So what's the point of this blog anyway?
I am currently a PhD student. Now that I am done with my requisite classes, my time is largely unstructured. I choose when to work, what to work on, how long to work. Most people would consider that a blessing, which I do in certain ways, but I also recognize that I require some level of structure in my week. Without it, I find myself fluctuating between two extremes. Either I want to be hyper productive all the time, ultimately leading to burning myself out, or I find myself wanting to scroll Youtube or (lately) play Slay the Spire 2 for longer than I probably should. With that said, the objective of this blog is to accomplish a few goals:
- Create structure in my weekly schedule
- Track what I am learning
- Recall and process learning material
- Improve my writing skills
Weekly Structure
Since I started my PhD, weekly structure is something I have struggled with. Having so much freedom with your own time means holding yourself accountable. The idea is that having a weekly goal (writing a blog post for example) will give me a deadline to work under and a reason to work in the current moment. Long term goals like conference deadlines are great, but I think something a bit more high frequency will be helpful to me.
Tracking My Learning Hours
I think I will be better able to hold myself accountable if I track my progress. If I can say “I read X papers this week. Here is what I learned from them…” I will be better able to quantify how well I am spending my time.
Recall and Process Learning Material
I think one of the best ways to learn is to take in information from a wide variety of sources, spend time understanding that information, then synthesize that information into your own words and ideas, perhaps even extending it. By writing what I am learning every week I will be able to spend time processing the information I take in every week.
Improve my writing skills
In the past few years, generative AI has become a big force in my daily life. Perhaps a bit too big. If you want to keep a muscle from atrophying, you have to use it. I want to retain (and improve) my writing abilities in the age of generative AI. I think writing something without the help of an LLM to synthesize my thoughts every week will be long term beneficial.
If this blog is just for you, why put it on your website?
Even if nobody is looking, I think that having my ideas be potentially seen by other people puts an amount of social pressure on me that is helpful for accountability. Also the template I used for my website already has a blog feature which I wanted to try out. This is in part inspired by other blogs that I have really enjoyed. Lately I have really loved Jason Fantl’s blog which is high quality informative information on all sorts of techinical topics. I envision my blog posts being more in the style (but not subject matter) of David Heinemeier Hansson’s Blog which is somewhat short, low polish blurbs about ideas he thinks are important. The idea is that this blog will be more short and low polish. If one of my ideas turns into a longer term project, I will write a techical summary in the projects tab of my website. Any papers will still be available in the research tab.
Anyway, that is the purpose and objectives of the blog, my first post should be Friday, June 12th.
-NWS