The future we deserve

February 29, 2012

Telling the future is impossible, yet we have to do it every day. We need to be realistic at the same time as allowing some hope, as not trying for better things is one of the best ways to ensure that they will never come. I was fortunate enough to be part of a recent project to try to imagine what is possible and what is real in our coming future. The future we deserve:

The book grew out of a single tweet from Vinay Gupta, it is a mix of dreams, plans, fears and wild hopes, yet all carrying a sense of reality. Although it much be said that such is the pace in which predictions stale that the future today already looks different in many ways to the futures painted in this book. I am proud to have two essays included in this book. You can buy the book, take a look at the essays online, see further developments of the project, or discuss on twitter, to help us all build a future we deserve.

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Posted by gelada

Being wrong

February 24, 2012

I hate being wrong, ask anyone in my family, they will get that slightly weary look and agree (and I am not the only one). I have tried to counter this by learning and improving my knowledge, which helps me, but if I am honest doesn’t help my family. In addition I am a teacher and so, in many situations, could just fall back on authority. Yet in teaching I have realised something important, I actually like it when my students are wrong. I would not say it is the best situation, perhaps, but it is positive. The reason is simple: to be wrong you have to be engaged.

I was thinking about this as I read the post on The Renaissance Mathematicus  talking about the birth of HistSci Hulk, sworn enemy of anyone who is wrong about the history of science (a noble and dangerous quest). This might seem to be the opposite position to the one that I gave above. I have felt the sting of his corrections myself, luckily in private not public! It is not opposite, in fact it is the essential counterpart. Being wrong is positive, but only as it helps on the way to better understanding. Reading about how the concepts of gravity were starting to come together before Galileo, and that he did not experiment by dropping things from the tower of Pisa, does take one further. Yet this does not make the original story worthless. It introduces the idea of gravity, the sense there was a change in understanding and  Galileo, himself.  The correction builds far more happily on this knowledge than it would standing on its own. For this to be effective, of course, we have to accept that stories (especially much loved ones) can be wrong, and more to the point we ourselves might be wrong.

I believe this is actually the great strength of the scientific method, and mathematical proof. Not that they can be used to show things are right, not even that they can show things to be wrong, but that they give a framework to persuade someone they are wrong. They help to develop understanding faster and further.

So do not get embarrassed when you are wrong. Do not get defensive. Learn to embrace it, be grateful, admit it. Then you are learning.

“It is better to open your mouth and learn that you were a fool, than to remain silent and never know.”

Some other takes on the same idea come from the inventor James Dyson and the author Kathryn Schulz.

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Posted by gelada

The Laws of Gelada (How to be a grad student)

March 3, 2010

Irving Herman‘s Laws for graduates can make good little scientists. How can we make misbehaved big scientists?1 The original Herman rules have Hx numbers my versions are down under Gx.

H1. Your vacation begins after you defend your thesis.

G1. (Force yourself if necessary) to take some time off.2

H2. In research, what matters is what is right, and not who is right.

G2. In research, what matters is good and useful answers, and not who gives them.3

H3. In research and other matters, your adviser is always right, most of the time.

H4. Act as if your adviser is always right, almost all the time.

H5. If you think you are right and you are able to convince your adviser, your adviser will be very happy.

G3. In research, your adviser is probably right more often than you.

G4. Assume your adviser is wrong if you do not agree with him.

G5. If you are right and are able to convince your adviser, everyone gains. 4

H6. Your productivity varies as (effective productive time spentper day)1,000.

H7. Your productivity also varies as 1/(your delay in analysing acquired data)1,000.

G6. Your productivity varies and is not necessarily tied to effort.

G7. Keep on top of routine tasks, but do not be ruled by them.5

GH8. Take data today as if you know that your equipment will break tomorrow.

GH9. If you would be unhappy to lose your data, make a permanent back-up copy of them within five minutes of acquiring them.6

H10. Your adviser expects your productivity to be low initially and then to be above threshold after a year or so.

G10. Realise your productivity will not be high initially. Aim to be more productive, but always allow for variation.7

H11. You must become a bigger expert in your thesis area than your adviser.

G11. You must be more passionate about your thesis area than your adviser.8

H12. When you cooperate, your adviser’s blood pressure will go down a bit.

H13. When you don’t cooperate, your adviser’s blood pressure either goes up a bit or it goes down to zero.

G12. Do not care about your advisors blood pressure.

G13. Cooperate with your advisor. You will get more out of them. They should know a lot that you care about. Thats why you picked them isn’t it?9

H14. Usually, only when you can publish your results are they good enough to be part of your thesis.

