by Benjamin on October 20, 2009
My posting has been a bit sporadic of late, as I am now in the last week of writing before submitting what is a first final draft of my thesis – it sounds paradoxical doesn’t it? The good thing is that I feel like the story is coming together, the bad news is that I worry constantly if the text on the page will reflect what I think. After staring at my notes and monitor for days on end, there are a couple of things I wish I’d done while working on the thesis, and a couple I am very grateful that I did. I thought I might share these, during my five minute sanity break, as they might be useful if you’re also getting to grips with having to do a thesis:
-I wish, that on every draft which people have commented on, I’d written the date it was returned, the draft number and the name of who commented. Now I have a pile of useful comments, but no idea when or why they were made on an ocean of paper instead.
-I am happy that I wrote out each of my references as I went along. Especially when I have single sheets of paper with notes, even there I pasted in any bibliographical detail at the end. It’s great! Because whenever I add new material this week I only need to copy-paste the reference off the note sheet into the bibliography.
-I wish I’d have some way of shuffling each chapter reference section into a aggregate reference section. This seems like a lose-lose situation though. Because if you work with a ‘thesis bibliography’ from the start, it becomes a pain putting out papers for conferences as the work is on-going, and if you don’t you get the pain in the last week.
-I wish I had asked more people to read my chapters, and to read them earlier. I’ve had lots of great feedback, and a lot of it from outside sources. But each draft seems to make the point clearer, and each comment tends to sharpen the mind. “If it’s unclear to the reader, then your writing is unclear” – regardless of who the reader is. Rough but true.
-I’m glad I went to conferences every year. Why didn’t someone tell me in my first year that going to conferences means you’ll meet people who are interested in what you do, have expert knowledge, and are generally willing to read your stuff (because they’re interested) and give you comments and feedback. Fantastic.
I’m sure more will come to me as I finish the thing up – and it has to be done – and once this week is over there will be more recurrent blog posts from my side. I already have two or three very exciting things lined up :)
Posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago at 06:08. 3 comments
by Benjamin on April 24, 2009
When I started as a graduate student I was paranoid about publishing my material freely on the web. I mean, what if someone copied, scooped, plagiarised or even re-produced my work as their own, leaving me behind, un-cited, unrecognised and with little to show for my efforts?
Based on Seth Godin's work on marketing, this graph probably does a good job of showing the value of your ideas to yourself...
That is a long time ago, and I think I have learnt a very valuable lesson as I have slowly begun to make more and more of my work available on-line. And the idea is simple. The more people know about you, the more valuable you are, and the more people read your papers, the more you will be asked to participate in conferences, journals, books and public talks.
The day of the hallowed journal is far from over, but with internet search that is able to include .pdf, .doc and latex files, anyone working on a particular subject can go-online, and punch in their question. If your paper is on-line, it will be read and more often than not, the reader will contact you to ask how the work is going, ask you some questions, or simply take your work and cite you in their paper. Already you’ve made a connection with one author in your field, and you didn’t need a reference from a senior professor to approach anyone.
It’s happened to me on multiple occasion by now, suddenly I get an e-mail out of the blue saying “Hi Benjamin, I just read your paper on so-and-so and was wondering if…”. From there I have discussed my work with policy makers in the Netherlands, Academic economists in South Africa and India, consultancy companies in London and other students and academics from across the globe – a lot of people who I would have never been able to reach, would not know had an interest in the field, or simply had no idea about.
I am not saying, post any old paper on the web, and within a week you’ll have seven top people clamouring for your attention. No. That’s not how it works… Sadly.
However, if you have one, or more, well written (draft form is fine, but it has to be of a quality you would be happy to submit to a conference or senior professor), and available on your own website, plus you can drop it on the various econpapers databases, then over the coming year your work will slowly be read by people interested in exactly what you do, and that is the first step to being noticed. Don’t be afraid to put your work out there, front and center, distribute it for free if you can and start having people reading your work. Ultimately that’s what you want, right?
Posted 10 months, 2 weeks ago at 09:27. Add a comment
by Benjamin on January 14, 2009
Why do so few scientists make significant contributions, and why are so many forgotten in the long run? This is the question distinguished mathematician, computer scientist and theorist Richard Hamming addresses in this inspirational talk, aimed at helping us all do great work by sharing his own insights, enthusiasm and experience.
He gives advice from his life long career as a scientist and researcher, with experience from private industry – the famous Bell Labs in the U.S. – and academia. This paper is a great read for any researcher.
Download full paper here
Hamming, Richard. 2008. “You and your research.” New School Economic Review 3(1): 5-26
Posted 1 year, 1 month ago at 09:16. Add a comment
