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Big Picture for the PhD

Goals for the PhD:

1. Produce a thesis that I’m really proud of and that prepares me for the next stage of my career (e.g., faculty job market).
2. End up in a position where I am a leader in a sub-discipline.

• Become a leader of a sub-field: much deeper understanding in something than most everybody else.
• Develop extraordinary background skills to “feel” like an expert in the subject matter.
• Develop enough depth of understanding to generate the new fron- tier.

3. Develop a sense of bigger picture for the team (in Sendhil’s lab) and an appreciation for what the bigger team is working on.

• The research lab is currently focusing on really interesting things that are happening at the intersection of algorithms, models of people, and models of science.
• Work in progress, but the curent vision for the lab is: what do we think the future of computing looks like?
• E.g., read Vannevar Bush’s 1954 "Some Things We Don't Know".
• Develop a vision of the future that is more compatible and aligned with what we can realistically achieve.

4. Meta-cognitive goals.

• Learn how to “think better”.
• Develop a “taste” for research.

On Research "Taste"

• Most people think that taste is something that is fixed and inherent.
• But taste is not usually about articulating the first gut response, but it’s about cultivating taste.
• We can cultivate taste by articulating it repeatedly with feedback.
• At some point after a process of cultivation, you realize that your taste is something that is unique to yourself.
• Need to be especially wary of the early instincts!