Hacking Academia

Of all the advice that is dispensed in academia, one of the most varied is about whether you should focus narrowly and deeply, or diversify and broaden your repertoire.

The reason for this variety of suggested approach is of course, circumstance and the individual: the ecosystem you find yourself in, and your personal aspirations, risk appetite and other factors determine what is "best for you".

So this video is definitely not to suggest what you should do: rather to raise awareness of some key factors that might affect your approach.

Some of these factors include:

💎 the combination of latency and low acceptance rates in many core activities - in academia being applying for grants and submitting publications - leading to volatility: one of the "management" strategies here is to do a lot more than you actually expect to get...

💎 your capacity for learning and improvement and hitting potential plateaus if focussing narrowly on just one thing - where you learn especially quickly but may eventually hit capacity / capability limits, versus doing a range of activities where you're continually learning and seeing good improvements because you're in an earlier part of the expertise spectrum

💎 having refuge activities to switch to if one of your activities is going badly, allowing you to recharge and come back to it later refreshed. Even if you work super hard and do everything right focusing on just-one-thing, it can go bad for all sorts of reasons beyond your control...

💎 the expectations of those who fund or resource you - sometimes they won't be keen for you to hyperspecialize, preferring a range of contributory activities (e.g. a typical academics' teaching, research and service split)

💎 personal preferences and attention span / comfort focusing deeply on one narrow thing versus lots of things

💎 diversity of activities, especially including *new* activities, provides you with the opportunity to discover new things that you are passionate about, and good at (ideally both together!)

💎 110% effort opportunities where, as long as you go in with eyes open, you commit fully to just one thing, in order to maximize chances of success - perhaps leaving academia to do a startup

Check out the podcast here, or the video version here: https://youtu.be/53J0dcI03gk

Tips for Writing Compelling Grants

I'm excited to release my first Hacking Academia video and podcast for 2024, "Flying Close to the Sun... and Why it Can Be Exhausting!".

The basic premise is that if you're pushing hard in your career, you're going to inevitably land some opportunities and responsibilities that stretch or are even outside your capability and capacity... cue a bunch of on-the-job learning and hard-won experience.

There's nothing wrong with this - but the learning-and-adapting-to-the-new thing can be an exhausting process, so the key is to be deliberative about how and when you go for something a little beyond your current limits, and balance it with bread-and-butter activity that you can do with your eyes closed, so to speak.

As well as re-evaluate where you're pushing when one of those things does indeed come through (or conversely, is unsuccessful). Uncertainty and long lead times is the enemy in career planning in fields like academia, so when you know an outcome, you should replan...

Due to time commitments this year, I'm going to experiment with more off-the-cuff, completely ad libbed videos this year and see how we go, and work with the backlog of annotation, chapter headings etc... in batches later on.

📌 (0:00) Opening Scene
📌 (0:09) Introduction to Lifestyle Crafting Work Activities 
📌 (0:43) For People Who Want to Be a Bit More Deliberative 
📌 (1:07) A Process for "Just Say No"
📌 (1:21) Career Relevance and Applicable Scenarios
📌 (1:43) Check Your Assumptions
📌 (1:55) Don't Pursue Assumed Requirements Irrationally
📌 (2:25) Don't Take On Obviously Risky Endeavours
📌 (2:49) Introducing Key Factors for Lifestyle Crafting
📌 (3:14) Asessing the Distribution of Factors
📌 (3:36) Key Factor: Interest, Excitement, Passion
📌 (4:17) Key Factor: Talent Requirements & Rarity
📌 (4:51) Good and Bad Talent Examples
📌 (5:55) Key Factor: Technical Difficulty For You
📌 (6:28) Don't Combine Technical Difficulty With Other Challenges
📌 (7:00) Key Factor: Project Plan Robustness
📌 (7:54) Key Factor: Team Dynamic
📌 (8:21) Key Factor: Resourcing Margin
📌 (8:50) Good and Bad Resourcing Margin Examples
📌 (9:47) But Won't Asking for More Risk the Project?
📌 (10:08) Key Factor: Project Financial Situation
📌 (10:27) Three Typical Project Charging Rates and Their Impact
📌 (11:50) Financial and Resource Viability Isn't Just About the Total Dollar Figure
📌 (12:16) The Benefits of a Lifestyle Crafting Approach

 For those who travel for work, one of the challenges they must grapple with is how to balance the work that they would normally be doing back at home, with the activities associated with the trip. Here I highlight some of the key concepts, tips and tricks to pull it off, and highlight some of the pitfalls to be careful of. 

