Hacking Academia

With all the coverage of #ChatGPT3, #generativeai, the speculated demise of #AutonomousVehicles and the ever present dialogue around #robotics, #artificialintelligence, and existential threats and opportunities, the need to clearly, accurately and compellingly communicate the key concepts about these technologies has never been greater.

In this #HackingAcademia video, I summarize a stack of key tips, principles and pitfalls that I’ve learnt over hundreds of public talks and engagements over many years with a hugely diverse range of audiences, and from observing others do the same thing.

Please reshare if useful 🙏

🕒 Timestamps are as follows:

📌 (0:00) Interpreting and Communicating New Technology Concepts
📌 (0:11) The Case for Communication
📌 (0:31) Learnings from Lots of Practice!
📌 (0:58) Across a Large Range of Audiences
📌 (1:11) Common Tips, Principles and Pitfalls
📌 (1:26) Knowing, and Knowing What You Don’t Know
📌 (1:42) Some Margin of Expertise is Useful
📌 (2:02) Experts with Little Real Understanding
📌 (2:54) Minimizing Academic Snobbery
📌 (3:52) There’s Always Someone “More Expert”
📌 (4:00) The Importance of Knowing Your Audience
📌 (4:19) What’s Their Level of Prior Knowledge?
📌 (4:28) Positive or Negative Exposure?
📌 (4:34) Agile or Slow Moving Organisational Background?
📌 (4:51) Positive or Negative Previous Technology Experience?
📌 (5:13) Adjust Your Communication Accordingly
📌 (5:19) Be Aware of Your Audience’s Other Challenges
📌 (6:03) Empathize With Your Audience’s Limitations
📌 (6:56) Contextualize Long Term Predictions
📌 (7:31) Explain Key Milestones To Look Out For
📌 (8:03) Run Through Plausible Scenarios
📌 (8:24) Don’t Throw the Baby Out With the Bathwater
📌 (9:12) Highlight Capability and Acceptance Thresholds
📌 (9:41) Avoid Universal Cynicism
📌 (10:17) Manage Expectations
📌 (10:24) Cautious Use of Analogies and Precedent
📌 (10:51) Explain the Variation in Technology Curves
📌 (11:22) The Myth of Endless Progress
📌 (12:02) Work on Empowering Your Audience
📌 (12:23) Emphasize The Need for Refreshers
📌 (12:50) A Valuable Learning Experience for You

Intelligence and intellectual capability!

Can you find a more controversial and debated topic? Especially how they do or don’t affect success of all types in life, from professional to personal, and simply being happy.

Yet we need to tackle these challenging topics if we are to progress.

In my new video, “Intelligence: Overrated, But Also Under Accounted For”, I tackle two key concepts that are often misunderstood, overlooked or confounded relating to intellect:

1️⃣ The statement that “intelligence is overrated”: a frequently heard comment with much truth to it, but which can be better defined as “there are often other factors than raw intellect that are more predictive of success at a certain task or activity”.

I also talk about the problematic perceptions that one must be a “genius” to be successful and have great impact in fields perceived as being intellectually intensive.

and

2️⃣ Intellectual Capability is Often Under Accounted For: while it’s true that intellect is much more rarely a gatekeeper for various careers and activities than it is perceived to be, ignoring it completely as a factor also comes with significant perils.

Just like any other capability or skill, you don’t want to compete with others purely in that area: you always want to bring your other unique strengths to bear to give yourself every advantage.

Please reshare if useful 🙏

🕒 Timestamps are as follows:

📌 (0:00) Introduction: Intellectual Capability
📌 (0:14) Concept 1: Intellect and Enablers & Barriers
📌 (0:25) Concept 2: Accounting for Intellectual Capability
📌 (0:38) Both Concepts are Misunderstood or Overlooked
📌 (0:56) Video Overview: Working Definition, Concepts
📌 (1:11) Tangible Aspects of Intellectual Capability
📌 (1:46) One Example: Ideation and Problem Solving
📌 (2:09) Hypothetical: Group With Similar Backgrounds
📌 (2:39) Equal Opportunity to Learn a New Domain
📌 (2:58) A Mostly Level Playing Field
📌 (3:07) Sidestepping Genetic Factors Completely
📌 (3:19) Variability Even Within That Group
📌 (4:26) Unpacking “Intelligence is Overrated”
📌 (4:58) A Better Version of “Intelligence is Overrated”
📌 (5:20) A Common Context Where This Phrase is Used
📌 (5:38) The Perception Problem Around Intelligence
📌 (6:34) Intellect is Often Under Accounted For
📌 (7:09) Example: Ideation and Grant Writing
📌 (7:38) Meeting Your Competition
📌 (8:29) Key Idea: “Direct” Competition Is Challenging
📌 (9:25) Differences in Output Can Be Huge!
📌 (9:42) Of Course, This Isn’t The Whole Picture!
📌 (9:57) Recognizing the Value of Non-Intellectual Factors
📌 (10:17) Grant Example: Other Potential Strengths
📌 (10:49) All Other Things Usually Aren’t Equal
📌 (11:01) Knowing and Cultivating Your Strengths
📌 (11:10) Corollary: Strong Intellects Focus On Other Areas
📌 (11:26) Summary: Two Key Concepts Relating to Intellect

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

No, not the song by punk rock band The Clash!

When you get your #PhD, one of the common pieces of advice you may hear is that you should move labs, cities, perhaps even countries, for your next position.

In my new #hackingacademia video, I unpack some of the rationale behind this common statement, and walk through a bunch of reasons why, and why not, to move labs and locations after getting your #PhD, ranging from personal circumstances, risk appetite, timing, livability considerations and more!

Please reshare if useful 🙏

Complete topic list and timestamps:

📌 (0:00) The Rule of Thumb of Leaving Your PhD Lab
📌 (0:15) Rules Are Useful… Up to an Extent
📌 (0:32) Reminder About the “Typical” Academic Track
📌 (0:56) The PhD to Postdoc Transition
📌 (1:11) Starting to Unpack The Rule
📌 (1:22) Assumption: You’ve Found a Good Place to Go
📌 (1:34) Bad Reason: It’s The Done Thing
📌 (2:09) Reason: Continuing Your Learning & Development
📌 (3:03) Reason: Growing Your Collaborative Network
📌 (3:39) Reason: Moving Can Overcome Stagnancy
📌 (4:12) Moving to Leave a Toxic Lab
📌 (4:22) Reason: Personal Experience Opportunities
📌 (4:47) Moving Early In Your Career Can Be Easier
📌 (5:18) Reasons to Consider Not Moving
📌 (5:25) Reason: Major Disruption
📌 (6:15) Know Your Change And Risk Aversion Level
📌 (6:48) Career Runway Determines How Much Disruption
📌 (7:19) Social Factors Can Be Challenging
📌 (7:56) Livability Considerations
📌 (8:36) Cultural and Lifestyle Fit is Important
📌 (9:22) Alternative: Long Research Visits to Other Labs
📌 (10:10) Some Moves Don’t Work Out
📌 (10:31) Moving Later Is Still an Option

This video, part 2 of a series, focuses on the interview process itself, as well as a number of general principles of interviewing well.

The video is focused on the example of an entry-level academic faculty hire, but a lot of the concepts are more broadly applicable to interviewing for many types of position both inside and outside academia.

Please reshare if useful 🙏

Part 1 covering the interview context, can be found here.

