#physics phd

[thephdpensieve]

Organization Tip

Manageable Chaos & Maintainable Entropy

There was a point when no matter how many times I organize and and declutter and deep clean my room, it would just go back to being messy. It was a cycle of perfectly organized and unbearably chaotic with no in-between. That's when I found this idea, borrowing some Physics concepts (for I am a Physicist, through and through)

The key is finding the balance between:

Maintainable entropy: No matter how neat and perfectly organized you set your desk/room up, it always gets a little messy in 2-3 days. When you use your space, when you work with your things, it is bound to get disordered. And that's your maintainable entropy (a.k.a measure of disorder). You don't have to keep your space perfectly organized, just maintain it at this level of entropy. It's unrealistic to live in a room and maintain it like nobody touches anything. So embrace the entropy!

Manageable chaos: This is the maximum level of 'mess' that you can work with. How messy can your room get before it affects your mood or productivity. This is often less than the level where you can't even sit/sleep in your room without nudging away things - that's beyond your workable level. That is your manageable chaos. So find that level and when you seem to cross it, organize your room immediately. If it's within your level, and you have time, organize; if you don't have time, just maintain at that level and organize as soon as you get time.

When you try to keep everything pristine and perfect, you get too tired. And that's when the mess builds up and chaos reigns!

Perfection is the enemy of done.

So if you maintain your room in the maintainable entropy level, and keep it under your manageable level of chaos - your room will be consistently organized and neat! 🌻

[im-swimming-back]

Fucking love ads for scientific equipment

[prokopetz]

The problem with Victor Frankenstein isn't that he's not as smart as he thinks he is. The problem with Victor Frankenstein is that he's exactly as smart as he thinks he is in one very specific area, and he just expects that to automatically translate to every other area of his life and is taken completely by surprise every single time it doesn't.

[quantimist]

Ph.D. Researcher in Quantum Technologies and Public Outreach

This opportunity is offered by the chair of Public Policy, Governance and Innovative Technologies at the TUM School of Social Science. As an interdisciplinary, public-interest-minded, and impact-oriented team based at the TUM School of Social Sciences and Technology, we study, teach, and shape in practice a broad range of policy and governance issues concerning innovative technologies. We work…

[thegnat]

is my elementary particle physics course that i decided to take on a whim this semester going to be what finally reminds me of my love for physics?

[shrugsinchinese]

I know Essek only contributed to the Raise Dead spell but I'm adding that to Wizard-Cleric multiclass Essek. The arcane nuances and implications are very juicy

[bisexual-engineer-guy]

can someone explain what the fuck this means so I don't have to ask one of the physics professors please

[valtsv]

finished reading the irl james fitzjames biography. i enjoyed it but i'm unsure how i feel about the author's choice to write it like an essay length effort to convince me to agree to go on a date with his friend who he's wingmanning for.

[gendercrystal]

PhDay 30: one month as a PhD student done

Wow a lot of stuff has been going on. I've made friends already. I've been on an experiment already. Got a vague plan for the future and a list of potential directions to go in for my project.

Things I've learnt:

Higher year PhD students are very nice and welcoming

Parties are great for making friends even if you're socially awkward

Travelling for research is cool and not as bad as pre-travel anxiety makes you fear

Being trans in a physics department/research environment is fine. The research centre abroad didn't mind I had a different name on my passport

You can actually dive right in and be respected as a part of academia as a total newbie if you will yourself to have confidence

No one knows fully what they are doing, they only know some bits of what they're doing. You learn one bit at a time.

[thephdpensieve]

100 days of productivity

starting 25th October 2023 ending 2nd February 2024

Rules

Success or failure -- just show up

No #ZeroDays -- No matter how hard it feels, do a little thing, a bare minimum. Don't let any day become a zero day

Do at least one PhD-related task everyday

Read a journal article everyday. Skim, AIC, full workout - anything

Weekends are excluded, but counted -- because rest is productive

Learn & practice mindfulness

Take two pictures everyday to represent the day (post them here)

Accountability

Daily update of task list here. Perfection is the enemy of done. So don't overthink, just post - even if it feels half-baked.

