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Principles of
Effective Research
Michael Nielsen
About Author
• Michael Aaron Nielsen (1974- )
• a quantum physicist, science
writer and programmer living in
Toronto, Canada
• currently focuses on his
forthcoming book Neural
Networks and Deep Learning
Fundamental Principles
• integrating research into the rest of your life
• principles of personal behaviour
• proactivity
• vision
• discipline
Research & Life
• The foundation of effective research is a strong
motivation or desire to do research.
• if you don’t get the rest of your life right
• your life as a whole will be less good
• your research will suffer
• example (co-authoring a book)
Research & Life
• put aside considerable amount of thought and
effort for:
• making sure you are fit
• looking after your health
• spending high quality time with your family
• having fun
Principles of
Personal Behaviour
• foundation of effective research is to:
• internalise a strong vision of what you want to achieve
• work proactively towards that vision
• take personal responsibility for successes and failures
• you need to:
• develop disciplined work habits
• achieve balance between self-development and the actual
creative research process
Proactivity and
Personal Responsibility
• effective people form a vision about the future and
work towards it
• obvious? McDonald’s example
• secret of personal effectiveness: doing basics
consistently well
Why Difficult to be Consistently
Proactive and Responsible
• easier ways out:
• blame external circumstance for our problems
• get caught up in displacement activities
• get down on yourself, worrying and feeling bad
How to Become Proactive
• inspire by examples of proactive people
• through direct personal contact
• through biographies, history, movies, etc…
• regularly remind ourselves of the costs and benefits
of proactivity and responsibility
Vision
• is what you would like to achieve, incorporating both
long-term values and goals, as well as shorter-term
goals
• history shows that great actions usually are the
outcome of great purpose
• not one-night work; put time aside for developing a
vision
• a good vision is not inflexible; gets frequently changed
as you go along
Self-discipline
• self-discipline is not merely a matter of will
• three factors to achieve self-discipline:
• clarity about what & why you want to achieve
(otherwise causes aimlessness and procrastination)
• social environment (be accountable to other people)
• honesty to oneself (awareness lays the foundation
for personal change)
Aspect of Research
• self-development
• failed to realise their responsibility to make a
contribution to the wider community
• creative process (best viewed as an extension)
• lead to stagnation, plateauing as a researcher
• making a significant and regular enough research
contribution to enable oneself to get and keep good jobs,
while continuing to develop one’s talents, consistently
renewing and replenish oneself.
Self-development
• principles of personal change
• developing research strengths
• developing a high-quality research environment
Principles of
Personal Change
• set behavioural goals (be precise)
• how you want to behave
• what habits you want have
• set simple goals
• easier to evaluate
• make changes slowly
• a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step
Principles of
Personal Change
• evaluate the change you made, and update goals
• compare goals to actual achievement
• form an action plan
• metaphors help the process of personal change
Metaphors
• coach and player
• it’s easier to fool yourself and take the easy
option than it is to fool anyone else
• gradient descent
Regression
• falling back to old living style
• accept the regression
• if you can learn something once, you can do it
again
• don’t expect learn to do it overnight
Developing
Research Strengths
• interests -> learn -> goals
• develop a unique combination of abilities
• Do what you can do better than anybody
• stay current
• quickly skimming a great deal of work
• pick a dozen or so to read deeply
Developing A High-quality
Research Environment
• Improve your environment:
• start a seminar series
• organise a small workshop or reading group
• create a lounge
• in partnership with equally committed people
• changes you made will stick around
The Creative Process
• problem-solver
• the person who works intensively on well-posed technical
problems
• receive immediate esteem and recognition
• problem-creator
• often write papers that are technically simple, but ask
interesting questions, or pose an old problem in a new way
• chance to open up whole new lines of enquiry
Skills for Problem-creators
• Developing a taste for what’s important
• difficulty is not a good indicator for importance
• what your work enables, the connections it makes apparent,
the unifying theme uncovered, the new questions asked…
• Internal and external standards for importance
• don’t be guided by external prizes (e.g. Nobel)
• form your own independent standards for what’s interesting
and important and worth doing
Skills for Problem-creators
• Exploring for problems
• survey the landscape of the field and identify
patterns
• Getting ahead of the game
• scanning tunneling microscope
• Identify the mess
• mess = opportunity
Skills for Problem-solvers
• Clarity, goals and forward momentum
• Having multiple formulations
• Spontaneous discovery as the outcome of self-
development (+ exploration)
Working on
Important Problems
• People often don’t do important problems for some reasons:
• Lack of self-development
• The thread-mill of small problems
• start out in a research career with relatively tractable
problems and gradually work up to more difficult problems
• The intimidating factor
• step by step (a seminar series -> lecture notes -> book ->
…)
Working on
Important Problems
• Committing to work on important problems
• a process rather than a moment
• People who only attack important problems
• takes themselves out of circulation
• stops making on-going contributions
• loses habits of success
• risks losing morale
Thank you

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Principles of Effective Research

