Working with visionaries

Visionaries are big dreamers. They are a driving force for change in the world. They are the spark that ignites the fire of revolutions.

They are also crazy makers. Their ideas are unbounded by external constraints. They overextend themselves and the people that work for them. They switch directions like the wind on top of Mount Everest.

I choose do not chase the wild ideas of visionaries. Ideas are real to them; Ideas are their world. I listen (and acknowledge) their world but always pause before I allow their idea-based world to influence my action-based world. I take time to weigh their ideas against the discrete, real-world actions steps necessary to manifest them.

Modern day mathematician

I have always wanted to be a mathematician (weird I know). Their job is playing with pure ideas and solving hard problems. All a mathematician needs is paper, a pencil, and a waste basket.

There is an old proverb - "A mathematician never soils his hands with calculations." First, ignore the gender bias. Second, in the time before computers that perspective made sense. Actual calculations waste precious time. Now that world view is limiting. Testing ideas, at any scale, is computational efficient. However if there is little (or no thought) for Big O, it is difficult to compare multiple correct methods.

I'm pragmatic in choosing between abstract calculations of run time and Monte Carlo simulations. I choose the quickest, best time estimation method for a given problem. But I always makes estimates. A modern day mathematician has to realize the constraints of reality on pure solutions.

Action-oriented reading

Just reading an item (and most likely forgetting it) is a low-value activity for me. Reading should be more than just providing the raw material for the cocktail party grist mill. I want to make a dent in the universe - make the world a better, more interesting place. I read as a means towards that end.

I ask myself:

• What will I do differently because of what I just read?
• How will I take what I have read and manifest it as visible, positive change?

Academic courting ritual

There is much to learned in graduate school and depending on your mentor you might not get the mentoring you need. Some mentors are human-sized lab rats, living in the lab and pumping out publication after publication. Other mentors are gregarious connectors, they know which other researchers have free cycles and available money (possibility more important). Both personality traits are useful in scientific career but the social bootstrapping is the one most frequently missing.

Part of a young scientists' maturation is developing the ability to work with collaborators. Those collaborators hopefully will grow into colleagues, people to join with for grants and suggest graduate students. This is the power of weak ties. The process starts with the academic courting ritual.

Academic courting ritual:

1. Make small talk
2. Find common connections
3. Discuss current projects
4. Exchange papers to read