Do you think it's better to attend a meeting on your own or with people from your lab? I see pros and cons to both situations.
Going with labmates can be great, particularly if they are good about introducing you to people they know. It's nice to have a guaranteed meal companion, someone to chat with during breaks, or to talk to when you get saturated and can't pretend to look at posters anymore. Beyond making a meeting experience less awkward, being with someone who knows people can certainly help you break into the conference cliques or get you introduced to potential collaborators. Tagging along with the Right Person can turn a so-so meeting into a career path-altering experience.
On the other hand, sometimes it's good to be on your own. Going with a colleague who does a poor job of introducing you to the people they know is infinitely frustrating and makes you think you'd be better off on your own. Moreover, when you're alone at a meeting you meet people because you have to. Because it's easier to stay in your comfort zone with labmates than it is to meet new people, labmates can inhibit networking. Being with friends can not only keep you from branching out, it can keep other people from approaching you if your group seems tight and intimidating.
The best case is when promoting your colleagues blends seamlessly with your own networking. It's poor form to ditch your labmates, but the point of conferences is to network and discuss science with the wider community. The balance depends on the personalities and experience of the players, of course, and I'm starting to think it takes some finesse to achieve.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Good Weekend
So far, this has been a pretty good weekend. On both Friday and Saturday, we slept in a little and had slow, relaxing starts to the the day. Then we went to EGM's office to work in the afternoons. Although we didn't work for more than 5-6 hours each day, I was really focused and actually got some stuff done. I always have this fantasy of a Good Weekend where I do both work and fun things. I imagine working really hard in the morning or afternoon, and then doing something fun in the evening and I feel great because I made the most of my day. But that almost never happens. Either I while away the day doing stupid shit while thinking I should do some work or chores or something, or I waste my time with fake work, or I get started too late so that I get in some good hours but finish at like, 9 pm and then just go home. This weekend, however, I actually made a Good Weekend happen.
On Friday I finished the first draft of the chapter I've been working on and sent it to my advisors and to Awesome Technician for review (probably only AT might read it before August). All I had left were to wrap up the discussion, abstract, and conclusions sections , which I thought would take no more than a couple of hours (they were all mostly written but not quite complete). Of course it took more like five. Still, I worked really hard and got it to a point where I felt comfortable asking for comments. What I want at this point (and what I asked for) is general comments about the organization, structure, and logic. Does it make sense? Did I miss anything big? I want feedback at that level before I spend a bunch of time polishing things that might just get deleted. But that seems to be really hard for people to do. Any advice for getting broad scale constructive criticism on early drafts?
On Saturday I started the data analysis for the next chapter! Progress! It feels great to move forward, but also scary because I intend to do some statistical analyses that are totally new to me. I need to be really careful to not stall due to fear, and to keep working even if I feel uncomfortable and not confident. My timeline and work plan don't have any room for any procrastination!
I said I did fun things too. Friday we watched some fireworks with a big group of friends and Saturday we went to a dinner party (with games!). Today I am taking the day mostly off to do some housework and to prepare for a trip -- I'm going to a short conference next week. If I finish my To Do list (which includes buying a book about said statistical techniques), then I'll go back to the data analysis. But if I don't get to it, I'm not going to feel guilty.
On Friday I finished the first draft of the chapter I've been working on and sent it to my advisors and to Awesome Technician for review (probably only AT might read it before August). All I had left were to wrap up the discussion, abstract, and conclusions sections , which I thought would take no more than a couple of hours (they were all mostly written but not quite complete). Of course it took more like five. Still, I worked really hard and got it to a point where I felt comfortable asking for comments. What I want at this point (and what I asked for) is general comments about the organization, structure, and logic. Does it make sense? Did I miss anything big? I want feedback at that level before I spend a bunch of time polishing things that might just get deleted. But that seems to be really hard for people to do. Any advice for getting broad scale constructive criticism on early drafts?
On Saturday I started the data analysis for the next chapter! Progress! It feels great to move forward, but also scary because I intend to do some statistical analyses that are totally new to me. I need to be really careful to not stall due to fear, and to keep working even if I feel uncomfortable and not confident. My timeline and work plan don't have any room for any procrastination!
I said I did fun things too. Friday we watched some fireworks with a big group of friends and Saturday we went to a dinner party (with games!). Today I am taking the day mostly off to do some housework and to prepare for a trip -- I'm going to a short conference next week. If I finish my To Do list (which includes buying a book about said statistical techniques), then I'll go back to the data analysis. But if I don't get to it, I'm not going to feel guilty.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
...who is the tensest of them all?
Lately I fell stressed. Even when I am doing something relaxing, I can feel an underlying tension that I don't think will go away until after I defend.
Some days, I get to my office all wound up and excited to get to work. But it's like anxiously waiting to start a race, hearing the gun, and then running in circles instead of following the course towards the finish.
Other days are much, much better. On those days, I get a lot accomplished, enjoy my work, and have a good time with my coworkers.
As I get down to the wire, the good days need to far outweigh the bad. I want to finish in the fall term, and I have a lot of work left to do. I guess there is a chance I could take another semester. That's unappealing -- I've already done that more than once and really, I think this thing will just expand to fill the time I give it.
So when I look in the mirror these days, I see someone bound and determined to finish her dissertation. I revisited the Dissertation Coach's advice the other day and made a timeline for the work I need to do, week by week. It's tight, but I think if I focus I can stay on schedule and finish without panicking towards the end. Every day needs to count; every day I need to arrive at work knowing specifically what I need to do. I see a person who will pull this off and not write a sloppy dissertation that was finished in a hurry*. My committee may have questions about my research, but it's not going to be because I wrote a crappy dissertation**.
