find yourself feeling just as stressed and just as “down to the wire” focused on the next, next deadline, at which point you’ll repeat the same thinking trap. This fallacy is called the “grad student” fallacy, because it obviously does not end when you graduate, but instead follows you into your career indefinitely.

I highlight this thinking trap not because in fact you can never take a breather or because things will never calm down, but rather because to surmount this fallacy you need to realize that you will always feel deadline stress during a PhD, and find your own personal strategies to make peace with that, to allow yourself time off and space away, and to manage your stress despite the never-ending stream of deadlines.

Specific Resources

Interview Highlights

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Dealing with Failure & Rejection

Guiding Questions

  1. How do you react productively when you get negative feedback on a paper/project?
    1. … When a paper is rejected?
    2. … When collaborators decide they want to end a project?
  2. How do you react productively when key experiments fail?
  3. How do you react productively when your applications are rejected?

Overall Commentary & Key Take-aways

Under Construction

Specific Resources

  1. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07794-z
  2. https://sites.umiacs.umd.edu/elm/2016/10/25/dealing-with-rejection/
  3. https://www.quora.com/How-do-you-emotionally-cope-with-a-rejection-of-your-paper
  4. https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-salvage-my-PhD-after-failing-projects-and-garnering-no-publications-I-have-ten-months-left-before-I-quit
  5. https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/125263/failing-phd-how-to-go-forward

Interview Highlights

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Information Channels

Guiding Questions

  1. How do you find papers, tutorials, etc.?
  2. How do you know what information sources to trust (e.g., different blogs, arxiv papers, twitter threads, published papers, etc.)?

Overall Commentary & Key Take-aways

Under Construction

Specific Resources

Interview Highlights

Under Construction