🕒 Timestamps are as follows:

📌 (0:00) Introduction to Working Whilst Travelling
📌 (0:54) A Generally Compromised Experience
📌 (1:34) Travel-Associated Work is the Priority
📌 (2:19) Exceptions
📌 (2:33) Not Getting Sucked Back In
📌 (2:58) Being Deliberate In What You Do and When
📌 (3:09) Example: Internet Access as a Deciding Factor
📌 (3:47) Matching Activities to Travel Mode
📌 (4:39) What Not to Do With Poor Internet
📌 (5:13) eSims Are Great
📌 (5:28) Consider Best Security Practice
📌 (6:01) Minimize Work With Complex Workspace Requirements
📌 (6:27) Preparation and Out of Office Messaging
📌 (7:01) Prioritise Activities In The Lead Up to Travel
📌 (7:29) Emotional Energy Management
📌 (8:20) Picking the Best Time To Deal With An Issue
📌 (8:51) Over Compensate and Over Communicate
📌 (9:21) A Good Foundation With Your Team Is Vital
📌 (9:48) Leverage the Change of Routine
📌 (10:26) The Pros and Cons of Time Zone Differences
📌 (11:13) Minimizing Unnecessary Back and Forth
📌 (12:20) Peak Fatigue Can Occur After The Trip
📌 (13:06) Recap

Webpage with full notes and video: https://michaelmilford.com/working-while-travelling/

It's conference paper writing season for #roboticists!

With the 2024 #IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (#ICRA #ICRA2024) deadline just around the corner, I recently ran through a walkthrough of the typical structure and components of a robotics conference paper with our research group.

The Title, Abstract, Introduction, Background, Approach, Experimental Setup, Results, Discussion, References, and a bunch of key tips for how to approach each one, like the critical FPF - First Page Figure, tone in setting up the gap, and flagging to the reader what is a claimed new contribution versus what is included for the purpose of being self-contained.

Here is that walkthrough in video format complete with paper schematic highlighting, as my newest #HackingAcademia podcast and video.

I've spent much of my adult career in roles where I was on the younger side what is "typical": this has led to a range of interesting experiences, learnings and insights.

In this Hacking Academia video, I run through four key concepts relating to the experience of being relatively young for your career stage:

✳ Systems and work culture are not set up for people who are substantially younger than expected

✳ The need to develop an appropriate attitude towards early age success

✳ Burning bright but not burning out

✳ You can’t genuinely fast track cumulative life experience

Check it out on YouTube, or via this podcast.

Please reshare if useful 🙏

🕒 Timestamps are as follows:

📌 (0:00) Introduction to Ideation in a Research Context
📌 (0:53) Research Ideation is an Ongoing Process
📌 (1:27) Ideas Can Pop Up at Anytime
📌 (1:51) Jotting Down Ideas For Later Consideration
📌 (2:39) Consider a More Detailed Ideas Log As Well
📌 (2:51) What Makes For a Good Idea?
📌 (3:02) The Need for Some Type of Benefit
📌 (3:11) Three Benefit Examples in a Computer Science Context
📌 (3:49) Separate Benefit Articulation from Chance of Success
📌 (4:05) Benefit Can Be Immediate and Stand Alone or Long Term and Integrative
📌 (4:18) Being Able to Articulate the Potential Benefit is Key
📌 (4:35) Specificity Can Help Refine Your Ideas
📌 (5:07) Specificity Example: Computational Advantage
📌 (6:23) Benefits are Very Rarely Evenly Spread
📌 (6:45) Ideas and Novelty
📌 (7:14) Not Everything Has to be Novel!
📌 (7:26) When Learning to Ideate, Don’t Obsess Over Novelty
📌 (8:08) Ideation Stimuli: Approach Versus End-User Problem
📌 (8:24) Research Approach Example: A New Machine Learning Technique
📌 (8:35) End-User Example Problem
📌 (8:54) Choosing Between an Approach versus Problem Perspective
📌 (9:12) Sharing Ideas with Peers: Pros and Cons
📌 (9:38) Ideation in Your Area of Expertise is Usually More Efficient
📌 (10:22) Ideation Driven by Areas of Interest
📌 (10:40) Remember Interest and Capability Don’t Overlap Exactly
📌 (10:55) Ideation with a Specific Outcome in Mind
📌 (11:13) Balancing Opportunity with Your Capability Fit
📌 (11:50) Ideation is Useful for Many Career Types and Stages
📌 (12:19) Having Some Ideas Helps Generate More Ideas!
📌 (12:34) The Joy and Excitement of Ideation

