All of us have points in our lives where we have to decide whether we
should continue down our current path or change to another.
As a researcher, I often face a constrained
version of this problem: should I continue on my current research path
or change to another? For a long time I wasn't aware that I was being faced
with such decisions; and, when I did become aware, I wasn't sure how best to
make a decision. Over time I've realised that a simple "stick or twist?"
heuristic mostly works well for me. I don’t claim that anything in this article is
novel, nor do I think I'm describing an approach that’s applicable to every
situation - but it might provide some useful food for thought.