玫瑰花卷的做法《ThePh.D.Grind博⼠磨砺》读书札记1
本⽂最初地址为：《The Ph.D. Grind》—《博⼠磨难》读书札记 - 简书，时隔⼀年多的时间，再次阅读并整理成此⽂。
前⾔
科研⾏业是个充满了不⾜为外⼈道的潜规则的⾏当。除少数禀赋超常⼈⼠外，每⼀位初⼊⾏的年轻⼈少有⼈可幸免于磕磕绊绊满头是包依然懵懵懂懂的⾎泪家史。导师们教读书教写作教实验，就是不肯明明⽩⽩教给傻⽠学⽣们科研这⾏当到底是怎么回事。幸有少数洞察⿊幕⼜毁⼈不倦的⼤⽜，愿意从ABC开始指点初⼊此门如我⼀般的傻⽠们。不敢独享，兹录之。
此⽂⽬的：
希望考虑读博⼠的同学认真读读，⼀窥博⼠⽣活；
如何开包子店
希望在读博⼠认真阅读，思考反思⾃⼰的博⼠⽣活；
希望教授认真阅读⼀下，来了解博⼠⽣的⽣活状况；
希望那些了解博⼠⽣这个群体的⼈，认真阅读。
作者⾃⼰的总结20点宝贵的经验教训
Results trump intention
⽤结果说话。成功的博⼠就是成果多的博⼠。空谈科研热情，强调⾃⼰不发烂⽂章，是对科研活动没有正确认识。
Nobody questions someone's intentions if they produce good results. I didn't have so-called pure
intellectual motivations during grad school: I started a Ph.D. becau I wasn't satisfied with engineering jobs, pressured mylf to invent my own projects out of fear of not graduating on time, and helped out on HCI projects with Scott, Joel, and Jeff to hedge my bets. But I succeeded becau I produced results: five prototype tools and a dozen published papers. Throughout this process, I developed strong passions for and pride in my own work. Incontrast, I know students with the most idealistic of intentions dreamy and passionate hopes of revolutionizing their field who produce few results and then end up disillusioned.
Outputs trump inputs
The only way to earn a Ph.D. is by successfully producing rearch outputs (e.g., published papers),
not merely by consuming inputs from taking class or reading other people's papers. Of cour, it's absolutely necessary to consume before one can produce, but it's all too easy to over-consume. I fell into this trap at the end of my first year when I read hundreds of rearch papers in a vacuum—a consumption binge—without being able to synthesize anything uful from my undirected readings. In contrast, related work literature arches for my disrtation projects were much more effective becau my reading was tightly directed towards clear goals: identifying competitors and adapting good ideas into my own projects.
（个⼈注释：关注点在输出成果上；博⼠毕业的要求就是有学术上的输出成果。阅读⽂献的最基本和最重要的⽬的就是：
对我现在的研究有什么直接的帮助和启⽰。）
Find relevant information
寻找相关信息的能⼒越来越重要。图书馆员在帮助科研⼈员提供信息素养上有着不可懈怠的责任。
My aining has taught me how to effectively find the most relevant information for what I need to accomplish at each moment. Unlike traditional classroom learning, when I'm working on rearch,
there are no textbooks, no lecture notes, and no instructors to provide definitive answers. Sometimes what I need for my work is in a rearch paper, sometimes it's within an ancient piece of computer code, sometimes it's on an obscure website, and sometimes it's inside the mind of someone whom I need to track down and ask for help.
Creat lucky opportunities
创造机会。如果你不能反复呈现你的⼯作在各种talk上，与同事的交流中，asking for and offering help, and
expressing gratitude，机会不会⾃⼰到来。
I got incredibly lucky veral times throughout grad school, culminating in getting to work with Margo at
Harvard during my final year. But the fortuitous opportunities wouldn't have arin if I didn't repeatedly put mylf and my work on display—giving talks, chatting with colleagues, asking for and offering help, and expressing gratitude. The vast majority of my efforts didn't resulting rendipity, but if I didn't keep trying, then I probably wouldn't have gotten lucky.
Play the game
没有选择，抱怨是没⽤的，适应它，按照游戏规则来。
指纹识别技术As a Ph.D. student, I was at the bottom of the pecking order and in no position to change the “academic game”. Specically, although I dreaded getting my papers repeatedly rejected, I had no choice but to keep learning to play the publication game to the best of my abilities. However, I was happy that I played in my own unique and creative way during the cond half of grad school by pursuing more unconventional projects while still conforming to the “rules” well enough to publish and graduate.
Lead from below
博⼠是科研⾦字塔的底层⼈员。底层⼈员也有策略去发挥影响⼒。
金銮宝殿By understanding the motivations and personalities of older Ph.D. students, professors, andother nior colleagues, I was able to lead my own initiatives even from the bottom of the pecking order. For example, after I learned Margo's rearch tastes by reading her papers and grant applications, I came up with a project idea (Burrito) that we were both excited about. If I were oblivious to her interests, then it would have been much harder to generate ideas to her liking.
Professors are human
教授也是⼈，有癖好，有偏⼼，有兴趣，有动机，有弱点，有恐惧。更进⼀步的意思，⾃⼰去理解吧。
While this might sound obvious, it's all too easy to forget that professors aren't just relentless rearch producing machines. They're human beings with their own tastes, bias, interests, motivations,
shortcomings, and fears. Even well-respected science-minded intellectuals have subjective and irrational quirks. From a student's perspective, since professors are the gate-keepers to publication, graduation, and future jobs, it's important to empathize with them both as professionals and also as people.
