two new posts

_posts/2017-11-04-read-a-paper.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title: How to read a research paper
+author: Charles Sutton
+tags:
+- advice
+- research advice
+date: 2017-11-04 17:00:00
+---
+
+There's lots of advice you can read about how to read a research paper. There's some good advice in this paper:
+
+S. Keshav. [How to read a paper](http://ccr.sigcomm.org/online/files/p83-keshavA.pdf). ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review, 37(3):83–84, 2007.
+
+But there's one tip that I can offer you to organise your reading of a paper that I can't remember seeing elsewhere. Ask yourself:
+
+What is the 5 minute summary that you would give to a Very Smart Friend?
+
+I don't understand a paper until I can explain the paper to a smart person who hasn't read it. I need to be able to explain enough to the VSF so that she understands: what problem the paper is trying to solve, what sort of methods does it use, and how does it relate to the literature, i.e., what does it add.
+
+But there's two rules.
+
+Rule 1: You have to use your own words, summarising the paper without looking at it. If you find yourself repeating sentences from the paper, the you haven't internalised the paper's message. 
+
+Rule 2: You cannot take *anything* the paper says at face value. You can assume that the authors won't lie to you. But they might oversell a bit, and if you are a independent expert, you might not agree with everything they claim, or with how they interpret the new evidence that they have provided. Or you might be able to describe what's going on a little bit better than they managed. What do *you* think that they have shown?
+
+Another way of saying this: I know that my imaginary Very Smart Friend will jump on me if I say something inaccurate. So I don't want to make a claim to my iVSF unless **I** can argue for it, based on what I have learned from the theory and experiments in the paper. If I just say something like "well, the authors claim X," but X is controversial, or even dubious, then my iVSF will immediately want to know *why* they say that, do they really have evidence, and I had better have a answer.
+
+It can also be good to try this exercise even before you are done. After reading the introduction, how well can you guess what the methods will be, even before you read them? Then read to see if you were right.
+
+To sum up, I hope that I've convinced you that having an imaginary friend can help you in your research. You might not want to tell everyone on the internet that you have an imaginary friend, as I have just done, because it might not improve their level of respect for you.  But hey, if it's good for your research, then where are your priorities?

_posts/2017-12-02-travel-professor.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title: Travel a lot? Here's how to stay organized, like professors do
+author: Charles Sutton
+tags:
+- advice
+- organizational advice
+date: 2017-12-02 17:00:00
+---
+
+We had a fun time on the professors' Facebook the other day, swapping stories of the dumbest travel mistakes that we've made. You know, booking flights to the wrong country, forgetting to book a hotel, registering for the conference twice, and other such hilarity.
+
+Let's face it, professors travel a lot. We are also very bad at remembering things. This is a combination that makes for comedy, unless you're the poor sod who has to live through it. (That's *Professor* Sod, to you.)
+
+What this means is, from long and painful experience, I've learned how to not to forget things as often when I travel. And now I will tell you my secrets, if I can remember them.
+
+I keep a *packing list* (shocker!) that I reuse every time I pack my bags. I have a master list that I keep electronically and make a copy of for each trip. The important part is: Every time I arrive somewhere and forget something (toothpaste, underwear, etc), I add it to the master packing list for next time. After many years of this, I am now convinced that this list now contains everything I could possibly want to bring, and now I will never forget to pack something ever again. Well, hardly ever.
+
+For toiletries I have an additional system, as they are too easy to forget. I keep a separate complete set of toiletries in a drawer, for travelling only. When I pack, I just unload the drawer into my luggage, and I know I have everything. When I return, I return the toiletries to the drawer, checking to see if anything needs to be replenished. This includes medicines; I always travel with paracetamol, just in case, except when I travel to the US, in which case I bring acetaminophen instead.
+
+But the packing list can't keep track of everything. For example, if you try to list "make sure hotel is booked" or "tell wife that I'm travelling" on your list of what to pack, it turns out that you see that a little bit too late to be useful. Or that's what my wife says, anyway.
+
+So now I have a "travel prep list" as well, which lists the things I need to do weeks in advance, or after I return. I have a document that keeps track of the lists for all of my upcoming trips: book flights, book hotel, register for conference, submit travel reimbursement, etc. This dramatically reduces the chance that I will book two hotel rooms for the same conference.
+
+And finally, there is [TripIt](http://TripIt.com). TripIt is an amazing service that I have used for over a decade. Every time you get a confirmation email from an airline, hotel, travel agent, etc, you forward it to a special email address [email protected]. TripIt parses all these emails and collects them into a single itinerary, using the dates to figure out which emails belong to the same trip. You never have to root around looking for a confirmation number again. It's great! Especially clever: to sign up, just forward your first confirmation email to [email protected]
+
+Now this leaves one more question. Why are professors always so forgetful in the first place? There's a very good reason for that, actually. But that's a different post...