🕒 Timestamps are as follows:

📌 (0:00) Interviewing Well Part 2
📌 (0:12) Interviews & General Principles
📌 (0:20) Interviews Complement Other Activities Like Talks
📌 (0:36) Attitude Matters, But Be Authentic
📌 (0:48) Question: What Drew You To This Role?
📌 (1:16) Question: Balancing Priorities
📌 (1:51) Question: How Would You Lead Activity X?
📌 (2:27) Soft Skills Question: Challenging Past Experience
📌 (3:00) Soft Skills Question: Hypothetical Scenario
📌 (3:32) Question: Internal and External Service
📌 (3:59) Question: Where Do You Want to Be in 5 Years?
📌 (4:34) Teaching Discussion Topics in Interviews
📌 (5:13) More Teaching Discussion: Bridging Divides
📌 (5:39) Show You Understand Teaching Realities
📌 (5:56) Balancing New Innovations with Practicality
📌 (6:26) Research Discussion: How You’d Run the Group
📌 (6:59) Dealing with Combatative Panelists
📌 (7:42) Past History Questions
📌 (8:04) General Principles of Interviewing Well
📌 (8:16) A Mixture of Experience and Theory
📌 (9:21) Practice Makes Perfect
📌 (9:56) Open But Never Threatening, About Other Options
📌 (10:28) Interview Skills Are For Life and Generally Useful
📌 (10:44) The Interview is About More Than the Specific Role
📌 (11:10) Remember to Enjoy the Process!

Interviewing well is a key skill that will serve you well for your entire professional life, both for interviews themselves but also for a range of related activities like presenting.

In this new two part video series in my hacking academia line of tutorial videos, I cover the key considerations to interviewing well – including understanding the context, the interview structure and related areas, key things panels may ask you or be looking for, and broader principles.

This page pertains to Part 1, which covers the context and interview structure considerations.

Part 2 covering the interview process itself and general principles, can be found here.

Please reshare if useful 🙏

🕒 Timestamps are as follows:

📌 (0:00) Interviewing Well Part 1: Context and Structure
📌 (0:21) The Start of Many Academic Careers
📌 (0:32) Many Interview Tips are Broadly Relevant
📌 (0:42) Broad Principle: Accurately Portray Yourself
📌 (1:10) Understanding the Context
📌 (1:38) Single or Batch of Positions
📌 (1:55) You’re Likely One of Two Types of Candidates
📌 (2:17) The Conventional Candidate
📌 (2:46) The Wildcard Candidate
📌 (3:20) Wildcard Candidate Example
📌 (3:59) Implications of Being a Wildcard Candidate
📌 (4:32) Understanding What The Organisation Wants
📌 (4:51) Roles Building Critical Mass in Existing Areas
📌 (5:21) Roles Establishing a New Area of Capacity
📌 (5:36) Open-Ended Roles
📌 (5:53) Finding out information
📌 (6:56) Structure of the Interview Process
📌 (7:05) Typical Components of an Interview Process
📌 (7:46) Order and Attendance Can be Chaotic
📌 (8:19) Practise Concisely Briefing People
📌 (8:44) Combining Vision and Effectiveness
📌 (9:23) The Research Talk
📌 (10:15) Teaching Talk
📌 (10:51) Knowing the Area You’d Be Working In
📌 (11:32) An opportunity for you to find out more
📌 (11:51) Part 1 Summary and Part 2 Preview

REJECTED! 😭 😭 😭

How often has your heart sunk as you read that e-mail, or received that phone call.

Whether it’s a job application, promotion, grant or fellowship proposal, award or prize nomination – whatever it is, rejection can take a toll.

And, at least for me, many hundreds of rejections later, it’s never gotten “easy”. Easier perhaps, but never easy!

In my newest video, I cover key concepts for understanding and managing rejection in a professional context. I differentiate between useful and useless types of rejection. I cover the key concept of volatility with an illustrative example, and present a range of very simple strategies for managing and responding to rejection.

Please reshare if useful 🙏

🕒 Timestamps are as follows:

📌 (0:00) Rejection Montage
📌 (0:05) Professional Rejection Is Ever-Present
📌 (0:13) Rejection Means You Are Pushing Your Boundaries
📌 (0:21) Understanding and Managing Rejection
📌 (0:33) Professional Rejection Can Take Many Forms
📌 (0:55) Rejection Never Becomes Easy
📌 (1:02) Rejection Stings Because You Care
📌 (1:16) Rejection Can Be a Great Learning Opportunity
📌 (1:24) Useful Rejection Needs a Good Feedback Signal
📌 (1:39) Never Getting Rejected is a Useful Feedback Signal
📌 (1:55) Toxic Rejection is Not Helpful
📌 (2:14) Rejection for Hopeless Cases is Also Not Useful
📌 (2:25) Rejection Fables Aren’t Necessarily Helpful
📌 (2:49) Always Consider the Opportunity Cost
📌 (3:12) An Extremely High Rejection Rate is Not Healthy
📌 (3:23) Understanding Volatility is Key
📌 (3:35) Volatility is Most Impactful at Early Career Stages
📌 (3:46) Volatility Scenario: Repeated Applications
📌 (4:08) An Above Average Proposal Can Still Get Rejected
📌 (4:27) Strong Candidates Can Strike Out Three Times
📌 (4:50) Volatility is Somewhat Easier for Senior People
📌 (5:25) Early Success Can Be Brutal
📌 (5:48) Filtering Feedback From a Rejection is Messy
📌 (6:42) Better Managing Rejection
📌 (6:52) Increasing Your Numbers
📌 (7:30) Avoiding “Dead on Arrival” Applications
📌 (8:15) Recycling and Repurposing
📌 (8:48) Minimizing Loose Ends
📌 (9:08) Managing the Toll of Rejection
📌 (9:16) Quarantining Personal Time from Rejection News
📌 (9:31) Delaying Processing of Rejection
📌 (9:53) Bond With Others in the Same Boat
📌 (10:15) Rejection Can Get Easier, Somewhat
📌 (10:25) Experience Gives Perspective
📌 (10:50) Rejection Will Always Be There
📌 (11:01) Rejection Will Always Sting at Least a Little Bit
📌 (11:09) Make Sure You Celebrate Your Wins and Successes!

#Fellowships are a particular type of grant funding opportunity with particular considerations to keep in mind for anyone thinking of applying.

In this new video 🎥, I unpack what fellowships are, and a number of key concepts to consider when applying for them, ranging from writing to the risk aversion level of the funding scheme, to scaling your fellowship pitch to suit the seniority of the fellowship you’re applying for, to providing evidence of your impact on the research community, industry and beyond.

🙏 Please reshare if of interest to you, your colleagues, friends and/or family!

Complete topic list and timestamps:

📌 (0:00) Writing Compelling Fellowship Applications 
📌 (0:06) What’s Special About a Fellowship?
📌 (0:18) Potential Teaching Relief and Career Prestige
📌 (0:31) Fellowships Are Particularly About You 
📌 (0:47) Being About You Has Multiple Aspects 
📌 (0:50) Your Capacity and Capability 
📌 (1:14) How the Fellowship Supports Your Career 
📌 (1:43) Different to Job and Promotion Applications 
📌 (2:00) Fellowships Need to Stand Out 
📌 (2:34) Balancing Novelty With Career Alignment  
📌 (2:50) Write to the Risk Aversion Level of the Scheme 
📌 (3:23) Alignment to Capabilities and Passion 
📌 (3:48) Try Presenting Your Fellowship 
📌 (4:08) The Environment is Critical 
📌 (4:36) Impact Statements 
📌 (4:53) Evidence of Impact in the Research Community 
📌 (5:10) Real World Examples of Impact 
📌 (5:32) Track Record Benchmarking Considerations 
📌 (5:45) You Have Some Choice Around Metrics 
📌 (5:58) Impact: Research Community and/or Industry 
📌 (6:20) Whatever Metrics You Use, Be Consistent! 
📌 (6:30) Calibrate Your Reviewer: Provide Context 
📌 (7:18) Track Record Relative to Opportunity 
📌 (7:35) Be Careful Not to Double Dip 
📌 (8:11) Leadership Beyond Your PhD Supervisor Days 
📌 (8:36) Achievements Scale with Fellowship Seniority 
📌 (9:12) What People Capacity Have you Helped Build? 
📌 (9:35) How Have You Shaped the Research Field Culture? 
📌 (9:56) Justified Interdisciplinarity and Collaboration 
📌 (10:26) Writing Style: Quiet Confidence, Not Arrogance 
📌 (10:47) Wrap Up: Bigger Picture Considerations 
📌 (10:55) Your Career Plan Shouldn’t Depend on Fellowships 
📌 (11:31) A Fellowship is a Chance to Reconsider 
📌 (11:57) Not Compulsory But Worth Considering 