In any research career where you are responsible for conducting or leading a program of innovative research, your success will depend on your ability to generate good research ideas – a process known as ‘ideation’. In your career, you may have already met or worked with researchers who seem to have a near infinite source of exciting ideas for research projects, or can come up with endless new ideas on the spot. But behind those impressive feats is typically a well developed skillset in research ideation. In this video I dive into the ins and outs of becoming effective at research ideation, and the benefits it can have for your career.

I touch on key concepts, like the fact that much ideation is actually a continuous, spontaneous process, where ideas can pop up at any time, and where having a system to note and later follow up on those ideas is crucial. I talk about the various ways in which you can think about whether an early stage idea you have is potentially a good one – including aspects like potential benefit, specificity of benefit, and some meaningful additional contribution over what has already been done in the field. I give examples of ideation in a computer science context, and talk about the different stimuli you can use to drive ideation, from research methodology to end user problems. When ideation is done with a specific purpose in mind – for example for an academic paper or grant submission – there are extra factors to consider, like topicality, fit for your profile and interest level. Finally I highlight how being good at ideation is a universally useful skill, across a number of research-orientated career types, and for both early and late in your career.

Check it out, via this Podcast, on YouTube, or via podcast.

Please reshare if useful 

Timestamps are as follows:

 (0:00) Introduction to Ideation in a Research Context
 (0:53) Research Ideation is an Ongoing Process
 (1:27) Ideas Can Pop Up at Anytime
 (1:51) Jotting Down Ideas For Later Consideration
 (2:39) Consider a More Detailed Ideas Log As Well
 (2:51) What Makes For a Good Idea?
 (3:02) The Need for Some Type of Benefit
 (3:11) Three Benefit Examples in a Computer Science Context
 (3:49) Separate Benefit Articulation from Chance of Success
 (4:05) Benefit Can Be Immediate and Stand Alone or Long Term and Integrative
 (4:18) Being Able to Articulate the Potential Benefit is Key
 (4:35) Specificity Can Help Refine Your Ideas
 (5:07) Specificity Example: Computational Advantage
 (6:23) Benefits are Very Rarely Evenly Spread
 (6:45) Ideas and Novelty
 (7:14) Not Everything Has to be Novel!
 (7:26) When Learning to Ideate, Don’t Obsess Over Novelty
 (8:08) Ideation Stimuli: Approach Versus End-User Problem
 (8:24) Research Approach Example: A New Machine Learning Technique
 (8:35) End-User Example Problem
 (8:54) Choosing Between an Approach versus Problem Perspective
 (9:12) Sharing Ideas with Peers: Pros and Cons
 (9:38) Ideation in Your Area of Expertise is Usually More Efficient
 (10:22) Ideation Driven by Areas of Interest
 (10:40) Remember Interest and Capability Don’t Overlap Exactly
 (10:55) Ideation with a Specific Outcome in Mind
 (11:13) Balancing Opportunity with Your Capability Fit
 (11:50) Ideation is Useful for Many Career Types and Stages
 (12:19) Having Some Ideas Helps Generate More Ideas!
 (12:34) The Joy and Excitement of Ideation

Leadership...