Be well-liked
好⼈缘很重要。但是不可能跟所有的⼈都很好，那选择关系好的⼈⼀起合作，并花时间经营关系。
I was happier and more productive when working with people who liked me. Of cour,it's impossible to be
well-liked by all colleagues due to inevitable personality differences. In general, I strived to ek out people with whom I naturally clicked well and then took the time to nurture tho relationships.
Pay some dues
尽到⾃⼰的责任。把⾃⼰应该做的⼯作做好。
It's necessary for junior lab members to pay their dues and be good soldiers rather than making
presumptuous demands from day one. As an undergraduate and master's student at MIT, I paid my dues by working on an advisor-approved, grant-funded project for two and a half years rather than trying to create my own project; I was well-rewarded with admissions into top-ranked Ph.D. programs and two fellowships, which paid for five years of graduate school. However, once I started at Stanford, I paid my dues for a bit too long on the Klee project before quitting. It took me years to recognize when to defer to authority figures and when to lfishly push forward my own agenda.
Reject bad default
拒绝不合理的安排。不要⼀味屈从⽼板的安排。
Defaults aren't usually in the best interests of tho on the bottom (e.g., Ph.D. students), so it's important to know when to reject them and to ask for something different. Of cour, there's no nefarious conspiracy against students; the defaults are just naturally t up to benefit tho in power. For example, famous tenured professors like Dawson are easily able to get multi-year grants to fund students to work on default projects like Klee. As long as some papers get published from time to time, then the professor and project are both viewed a ssuccessful, regardless of how many students stumbled and failed along the way.
Students must judge for themlves whether their default projects are promising, and if not, figure out how to quit gracefully.
Know when to quit
发现⽅向性错误，赶紧改变。
Quitting Klee at the end of my third year was my most pivotal decision of grad school. If I hadn't quit Klee, then there would be no IncPy, no SlopPy, no CDE, no ProWrangler, and no Burrito; there would just be three or more years of painful incremental progress followed by a possible “pity graduation.”
Recover from failure
博⼠期间的失败是不可避免的，必然会⾛弯路。要做的是从失败中康复，让每个挫折都能激发我们的热情投⼊要建设性的活动中去。
Failure is inevitable in grad school. Nothing I did during my first three years made it into my disrtation, and many paths I wandered down in my latter three years were also dead-ends. Grad school was a safe environment to practice recovering from failures, since the stakes were low compared to failing in real jobs.
In my early Ph.D. years, I would grow anxious, distraught, and paralyzed over rearch failures. But as I matured, I learned to channel my anger intopurpoful action in what I call a productive rage. Every
rejection, doubt, andcriticism spurred me to work harder to prove the naysayers wrong. Lessons learned from earlier failures led to success later in grad school. For example, my failure to shadow professional programmers at the beginning of my cond year taught me how and who to approach for the sorts of favors, so I later succeeded at shadowing computational rearchers to motivate my disrtation work; and my failure to get lots of real urs for IncPy taught me how to better desig
n and adverti my software so that I could get 10,000 urs for CDE.
Ally with insiders
与内⾏合作。与内⾏合作好发⽂章。
I had an easy time publishing papers when allied with expert insiders such as Scott andJoel during my
cond year, Tom during my MSR internship, and Jeff during my fifth year. They knew all the tricks of the trade required to get papers published in their respective subfields; the five papers that I co-wrote with the insiders were all accepted on their first submission attempts. However, struggling as anutsider with Dawson on empirical software measurement in my cond year and then on my solo disrtation projects was also enriching, albeit more frustrating due to repeated paper rejections.
Give many talks
南宁在哪里在读博期间，我做了⼤量的rearch prentation，包括有在学校组会的⾮正式的talk，或会议报告。在talk中，获得了有⽤的idea，良好的反馈，发现研究的不⾜。每次talk都是对在公共场合表达技能的
促进。最后，有时talk后的讨论会激发出意外的发现。工作心得体会感悟
I gave over two dozen rearch prentations throughout my Ph.D. years, ranging from informal talks at
university lab group meetings to conference prentations in large hotel ballrooms. The informal talks I gave at the beginning of projects such as IncPy were uful for getting design ideas and feedback; tho I gave prior to submitting papers were uful for discovering common criticisms that Ineeded to address in my papers. Also, every talk was great practice for improving my skills in public speaking and in responding to sometimes-hostile questions. Finally, talks sometimes sparked follow-up discussions that led to
rendipity: For example, after watching my first talk on IncPy, a fellow grad student emailed me a link to Fernando's blog post about Python in science; that email encouraged me to reach out to Fernando, who would later inspire me to improve IncPy and then to invent CDE. Over a year later, my Google Tech Talk on CDE directly led to my super-chill summer 2011 internship.
Sell, ll, ll
推销⾃⼰的研究成果。在激烈的学术竞争中，要学会推销⾃⼰的ideas给有影响的⼈，否则你的⼯作就有可能被埋没。
I spent the majority of my grad school days heads-down grinding on implementing rearch ideas, but I失之于宽
刘备的老婆是谁recognized that convincingly lling my work was the key to publication, recognition, and eventual
graduation. Due to the ultra-competitive nature of the paper publication game, what often makes the difference between an accept and a reject decision is how well a paper's “marketing pitch” appeals to reviewers' tastes. Thus, thousands of hours of hard grinding would go to waste if I failed to properly pitch the big-picture significance of my rearch to my target audience: nior academic colleagues. More generally, many people in a field have good ideas, so the better salespeople are more likely to get their ideas accepted by the establishment. As a low-status grad student,one of the most effective ways for me to ll