H15. The higher the quality, first, and quantity, second, of your publishable work, the better your thesis.

G14. Ideas are only good enough for your thesis when you are proud of them, you can do things with them and you can communicate them to others.

G15. The more interesting you find your results the better your thesis.10

H16. Remember, it’s your thesis. You (!) need to do it.

G16. Remember, it’s your thesis, your research.11

H17. Your adviser wants you to become famous, so that he/she can finally become famous.

G17. Care about your work and find it important. Do not chase fame.

H18. Your adviser wants to write the best letter of recommendation for you that is possible.

G18. Be aware of politics, sell what you do well.12

H19. Whatever is best for you is best for your adviser.

H20. Whatever is best for your adviser is best for you.

G19. Think hard and decide what is best for you.

G20. Listen to authorities (like your advisor), but do not be ruled by them.13

Footnotes

1 BACK TO POST
A few years ago Irving Herman, a physicist at Columbia published a set of laws for graduate students in Nature. To be fair he does say that some of his comments are slightly exaggerated and should not be taken completely seriously. However he also claims these as laws. Which is a very strong rhetoric. On my side my laws can also be slightly exaggerated and are usually highly idealistic, but if you are not idealistic about science you are probably better in a different career anyway.

I came across these recently in Eric Weinstein’s twitter and his comments were the spark and much of the inspiration for this post. I have included his comments on specific laws below. Here is his overall opinion:

New Topic: Thoughts on Prof. Irving Herman’s “20 Laws All Grad Students Should Follow” or “On Being Science ‘Help’ ” as published in Nature. Tweet

I am delighted that colleagues in academe are starting to write down the ‘meta-rules’ of new science that select against strong scientists. Tweet

My goal as taxpayer & scientist is to get you, the young scientist, out of Irving Herman’s dystopia before he can help you become ‘better’. Tweet

and he concludes:

Yet being a scientist isn’t about any of this idiocy. This is about survival in universities & why basic research must reform or leave them. Tweet

2 BACK TO POST
A PhD is hard work, but…Practically taking time off can renew focus, give perspective and thus generate more ideas. More importantly, you are not a robot or slave. Take time off to remember why you are doing this crazy thing.

Herman’s Law 1:”Your vacation begins after you defend your thesis.”
Weinstein’s Excercise:Translate into German without use of a dictionary.

Eric Weinstein Tweet

3 BACK TO POST
It is often better to be productively wrong than unproductively right. Liebnitz/Newton’s Calculus was wrong (and many, most noticably Berkerley spotted this) but those who ignored or were ignorant of this did better maths for 100 years.

4 BACK TO POST
Of course you should treat your advisor with respect, especially for the work that he or she has done. They do have more experience and know more, so they are probably right. However they are also better at arguing than you. Give your intuitions confidence and be persuaded out of them by reasoning not authority.

(“in other matters” your advisor is just another human being, saying that they are mostly right there is crazy!)

3. In research and other matters, your adviser is always right, most of the time.
Just who is this guy? Nature? Physics? Columbia? Anyone?

Eric Weinstein Tweet

Herman’s Law #4. “Act as if your adviser is always right, almost all the time.”
That would be ‘Science … with Benefits’…wouldn’t it?

Eric Weinstein Tweet

5 BACK TO POST
Productive time is essential, but what is it? It is certainly more than time spent in the lab/office. Learn what helps make you productive. Maybe a weekend of surfing leads regularly to great results on a Monday. Routine tasks do need to be done. Keep on top of them so you can relax and think, do not hope you can get PhD students on day to do them, or become a lab assistant for your supervisor!

6 BACK TO POST
Agreement for both of these, it is good to put a little time into insurance against disasters.

7 BACK TO POST
Coming back to the “productivity is complicated” idea. Sometimes you have to get lost, following blind alleys for weeks or months to chase up the great result. It is easy to be productive by finding more routine tasks to do, is that your ambition?

8 BACK TO POST
If you are passionate about your area you will of course think about it and study it more. You should be doing all this for passion and not because your supervisor says that it is interesting.

9 BACK TO POST
Cooperation is a good thing. We do need to work together, to help find the right or useful ideas and communicate them. It is useful to achieve other goals however, not as a goal in its own right.

10 BACK TO POST
Find out what is important to you, what you feel are the big questions. Chase them. Take into account the opinions of others (such as journals) but remember they can be wrong.