In my newest video, "Leadership Principles and Pitfalls", I delve deep into the core concepts, misconceptions, challenges and pitfalls of leadership. I cover misconceptions around leaders being the most eloquent or best at the activity they're leading and the whole nature versus nurture issue; the relationship between leadership and its less glorious partner management; the challenge of getting the right mix of empowerment, guidance, and inclusive decision making, and the critical role that transparency can play through all of this, as well as regular communication. I talk about the impact of leadership on *you*, how being selfless sometimes involves being "selfish", and the phenomenon that leadership never ends up quite being what you envisaged ahead of time...

Check it out, in this post, on YouTube, or via podcast:

🔗 YouTube link: https://lnkd.in/g3pBQxM4

🎙 Podcast link: https://lnkd.in/geTZafUN

🔗 Full page and notes: https://lnkd.in/g83uWxMA

⌚ Podcast Topic Timestamps:

📌 (0:00) Introduction to Leadership
📌 (0:16) You Learn About Leadership By Doing It and Observing Others
📌 (0:49) Leadership Learning is an Ongoing Process
📌 (1:00) This Video: Key Concepts and Considerations
📌 (1:09) There Are Many Forms of Leadership 
📌 (1:23) Everyone Has Their Own Take on Leadership
📌 (1:31) Listen Widely And Take Onboard What Resonates With You
📌 (1:43) A Working Definition of Leadership
📌 (2:15) Unhelpful Misconceptions About Leadership
📌 (2:20) Loud, Eloquent Speakers Aren't Necessarily Good Leaders
📌 (2:48) Much Leadership Occurs Quietly, In The Background
📌 (2:58) Manage Meetings to Facilitate Input From Quiet Leaders
📌 (3:12) Leadership is Primarily About Serving Others
📌 (3:35) The Reluctant Leader Trope
📌 (3:55) An Enthusiasm for Leadership is Also Great, But Beware...
📌 (4:11) Leaders Don't Have to Be the Best at the Activity They're Leading
📌 (4:28) Relevant Experience Can Be Helpful
📌 (4:42) If New to the Domain, Lots of Learning is Required
📌 (4:57) Leaders are Made, Not Born
📌 (5:13) Learning Curves Will Vary for Different Individuals
📌 (5:35) Leadership and Management Go Hand in Hand
📌 (5:56) Visionary Leadership is Undermined by Poor Management 
📌 (6:10) Good Management Without Leadership is Directionless
📌 (6:19) A Little of Both is Often Better than a Big Imbalance
📌 (6:28) Balancing Empowerment and Guidance
📌 (6:41) Trust People to Try Things and Learn from Mistakes
📌 (6:48) Consider Guardrails To Stop Catastrophic Mistakes
📌 (7:03) Don't Leave Your Team Without Any Guidance
📌 (7:13) An Introduction to Inclusive Decision Making
📌 (7:29) Practical Limits to Inclusive Decision Making
📌 (7:49) If You Ask for Input, Listen!
📌 (8:07) Transparency Is Also Important for Inclusive Decision Making
📌 (8:21) The Vital Importance of Transparency
📌 (8:32) Example of the Positive Impact of Transparency
📌 (9:38) Be as Transparent as Circumstances Allow You To Be
📌 (9:53) A Leader's Job Isn't to Become Friends with Everyone
📌 (10:25) The Importance of Regular Communication
📌 (10:36) Regular Communication Helps Discover Issues
📌 (10:45) Problems Get Worse Without Communication
📌 (10:53) Earlier Conversations Are Almost Always Easier
📌 (11:10) Don't Oversimplify Issues for Your Team
📌 (11:33) Thinking About Leadership and its Impact on You
📌 (11:38) Being Selfless Sometimes Involves Being "Selfish"
📌 (12:24) If You Burn Out, You're Not Helping Anyone
📌 (12:39) Final Thoughts: Leadership is Often Different to What You Expect
📌 (12:52) In Leading You Can Learn Unexpected Things About Yourself
📌 (13:00) Leadership is an Enriching Experience - Give it a Go!