  • 2. About Author • Michael Aaron Nielsen (1974- ) • a quantum physicist, science writer and programmer living in Toronto, Canada • currently focuses on his forthcoming book Neural Networks and Deep Learning
  • 3. Fundamental Principles • integrating research into the rest of your life • principles of personal behaviour • proactivity • vision • discipline
  • 4. Research & Life • The foundation of effective research is a strong motivation or desire to do research. • if you don’t get the rest of your life right • your life as a whole will be less good • your research will suffer • example (co-authoring a book)
  • 5. Research & Life • put aside considerable amount of thought and effort for: • making sure you are fit • looking after your health • spending high quality time with your family • having fun
  • 6. Principles of Personal Behaviour • foundation of effective research is to: • internalise a strong vision of what you want to achieve • work proactively towards that vision • take personal responsibility for successes and failures • you need to: • develop disciplined work habits • achieve balance between self-development and the actual creative research process
  • 7. Proactivity and Personal Responsibility • effective people form a vision about the future and work towards it • obvious? McDonald’s example • secret of personal effectiveness: doing basics consistently well
  • 8. Why Difficult to be Consistently Proactive and Responsible • easier ways out: • blame external circumstance for our problems • get caught up in displacement activities • get down on yourself, worrying and feeling bad
  • 9. How to Become Proactive • inspire by examples of proactive people • through direct personal contact • through biographies, history, movies, etc… • regularly remind ourselves of the costs and benefits of proactivity and responsibility
  • 10. Vision • is what you would like to achieve, incorporating both long-term values and goals, as well as shorter-term goals • history shows that great actions usually are the outcome of great purpose • not one-night work; put time aside for developing a vision • a good vision is not inflexible; gets frequently changed as you go along
  • 11. Self-discipline • self-discipline is not merely a matter of will • three factors to achieve self-discipline: • clarity about what & why you want to achieve (otherwise causes aimlessness and procrastination) • social environment (be accountable to other people) • honesty to oneself (awareness lays the foundation for personal change)
  • 12. Aspect of Research • self-development • failed to realise their responsibility to make a contribution to the wider community • creative process (best viewed as an extension) • lead to stagnation, plateauing as a researcher • making a significant and regular enough research contribution to enable oneself to get and keep good jobs, while continuing to develop one’s talents, consistently renewing and replenish oneself.
  • 13. Self-development • principles of personal change • developing research strengths • developing a high-quality research environment
  • 14. Principles of Personal Change • set behavioural goals (be precise) • how you want to behave • what habits you want have • set simple goals • easier to evaluate • make changes slowly • a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step
  • 15. Principles of Personal Change • evaluate the change you made, and update goals • compare goals to actual achievement • form an action plan • metaphors help the process of personal change
  • 16. Metaphors • coach and player • it’s easier to fool yourself and take the easy option than it is to fool anyone else • gradient descent
  • 17. Regression • falling back to old living style • accept the regression • if you can learn something once, you can do it again • don’t expect learn to do it overnight
  • 18. Developing Research Strengths • interests -> learn -> goals • develop a unique combination of abilities • Do what you can do better than anybody • stay current • quickly skimming a great deal of work • pick a dozen or so to read deeply
  • 19. Developing A High-quality Research Environment • Improve your environment: • start a seminar series • organise a small workshop or reading group • create a lounge • in partnership with equally committed people • changes you made will stick around
  • 20. The Creative Process • problem-solver • the person who works intensively on well-posed technical problems • receive immediate esteem and recognition • problem-creator • often write papers that are technically simple, but ask interesting questions, or pose an old problem in a new way • chance to open up whole new lines of enquiry
  • 21. Skills for Problem-creators • Developing a taste for what’s important • difficulty is not a good indicator for importance • what your work enables, the connections it makes apparent, the unifying theme uncovered, the new questions asked… • Internal and external standards for importance • don’t be guided by external prizes (e.g. Nobel) • form your own independent standards for what’s interesting and important and worth doing
  • 22. Skills for Problem-creators • Exploring for problems • survey the landscape of the field and identify patterns • Getting ahead of the game • scanning tunneling microscope • Identify the mess • mess = opportunity
  • 23. Skills for Problem-solvers • Clarity, goals and forward momentum • Having multiple formulations • Spontaneous discovery as the outcome of self- development (+ exploration)
  • 24. Working on Important Problems • People often don’t do important problems for some reasons: • Lack of self-development • The thread-mill of small problems • start out in a research career with relatively tractable problems and gradually work up to more difficult problems • The intimidating factor • step by step (a seminar series -> lecture notes -> book -> …)
  • 25. Working on Important Problems • Committing to work on important problems • a process rather than a moment • People who only attack important problems • takes themselves out of circulation • stops making on-going contributions • loses habits of success • risks losing morale