I'm a juggler, and each of you (i.e., a student) is represented by a ball. My job is to keep all the balls in the air at any given point in time, and to sustain this state for an arbitrarily long period of time.
The ball representing "you" is "in the air" if you are able to be productive, working independently (this includes reading, implementing, running experiments, writing, etc.). The ball representing "you" is "on the ground" if you're blocked by something. My goal is to make sure that doesn't happen, or at least minimize that time, i.e., to help you become unblocked. In the juggling analogy, that's me catching the ball and tossing it up again.
For example, a canonical interaction pattern might be that we meet, discuss experiments to run (catch the ball and toss it up), and then you go off to run those experiments (ball is in the air). Sometimes the ball is in the air for a long time (e.g., you have a complex implementation to work on). Sometimes the ball is in the air for only a short time (e.g., you're running a quick experiment and will be back with results soon).
In this juggling analogy, the gravitational constant g quantifies how long your ball should be up in the air, based on the force applied when tossing the ball. For example, I would expect Ph.D. students to operate in low g, that is, they're able to work independently for long periods of time. For a Ph.D. student nearing graduation, it would not be weird to not have interactions for weeks (e.g., "I'm working on those experiments we discussed, and then writing up the results. Everything is proceeding as planned. Nothing to report, I'll let you know when I'm done with Chapter 4.")
In this juggling analogy, the force applied during the toss is characterized by the planning horizon, and is independent of g. For example, we could be executing on a paper submission due in a month, so despite a Ph.D. student having a low g, since we're planning incrementally, we might have frequent interactions (i.e., lots of small tosses, ball coming back down again quickly). At one extreme, the interaction cycle might be on the order of minutes (e.g., I just rewrote the intro to the draft, let me know what you think).
Understanding this analogy will help you interact with me in a more efficient and effective manner.
Sometimes, all you need is a light toss. For example, you just realized that your experimental setup depends on a critical assumption that didn't come up in our previous discussions. You just need my input on whether that assumption is reasonable. Here, just slack me, and I'll either respond, "yea, that's okay" or "hrm, that's not a reasonable assumption to make, let's schedule a discussion". Asynchronous interactions work great here.
Sometimes, you need more a forceful toss. For example, you've exhaustive all the research ideas we've discussed, or want to pursue a different research direction. Here, a slack (text) chat likely won't be productive; this is where you want to schedule a more in-depth synchronous discussion with me.
If you're completely blocked, you need to proactively reach out to me to help me unblock you. That is, sometimes I just lose track of all the balls I have in the air, and don't notice that there's one sitting on the ground. If you don't speak up, I might not notice for a while.
Even better, if you let me know when your ball is about to hit the ground, I can plan accordingly. This works well, asynchronously over Slack: send me a message, "I'm almost done with the experiments we discussed. Should be ready by next week. Can we discuss?"
Just like there are different juggling patterns, there are relatively predictable changes to my interaction patterns with students at different points in time.
One common pattern is "conference deadline mode", when the juggling often switches to lots of small tosses of a number of balls (corresponding to the number of submissions planned). Usually, we (as a group) engage in a planning exercise a couple of months before a major deadline, enumerating potential paper submissions and a rough assignment of who's leading what. "Conference mode" then shifts into a focus on juggling these balls, sometimes explicitly acknowledging that other balls may fall on the ground, especially those that require a hard toss, i.e., I might explicitly say, "Sorry, no time to think about this right now, working on X deadline. Let's schedule a discussion after the deadline."
- I'm constantly context switching.
- My time is rarely "my own", it's dictated by the balls in the air.