11 BACK TO POST
You are paying for this and working very hard on it. Take pride in it, make it your own and do the best job you can. For yourself not your supervisor.

12 BACK TO POST
It is good to show your work achievements and ideas in the best light. Do not however do something for no other reason than it looks good.

13 BACK TO POST
The summary of this post. To be a good scientist is to respect authority while questioning it.

19. Whatever is best for you is best for your adviser.
20. Whatever is best for your adviser is best for you.
So,we may catch Pyonyang yet?

Eric Weinstein Tweet

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Posted by gelada

LMS internet communication 2

January 3, 2010

As promised here is a draft of my article on ideas for the LMS and using the internet for society communication. Please comment!

Currently the LMS has two main mean of communication. The first is the newsletter and the second the website. It has already been mentioned many times that the website is in need of a redesign. I will therefore concentrate on the options available for more general communication. In a way the modern version of the newsletter, however some of the ideas here might inform decisions on the redesigned website.

What options are available?

The first option is RSS/web feeds. Using these people can subscribe to the stories from the LMS and then let the system take over. The stories would then come in automatically mixed with their other news in the reader. If this is set up as a blog people will have the ability to comment back on stories and announcements. The futurelms blog has shown that their are people willing to engage in this manner, and have good comments to make.

The second option to consider is twitter. This is a new system and has been the subject of plenty of hype. The important thing to realise is that although much that travels over twitter is meaningless noise people can choose what they follow. It is thus reasonably easy to find the signal. It is thus a system that has attracted a large number of people who are worth following and talking to (whatever your definitions of those). I would single out in particular Lord Drayson (@lorddrayson) the Science minister who has used the system well, getting feedback and reacting to the concerns of scientists as well as simply broadcasting his messages. This engagement, as an example, generated a debate on science journalism between him and Ben Goldacre.

The final option are wikis. These obviously take their lead from the wikipedia. Essentially they provide a means for a community to jointly create web pages.

How can the LMS use these?

I want to start with a general comment. Whatever options the LMS decides to follow two things will be necessary for success (unfortunately they are not sufficient). The first is to commit to the system, with the suggestions below I will give some of idea of what this means. The second is to make the system as open as possible. If there are problems with spam inappropriate content etc, then these can be dealt with at the time, but trying to address all possible problem can easily create an unworkable system.

Another general comment is that all the communication should consider the entire community of mathematicians and maths related people in the UK. This will have a positive effect on membership as it will make the importance and role of the LMS clearer to everyone.

A blog for LMS news is the first, obvious option. In many ways this will take over from the newsletter (I will discuss that further below). This will enable news to come out in a more timely fashion (the newsletter can be a long way behind due to the constraints of printing and a monthly schedule). It will also allow comments in response to articles. As I mentioned above this would need commitment. There should be a dialogue, not just a broadcast. It would be important for the commentators on the blog to feel that their views are listened to, and regular responses to comments are therefore essential.

Taking the dialogue a step further would give the LMS an active twitter feed. Again this should not be considered a broadcast. This could be a way to get opinion and feedback from a variety of people both within and outside the LMS. Watching replies and responding would therefore be essential.

A final, and more radical step would be to open up the process of creating policy. This is where a wiki can come in. In draft form policy documents can be freely edited and discussed. Anyone with an interest in the topic can therefore express their view. This is something that might need to be restricted to members alone. Obviously the final document would be the work of council or the committee involved, however this would draw more people into the descision making process and allow the society to tap as much available expertise as possible, not just the (admittedly great) expertise of those who can commit themselves full time to council.

Going slightly beyond the idea of communication within the LMS the world is currently lacking good computer based news streams for mathematics. This is something that the LMS is perfectly positioned to provide. The stream could be a mix of simple links to important papers or events combined with the occasional specifically written article. Members of the LMS would form a natural pool to write these! It would of course help if they could be given some level of LMS blessing as a publication. The systems for dialogue (twitter and blogs) would give an excellent basis for this as people could put forward the stories that they felt were important.

How to implement this?

I have said above that commitment is an important part of these ideas. Unfortunately as it is the nature of things this does cost money. Some of the money is already spent. Their are people involved in writing the articles and gathering news for the newsletter for example. Some more money can be found by stopping the newsletter itself. The cost of printing and distribution can therefore be put into maintaining the online presence. This step will of course leave some people out of the loop as not everyone is using online newsfeeds. A half-way house option would be to produce the newsletter as an email (or pdf). This would be made up of the stories and events that had been posted during the last month. With a little investment in programming it could even be automated.

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Posted by gelada

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