, 1 min read
A lot of what I do is… quite frankly… not very good. To put it differently, almost everything I do fails to meet my quality standards. So I am constantly fighting to do better. It is not perfectionism. Perfectionism is the refusal to do anything unless it meets your high standards. To put it…
, 3 min read
People who work hard are typically motivated by either their performance (i.e., they want to look good) or their mastery (i.e., they like being good at their craft). Most of us pursue a mix of different goals. It would seem like performance goals are harmless. What is wrong with wanting to get good…
, 2 min read
Today, kids left and right carry the label of some learning disability. Instead of telling kids that they are dumb or lazy, we narrow it down to some problem. It is clearly progress on the face of it. However, when I see that, in some schools, over 10% of all kids have received some kind of…
, 4 min read
In many schools, a fifth of all boys are prescribed Amphetamine-related drugs because they have been diagnosed with an attention deficit. But these pills are not intelligence-in-a-bottle. To put it differently, taking Adderall may not make you smarter at all: Although there is a perception among…
, 2 min read
Scientific research is fundamentally about learning, about trial and error. Luck and unplanned interactions are a central part of it. Thus research cannot be planned and managed like, say, teaching duties or a Walmart store. If you could manage it, then it would not be research. Research is usually…
, 1 min read
There are many simple facts that totally escape me for years. For example, though I took biology in college and I knew that plants were made of carbon through photosynthesis, I only realized a few years ago that plants grow by absorbing CO2 from the air. I knew that mass had to be preserved, but I…
, 1 min read
A recent Slate articles warns that coffee makes you less productive. The main claim is that coffee has no cognition enhancement ability but, instead, a range of negative side-effects. Unfortunately, it is not backed by serious research. There is much we do not know yet about coffee. However, on the…
, 1 min read
Coffee is probably not killing your productivity
, 2 min read
In an earlier post, I compared life in academia with life in industry. One recurring argument to favour an academic job over an industry job is freedom. Of course, the feeling of freedom is fundamentally subjective. And we have a strong incentive to feel free, and to present ourselves as free.…
, 3 min read
I have done three things after my Ph.D.: I have been a (permanent/regular) researcher in a major government laboratory; I have been an entrepreneur in industry (making deals, paying other people); I have been a professor, in two different schools. I am now tenured and promoted. My conclusions so…
, 3 min read
Next week, the Scots will get to vote to determine whether Scotland becomes its own country. As a middle-aged Quebecker, I spent much of my youth hearing about the separation of Quebec from Canada. We had two referendums. The first one in the 1980s was defeated decisively. The second one in 1995…
, 3 min read
Back in the eighties, half of the 16-year-old teenagers were licensed drivers in the US. Evidently, things have changed. Driving is still important, but other activities have become even more important. I am guessing that it is hard to get a date without a mobile phone today. My point is that we…
, 5 min read
I have always loved reading. But it is a love that has been constantly frustrated. As a young teenager, I would spend days in the library, but I quickly exhausted my interests. If you wanted to know about Einstein, you were lucky to find one biography. If you wanted to teach yourself calculus, you…
, 1 min read
Google provides a ranking of research venue per domain. For databases and information systems, they provide the top 20 venues according to their h-index. As part of their assessment, they chose to include arXiv: a repository of freely available research papers. Almost anyone can post a paper on…
, 6 min read
Movies such as Good Will Hunting tell beautiful stories about young people able to instantly master difficult topics, without any effort on their part. That performance is unrelated to effort is an appealing belief. Whether you perform well or poorly is not your fault. Some go further and conclude…
, 2 min read
Lately, the top salaries for computer science graduates have been increasing. Companies like Google are willing to pay what it takes to get their hands on the best programmers (which is well over 200k$ a year). I expect these salaries to keep on climbing for the next 20 years. Simply put, a very…
, 4 min read
Many people are worried about their social status and inequality. We live in what I call a culture of envy. Matt Welsh, a software engineer who previously was a Harvard professor, wrote about the Fame trap last week, telling us that the pursuit of academic fame made him unhappy: Once I had kids, I…
, 1 min read
Most people will never have to write a research grant. That is a good thing. How do you write a successful grant application? Your work should follow established methodologies. It should follow closely prior work. Departures from either your own work or other people’s work will sink your…
, 3 min read
The Matthew effect says that “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer”. With this sole principle in mind, you would think that the future is easily predicted. Whoever is rich or famous today is going to be rich or famous tomorrow. So which programming language should you learn if you are a…
, 3 min read
For nearly 20 years, I have been freelancing: selling my skills as a free agent. I do very little freelancing these days, but I still regularly give advice to students and colleagues. Is it wise? I let you be the judge: here are my favorite bits of wisdom. There are bad and good clients. In retail,…