[HN Gopher] Why I Keep a Research Blog
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Why I Keep a Research Blog
Author : gwgundersen
Score : 446 points
Date : 2020-01-13 12:22 UTC (10 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (gregorygundersen.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (gregorygundersen.com)
| sam537 wrote:
| I don't understand any of the specialized concepts in this blog
| post but I am no stranger to this:
|
| "Under pressure, my mind, like a cart on a well-worn path, finds
| the same old ruts. Once again, writing breaks this cycle because
| it requires more active participation."
|
| Being in medicine, I sat on a paper for over a month because I
| knew that on the last week I would be able to just jump-start
| writing in the same way I have done so for the last few years. It
| is embarrassing to think that in any realm of science there is
| this autonomic system that just takes over when the deadline
| draws near and poorly thought and researched concepts full of
| jargon fill the pages.
| arnold_palmur wrote:
| Remarkable stuff Greg - no surprise to see your work on the front
| page of HN - always inspiring.
| mbeex wrote:
| I have been looking for a blogging environment for this kind of
| topics for some time. So, my question to the author:
|
| What kind of software / tools /styles are behind this blog in the
| technical sense? I see mathjax, probably some static site
| generator(?), what else are you using?
| thiagomgd wrote:
| If I can give my 2 cents, think about how you would like to
| write and publish, and where do you want to focus. I've tried
| to use static site generators (mostly Hugo), but in the end,
| I've realized that I spent way more time making little tweaks
| to my theme, creating short codes "to help me create content",
| than actually writing.
|
| Now, I plan on just having a blog to myself, to post what I've
| been reading, with some highlights/notes, and for that, a free
| wordpress.com is way better than anything else, as it's very
| easy to add different types of media/embed content without a
| worry, and to use their android app to write on the go if I
| want.
|
| So really, whatever you use, first decide on your ideal
| workflow, and then find the solutions :)
| chubot wrote:
| Not the author, but IMO the form should follow the content. So
| I would write the content first (e.g. in text or Markdown) and
| then if people read it, improve the formatting.
|
| FWIW I wrote my own scripts to generate static HTML over 3
| years, but people were reading it from the first day. So it was
| just gradually improved over time, Unix style. (It even works
| on mobile now, after I learned how to do that in the last week
| :) )
|
| http://www.oilshell.org/site.html
| kingsara wrote:
| Great article and very concise. I've found myself and my writing
| "addiction" represented. There are many concepts I couldn't
| grasps until I tried to put them to paper.
|
| On a different note: does anyone happen to know if that's a
| standard Wordpress theme? I've been looking to find a simple
| theme and this (or something similarly minimalist and text-
| focused) would be perfect for my needs.
| raju wrote:
| > On a different note: does anyone happen to know if that's a
| standard Wordpress theme?
|
| Not sure if it was this comment that prompted it, but I was
| looking for the same and noticed he pushed an empty repo about
| an hour ago on Github -- https://github.com/gwgundersen/blog-
| theme
| raamdev wrote:
| I built a WordPress theme called Independent Publisher that's
| intended to focus on the writing and get out of the way of the
| reader. I was reminded of it while reading this blog, so it may
| be of interest to you. It's open-source and maintained by the
| community on GitHub--suggestions and feedback are always
| welcome: https://independentpublisher.me/
| jimbo1qaz wrote:
| This seems to be a static site generator.
|
| http://gregorygundersen.com/blog/2020/01/12/why-research-blo...
| has a HTTP header last updated on 01/13/2020 04:34:31.
|
| http://gregorygundersen.com/blog/2019/12/23/random-fourier-f...
| is 01/13/2020 04:34:30, or 1 second earlier.
|
| Also the source code has a link to
| http://gregorygundersen.com/css/markdown.css which 404's.