“I can’t go to dinner with my friends, I have to get this paper finished” 😔

“I can’t go to the beach / snow / mountains this weekend, I have to get these experiments running” 😟

“I can’t play with the kids, I have to get this grant submitted” 😥

“I have to” is one of the most damaging phrases that most people say on a regular basis, and there’s an easy fix to snap yourself out of it.

In this new video, I unpack what’s really behind the phrase, the multiple ways it can be harmful, and outline a very easy, very simple way to break yourself out of the habit.

Does this get you out of all professional and work commitments? No!

Does this break the habit of “I have to” being the default go to phrase, instead helping you deliberately consider each and every situation before making a decision – yes!

🙏 Please reshare if of interest to you, your colleagues, friends and/or family!

Complete topic list and timestamps:

📌 (0:00) Introduction: The “I Have To” Cycle
📌 (0:15) How Often Do You Say “I Have To”?
📌 (0:40) “I Have To”: A Dangerous Phrase!
📌 (0:59) Unpacking the Statement: All About Consequences
📌 (1:18) Good and Bad Consequences, and Speaking Out of Habit
📌 (1:32) Example of the Full Thought Process
📌 (1:57) “I Have To” Misrepresents the Situation
📌 (2:09) It’s Not as Simple As It Sounds!
📌 (2:25) “I Have To” Can Become Self-Reinforcing
📌 (2:56) The Words We Use Are Vitally Important
📌 (3:13) An Absolute That Impairs Prioritisation and Communication
📌 (3:41) An All Too Easy Barrier to Put Up
📌 (4:07) Consequence Prediction is Challenging
📌 (4:29) “I Have To” Can Be Based on Faulty Estimates
📌 (4:41) Perfectionism is a Complicating Factor
📌 (4:49) Much “I Have To” Activity is Not Justified
📌 (5:03) The Fix is Easy!
📌 (5:12) Self-Monitoring for the Phrase
📌 (5:23) The Substitute Phrase
📌 (5:45) Say It Internally or Verbally
📌 (5:53) Sitting Back and Evaluating
📌 (6:15) Example Scenario
📌 (6:36) Example Substitute Phrase
📌 (7:02) It Often Sounds Different When You Rephrase
📌 (7:15) It’s About Conscious, Deliberate Evaluation
📌 (7:33) How Good is Your Consequence Prediction?
📌 (7:47) Disappointing People: Consider Both Sides
📌 (8:21) This Doesn’t Get You Out of Every Situation!
📌 (8:56) Simple Tricks Can Be Highly Effective
📌 (9:23) Easy to Try and Often Instantly Illuminating
📌 (9:36) A Healthy Move Both Professionally and Personally

Finding 🔎 a great #PhD supervisor is just as much about finding the *right* PhD supervisor for *you*, given your interests, working style and support requirements.

The right supervisor fit for you could be completely different to the right supervisor fit for someone else.

In this video I go through some of the key concepts 💡 you should keep in mind when searching for a PhD supervisor, from the mundane but important, like their meeting frequency preferences, to the environmental, like the other PhD students and postdocs in their group.

🙏 Please reshare if of interest to you, your colleagues, friends and/or family!

Complete topic list and timestamps:

📌 (0:00) Finding the Right PhD Supervisor For You
📌 (0:11) An Investment That Will Pay Off Many Times Over
📌 (0:25) A Personal Choice Based On You as an Individual
📌 (0:45) Your Ideal Supervisor Can Be Different to Others
📌 (0:53) Don’t Overthink It
📌 (1:18) A Supervisor Who Mostly Matches Expectations
📌 (1:38) Technical Mastery In Your Research Area
📌 (2:07) Technical Mastery Has Multiple Components
📌 (2:40) Any Mastery Can Be Helpful
📌 (2:52) Many Supervisors Aren’t Technical Masters
📌 (3:07) Other Attributes Become Especially Important
📌 (3:17) Experienced and Inexperienced Supervisors
📌 (3:46) Hands On Versus Hands Off Supervisory Style
📌 (4:09) Can They Step In When Things Get Tough?
📌 (4:43) Know Your Preferred Supervisory Style
📌 (5:03) Some Alignment in Professional Beliefs Helps
📌 (5:39) Logistics: Meeting Frequency, Disruptions
📌 (6:15) Organizational Capability
📌 (7:04) Due Diligence On You is a Good Sign
📌 (7:52) Technical Mastery Can Be Achieved Quickly
📌 (8:12) Soft Skills Take Longer for Supervisors to Master
📌 (8:46) Can They Give You The Support You Need?
📌 (9:41) The Associate / Secondary Supervisor Can Be Vital
📌 (10:42) You May Learn More from Lab PhDs and Postdocs
📌 (11:23) The Broader Environment Counts Too
📌 (11:34) Talk to Past PhDs and Postdocs
📌 (11:51) Talk to PhDs Who’ve Dropped Out
📌 (12:09) Assess the Financial Health of the Lab
📌 (12:48) A Well-Funded Lab Provides Extra Opportunities
📌 (13:07) A Connected Supervisor Provides Opportunities
📌 (14:01) Supervisor Connectivity Vital When Isolated
📌 (14:25) Not Everything is Within Your Control
📌 (15:26) A Great Supervisor is a Great Start to Your Career

Getting started on applying for and winning grant funding 💰 can be overwhelming, especially for early career researchers like postdocs in academia.

One of the typical ways researchers get into the funding ecosystem is through small grant programs, both internal to their organisation and through external funding bodies.

In this video I cover key concepts and plenty of advice for how to effectively apply for small grants, with lots of context on what the organisations funding these grant schemes are typically looking for.

🙏 Please reshare if of interest to you, your colleagues, friends and/or family!

Complete topic list and timestamps:

📌 (0:00) Specific Advice for Small Grant Applications
📌 (0:20) Two Main Types: Internal and External
📌 (0:40) Small Grants are Often Gateways to Bigger Things
📌 (1:07) Training and Development Opportunities
📌 (1:41) Gateway to Bigger Internal Opportunities Too
📌 (1:57) External: Both Pilot Schemes and Self-Contained
📌 (2:18) Application Effort Should Scale to Grant Size
📌 (2:44) Application Structure Can Replicate Larger Grants
📌 (3:10) Budget Planning Also Required
📌 (3:23) Support from Supervisor and Career Alignment
📌 (3:47) Written Support from Collaborators / Partners
📌 (4:01) The “Why Hasn’t It Been Solved Already?” Question
📌 (4:26) Good Answer: New Tools, Techniques, Equipment
📌 (4:44) Good Answer: A New Growing Problem
📌 (4:59) Good Answer: Unique Positioning
📌 (5:14) Good Answer: Unique Research Environment
📌 (5:30) Bad Answer: No-one Else Will Fund the Research
📌 (6:20) Specific and Narrow Scope
📌 (6:54) Specific Example: Establishing a New Dataset
📌 (7:17) Specific Example: Drone Navigation Research
📌 (7:47) Set Against Your Exciting, Grand Vision
📌 (8:11) Imagine Writing Your Subsequent Grant
📌 (8:52) Specific Outcomes
📌 (9:16) What Measures and Indicates Success?
📌 (9:31) Feasibility on Top of Existing Workload
📌 (9:59) Promising Preliminary Work
📌 (10:13) Aligned With or Distanced From Current Research?
📌 (10:32) IP, Duplicate Funding, Conflict of Interest
📌 (11:01) Leveraging Existing Resources and Experience
📌 (11:36) Small Grants Can’t Pivot Much
📌 (12:04) Opportunity for Substantial Interactive Feedback
📌 (12:36) Small Grants Will Always Be a Part of Your Career
📌 (13:15) Some of Your Best Work Will Be From Small Grants