-----

I’m currently in the final quarter of my PhD. I feel quite demotivated and I find it hard to gain momentum. So I thought I'll take up an accountability challenge to help me stay motivated and eventually build a routine.

If you are already doing a 100 days of productivity challenge, or would like to take on one, please do comment/like this post. I'd love to have some company and inspiration! Please help me find similar accounts! <3

[miss-biophys]

Work on a scientific article

What it actuallly entails:

Come up with an idea, define an interesting problem

Do thorough literature research. Maybe similar stuff was already done. Define the knowledge gap well.

Plan in detail, how we can solve the problem, design experiments

Reach out to potential collaborators, agree with them on a plan

Buy necessary equipment, chemicals

Do pilot experiment, optimize the conditions to get reliable data

Perform experiments, calculations, make everything multiple times so it's reliable

Analyze the data

Urge collaborators to deliver their parts

Coordinate your progress with the collaborators

Manage the collaborations, organize meetings

Be diplomatic, you don't want to make enemies in academia

Agree with direct colleagues, who worked on it, what will be the message of the article. Will it be a long story and we need to add some more data? Or will it be short and right to the point and we write a short "letter"?

Do literature research again. Maybe new stuff appeared, and for sure your data must be confronted and discussed with already known facts.

Write the first draft of the article

Send it around for feedback, first only to direct colleagues from your lab

Incorporate the feedback, maybe do more experiments and more analysis

Rewrite the manuscript

Send it around the second, third, fourth, fifth... time

Incorporate the feedback

Send the manuscript to all collaborators.

Wait for the feedback, urge everyone to give it, maybe you don't have all data from all the collaborators yet

Incorporate feedback

Prepare the manuscript for journal submission

Get approval from all co-authors

Submit the manuscript

Wait for editor response, hopefully they send it to reviewers. If not, you need to rewrite a bit the article to adhere to the new journal's format and send somewhere else.

Get reviewers' reports, deal with them, reply truthfully, make effort to explain everything even if you know that the reviewer's suggestion is just impossible or irrelevant. Be diplomatic.

Maybe you need to do an additional experiment, analysis, or rewrite a major part fo the manuscript. This can take months.

Submit revised manuscript with all the changes

Wait for editor's nad reviewers' comments in the second round. You can get many rounds of review and still get rejected.

Finally get a "Congratulations, your manuscript has been accepted for publication"

Pop a shampagne! You deserve it!

What part of this do you usually do in different career stages:

BSc. and MSc. students: Perform experiments and analyze data

PhD students: Do all the experimental and analysis parts, write the manuscript, discuss with their supervisor and direct colleagues, incorporate feedback. But does not have to come up with their own idea and manage collaborations and diplomacy.

Postdocs: Do literally everything on the list

Group leader/Professor: Do the thinking and managing parts, help with writing and feedback, provide discussions and insight. Do not perform actual experiments and analysis.

Being a postdoc is the transformation between the student and the group leader.

As such, we just have to do all these tasks. It's stressful. It's challenging. It's definitely not boring. I am taking every opportunity to get a student, who can help with the experimental repetitions so I have time for all the other stuff.

[coldpintglass]

[bidoofenergy]

to @riceofthepuffedvariety who requested jimmy/tango and magical realism AU. for @mcyt-drabble-exchange

Don't tell Grian, but Jimmy's favorite part of the day is when a certain customer sweeps into their cafe. He never shows up at the same time but always in the same way: disheveled, squinting against the sunlight, redstone smudged into his clothes, heavy gloves tucked into his back pocket.

Tango stares up at the menu. Jimmy desperately tries not to seem nervous. He fails miserably, wings smacking into Grian despite his attempts to settle them against his back.

Tango steps up to the register and grins up at Jimmy, all sharp teeth and candlelight hair, and says, “Hi Rancher,”

[fishareglorious]

smug ass thing

[abiwaif]

Sad but true...

[acespeon]

I love both Stan twins but fandom really takes the Filbrick way of thinking wrt how smart Stanley is