| pdm55 wrote:
| For his css files try http://gregorygundersen.com/css/ Better
| still try his GitHub https://github.com/gwgundersen
| especially his notebook software
| https://github.com/gwgundersen/anno
| gwgundersen wrote:
| I just use Jekyll to build a static site (Markdown + MathJax).
| I wrote the HTML/CSS myself, but maybe I can put the "theme" on
| GitHub later today.
| djhworld wrote:
| Really enjoyed reading this, thanks.
|
| While I'm no way near mathematically capable (yet) of
| understanding the jargon the author uses later on in the post
| (e.g. "randomized singular value decomposition"), I'm glad he
| puts links to at least show he's not bluffing.
|
| One quote that stood out to me was this one
|
| > I appreciate that most of my writing is me, like an ant, simply
| following someone else's trail.
|
| I think you could apply that to most things in
| programming/computer science too
| bovermyer wrote:
| Thank you very much for sharing this. This answers a very
| specific question I've had for awhile now: do I understand what I
| think I understand?
|
| The answer is: "no."
| mikece wrote:
| "Learning with intention" sounds like a reworded way of saying
| "deliberate practice" which is something highly motivated people
| have been doing from time immemorial (one notable example being
| Ben Franklin's rule of spending one hour per day reading or
| learning something new). It's excellent legacy advice because it
| works.
| closed wrote:
| Just a small nit pick here--your example does not match the
| definition of deliberate practice.
|
| In general, deliberate practice is about how you practice (e.g.
| focused on most useful things; w/ quick expert feedback),
| rather than how often.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Practice_(learning_method)#Del...
|
| https://hbr.org/2007/07/the-making-of-an-expert
| criddell wrote:
| This is my understanding of deliberate practice as well.
|
| Interestingly, The GP mentioned Ben Franklin and Franklin
| _did_ use deliberate practice to improve his writing:
|
| https://www.anecdote.com/2010/08/benjamin-franklin-
| deliberat...
| awinter-py wrote:
| getting feedback from people smarter than me is another reason to
| publish
|
| hearing 'you're wrong' publicly from a world-class expert on my
| topic is the fastest way to advance my knowledge on a topic --
| it's basically free college
| cushychicken wrote:
| I absolutely love this. It's a great distillation of many of the
| reasons I myself keep a blog. It's a means, and an end, of
| learning more, and keeping yourself accountable to your
| knowledge.
|
| _It is difficult to know what you should know when you have a
| lot to learn and are in an intelligence-signaling environment. A
| side effect of having written detailed technical notes is that I
| calibrate my confidence on a topic. If I now understand
| something, I am sure of it and can explain myself clearly. If I
| don't understand something, I have a sense of why it is difficult
| to understand or what prerequisite knowledge I am missing._
|
| I like this passage in particular, and I divine a second meaning
| between the lines, and that is: developing understanding, and
| then putting it out for the world to see, requires _bravery_. The
| more you do it, the bolder you become. It gives you some skin in
| the game. You can 't just deceive yourself that you know
| something. And, if you're doing fundamental research (like the
| author), you gotta be brave - because there's a good chance you
| could be wrong. Many people are _very_ afraid of being wrong.
|
| As an aside: I still get nervous every time I publish a post on
| my own blog.
| pjc50 wrote:
| I don't have a blog, but I find it much, _much_ easier to write
| comments here on HN. And I greatly improved my electronics
| knowledge through answering questions on
| electronics.stackexchange. There are some important questions
| which are easy to phrase but hard to answer. One day I want to
| write the a canonical introduction to electron flow models,
| provisionally titled "Lies you have been told about the
| electron".
|
| I also plan to dig out my highest-rated HN comments and turn
| them into blog posts or even an ebook some day. There's
| probably 10-100k words I've written here already.