*yes, I know no one else will read my dissertation, but each chapter will eventually get published as an independent paper, so I don't want it to suck.
**it will be because of the very limited replication in my experimental design.
scientiae-carnival
Some days, I get to my office all wound up and excited to get to work. But it's like anxiously waiting to start a race, hearing the gun, and then running in circles instead of following the course towards the finish.
Other days are much, much better. On those days, I get a lot accomplished, enjoy my work, and have a good time with my coworkers.
As I get down to the wire, the good days need to far outweigh the bad. I want to finish in the fall term, and I have a lot of work left to do. I guess there is a chance I could take another semester. That's unappealing -- I've already done that more than once and really, I think this thing will just expand to fill the time I give it.
So when I look in the mirror these days, I see someone bound and determined to finish her dissertation. I revisited the Dissertation Coach's advice the other day and made a timeline for the work I need to do, week by week. It's tight, but I think if I focus I can stay on schedule and finish without panicking towards the end. Every day needs to count; every day I need to arrive at work knowing specifically what I need to do. I see a person who will pull this off and not write a sloppy dissertation that was finished in a hurry*. My committee may have questions about my research, but it's not going to be because I wrote a crappy dissertation**.
*yes, I know no one else will read my dissertation, but each chapter will eventually get published as an independent paper, so I don't want it to suck.
**it will be because of the very limited replication in my experimental design.
scientiae-carnival
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
The missing piece
You may recall that I am writing each of my chapters as separate, stand-alone papers that will be compiled into a dissertation by the addition of an introductory chapter and a synthetic conclusion chapter. Anyhow, I have been working on the Chapter 3 Paper and feeling kind of blah about it. The results are solid and will be valuable down the line for modelers, but by itself this paper was seeming kind of confirmatory. That's okay, I guess, since I'm planning to submit it to a specialist journal, but I was hoping for more out of this study.
Last night I obtained some supplementary data from a colleague. That allowed me to do some extra calculations and then bust out a figure that shows some very cool relationships among my results. This is the piece that was missing, the thing that will help tie everything together. What's more, it will better anchor my findings to the recent literature. I think the paper will be much more interesting now. yay.
Last night I obtained some supplementary data from a colleague. That allowed me to do some extra calculations and then bust out a figure that shows some very cool relationships among my results. This is the piece that was missing, the thing that will help tie everything together. What's more, it will better anchor my findings to the recent literature. I think the paper will be much more interesting now. yay.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
nom nom nom
EGM's friends came to visit a few weeks ago, and they came bearing many packages of delicious sweets from Far Off Land. There were some lollies candies and whole load of biscuits cookies. EGM has been saying forever that American cookies* suck compared to the ones from Far Off Land, with Oreos as his primary example. I've tried to explain that Oreos conjure many comforting childhood memories rather than being high-brow treats, but he doesn't get it. Anyway, I sampled the cookies if FOL when I went there a few years ago, but I didn't try the variety that we've had lately. Wow! They're great! The best is this one kind that's like a Twix but with a better texture and nicer chocolate. I think I have to concede that FOL cookies are indeed better than the U.S. ones. Perhaps we should think about that as we consider potential postdoc locations...
*I'd like to note that we're only talking about relatively inexpensive supermarket cookies, not fancy gourmet ones.
*I'd like to note that we're only talking about relatively inexpensive supermarket cookies, not fancy gourmet ones.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Sigh...
I've been pretty quiet lately. Things have been busy. We had friends visiting from Far Off Land for a couple of weeks, went to an out-of-town wedding, and have been working later recently. I could have made time to blog, but I just haven't felt compelled to write. Each evening I feel more interested in reading other blogs than in writing my own. Anyway, I thought I'd check in at least. I have some posts in mind - maybe I'll get them written soon.
I think my posting hiatus started with the realization of how little time I have left to finish my dissertation. I panicked a little bit, then worked out a timeline for completing each chapter. That helped, but I need to stay focused and crank up the hours to get it all done. Between deadline fears and cessation of carpooling, I've been really productive, but that has left little bandwidth at the end of the day for blogging. I'd like to let you know, though, that I am working on the last of my lab work which should be mostly done in the next 2 (or maybe 3) weeks; I completed the revisions on my revise and resubmit and am waiting for my advisors to comment (have been waiting for >4 weeks); I have rewritten big chunks of the next paper; and finally, I have written the methods section for the paper that will come from the current lab work. So I've been doing lots of things, just not blogging.
All this has made me very tense, however. I think the venting I do on blog helps that, so I will try to get back in the habit.
I think my posting hiatus started with the realization of how little time I have left to finish my dissertation. I panicked a little bit, then worked out a timeline for completing each chapter. That helped, but I need to stay focused and crank up the hours to get it all done. Between deadline fears and cessation of carpooling, I've been really productive, but that has left little bandwidth at the end of the day for blogging. I'd like to let you know, though, that I am working on the last of my lab work which should be mostly done in the next 2 (or maybe 3) weeks; I completed the revisions on my revise and resubmit and am waiting for my advisors to comment (have been waiting for >4 weeks); I have rewritten big chunks of the next paper; and finally, I have written the methods section for the paper that will come from the current lab work. So I've been doing lots of things, just not blogging.
All this has made me very tense, however. I think the venting I do on blog helps that, so I will try to get back in the habit.
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