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Graduate School Advice
*
You
and Your Research by Richard
Hamming
"What
are the important problems in your field? If what you are doing is not
important,
and if
you don't think it is
going to lead to something important, why are you working on it?"
* How
to Build an Economic Model in your Spare Time
by Hal
Varian
Although this was originally written for graduate
students
in economics, those in any fields will learn from it
how to go about their research.
* Time
Management
by Randy
Pausch
[video]
By following his suggestions, you will have much
more time
to put on your research. Some of the suggestions might sound
too extreme (e.g., completely "kill your television"),
but many
other suggestions would make sense.
Books
* Outliers: the
story of success by Malcolm Gladwell
"Outliers" in this book refer to those who excel at
something, being
vastly ahead of others.
Once a musician has enough ability to
get into a top music school, the thing that distinguishes
one performer from another is how hard he or she works. That's it. And
what's more, the people
at the very top don't work just harder or even much harder than
everyone else.
They work much, much
harder.
We sometimes think of being
good at mathematics as an innate ability. You either have 'it' or
you don't.
However, it's not so much ability as attitude.
You master mathematics if you are willing
to try.
They persist. They wouldn't accept a superficial 'Yeah, you're right'
and walk away. They keep going and going.
They simply won't give up until they finally get the explanation."
* A PhD is not enough: a guide to survival in science by Peter J. Feibel
* Never eat alone: and other secrets to success, one relationship at a
time by Keith Ferrazi