| cushychicken wrote:
| _One day I want to write the a canonical introduction to
| electron flow models, provisionally titled "Lies you have
| been told about the electron"._
|
| Ha! I'm just starting to grasp that - been going through
| chapter 8 of _Art of Electronics, 3rd Ed_. Getting a hard and
| fast education on noise. Shot noise is fascinating. I still
| don 't have a great mental model to compare it to. The closes
| I've come is dripping water vs a continuous stream of water.
|
| _I also plan to dig out my highest-rated HN comments and
| turn them into blog posts or even an ebook some day._
|
| I had this same notion the other day. It's neat how an
| internet post can inspire such clarity of thought.
| freehunter wrote:
| If I get into a long conversation on HN I usually turn it
| around and make it into a blog post, cleaning up the
| arguments and discussion. I only write for myself and don't
| publicize my personal blog but I've had some of those then
| turn around and be posted back to HN by someone else which
| becomes an interesting lifecycle of internet arguments :)
| AstralStorm wrote:
| A great analogy would be rain vs shower. Rain is shot
| noise, shower is AWGN.
| bachmeier wrote:
| As I was reading this, I had two thoughts:
|
| 1. The author must be young. That's a really small font.
|
| 2. The same could be said for teaching a class. No matter the
| class, even a basic undergrad class, I always try to work a few
| new research results (not necessarily my own) into the lectures.
| Edit: I was specifically referring to "Learning with intention"
| in this part of my comment.
| agentultra wrote:
| _" Writing is Nature's way of showing you how sloppy your
| thinking is"_ [0]
|
| Writing is my primary tool. I keep a blog... and journals. I keep
| a journal for my reading: what I've read, what I thought about
| it, choice things I'd like to recall. I keep a journal of my
| mathematical reading, thoughts, and work. Programming too!
|
| Keeping your writing in a blog and sharing it with others puts a
| bit of pressure on you to keep a public persona but it's worth
| doing, as the author points out, to keep one honest. It has taken
| a while for me to learn this as evidenced on my blog but I have
| taken it more to heart in recent years.
|
| Be careful writing with an authoritative voice if you yourself
| have not researched the topic deep enough to convincingly defend
| your findings! It's much easier for your audience to accept your
| work if they know you're in the process of discovery when they
| find an error or omission. It makes you more credible as well.
|
| The more you know, the more you realize how little you know.
|
| [0] https://www.azquotes.com/quote/721037
| loceng wrote:
| Re: "Writing is Nature's way of showing you how sloppy your
| thinking is"
|
| This is why I dislike the down voting capability on sites.
| There's an impulse the person dislikes what they read or from
| how they interpreted it, and then they are able to quell that
| feeling with a single action vs. having to put the effort into
| thinking and articulating into words what they're feeling, why
| they are feeling it, and allow it to be publicly scrutinized -
| hopefully with respectful responses. This allows not only
| scrutiny and discourse to occur, however it also offers an
| opportunity for OP to potentially learn something - whether
| that their language wasn't articulated clearly enough and so
| interpreted how they didn't expect or other.
| joe_the_user wrote:
| The only voting site I use is HN and here, a good number of
| the people who down vote will also comment.
|
| That HN hides the votes of each post is useful because you
| only wind-up with a vague guess as to how other posts are
| received.
|
| I suspect that not offering down votes would not make people
| more likely to comment. I will vote and then comment to
| reinforce my vote.
| rytill wrote:
| What forum rules would you like to see experiments with?
| Darkphibre wrote:
| Not op, but one idea: Ask for an articulate reason for
| downvoting. Increases the barrier of downvotes, and if
| people don't feel that it's articulate they could then
| downvote the downvote (with their reasons why).
|
| Frequently downvoted reasons could be added to a blacklist
| that requires additional elucidation before being able to
| submit the downvote.
|
| This has been an interesting thought experiment. I'd expect
| the results might besimilar to Robot9000:
| https://blog.xkcd.com/2008/01/14/robot9000-and-xkcd-
| signal-a...
| loceng wrote:
| If keeping down votes I like the idea of at least a
| minimum reply character length - those could then be
| added and act as comments.
| loceng wrote:
| The easiest one would simply be removing the down vote
| mechanism. If with an existing site then can compare with
| the years' prior stats - assuming they've been recorded; I
| don't know if HN does. There are a number of things you
| could monitor - would be interesting to see if any sets of
| people with the same behaviour change their behaviour more
| than just down voting, like if they stay on the site more
| or less, if they comment more or less; perhaps doing word
| use analysis on these different sub sets before and after
| the down vote change, what language are people who are
| prone to down voting using vs. those who only comment or
| only up vote but don't down vote, etc.
| keithnz wrote:
| I don't blog (anymore), but I keep a personal diary and "guides".
| The diary is to note down various insights and random thoughts.
| My guides are consolidated learning around a particular topic and
| key information that I will know I will need to come back and
| refer to. I make guides for anything, principles of design,
| languages, frameworks, specific tools, specific websites, books,
| and games. Some are purely informational, some capture my
| thinking about something
| eb3c90 wrote:
| I've not found it super useful myself.
|
| Maybe I was trying to use it for the wrong things?
|
| It seems like a good way of creating better understanding for
| yourself, a less good way of building a community. That seems to
| be best done off-line.
| KennyCason wrote:
| Wow, I'm very glad to have discovered your blog as of today. I'm
| really enjoying your posts and clear writing style. I just read
| your "Proof of the SVD" blog post. I can tell I am going to learn
| a lot already. Thanks for putting in so much effort!
| dlkf wrote:
| > I hypothesize that jargon is especially susceptible to this
| kind of misuse because an expert listener might infer a mutual
| understanding that does not exist. _This feeling of verbal common
| ground can even be gamed._ Many of us have done this on exams,
| hoping for partial credit by stitching together the outline of a
| proof or using the right words in an essay with the hopes that
| the professor connects the dots for us.
|
| (Emphasis mine)
|
| You could write an entire book on this.
| tombert wrote:
| Due to some frustrating policies of the company I work for, I was
| told that I can't blog about anything technical, without the risk
| of being fired and possibly even sued due to some ridiculous non-
| compete that I really shouldn't have signed.
|
| I still _write_ the posts, they just live on a hard drive in my
| basement, because there 's still value in writing. I just wish I
| could give back to the community and/or benefit from people
| auditing what I'm doing wrong.
| aliceryhl wrote:
| You should probably quit.
| tombert wrote:
| You're probably right, but these kinds of insane, all-
| encompassing non-compete clauses are pretty common in most
| large corporations (at least in my understanding), and if I
| were to leave I'd be sacrificing all my stock grants and the
| like. There's no point in me quitting if I don't think I can
| get something better.
|
| I could of course go to a startup or something, but I have a
| wife in school and a mortgage to pay. I don't really mind
| upheaving my life to take a bit of a risk on a startup, but I
| think it might be a bit selfish if there's a risk of it
| causing problems for other people.
| ndarwincorn wrote:
| The trick is declining to sign them, provided you have
| enough tact to do so in a way that doesn't signal that
| you're hard to work with in general.
| funnybeam wrote:
| Any reason why you couldn't renegotiate your contract? I'm
| sure you could frame it in a non threatening way and get
| the bit that bothers you redefined
| sciencewolf wrote:
| Off-topic, but Gregory - I was a participant in your C4Q Python
| workshop several years ago! So good to see that you're doing well
| in academia, and great article. Agree with many of the points
| you've made regarding writing-- as an example, one trick I've
| found for getting better at technical interviews was creating
| walk-throughs of problems I struggled with.
|
| Thanks for the great read and for helping to kick off my software
| engineering career!
| gwgundersen wrote:
| Hey, it sounds like you're still programming. Glad to hear it's
| going well!
| TurkishPoptart wrote:
| Are you still putting on that workshop?
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(page generated 2020-01-13 23:00 UTC)