Lessons Learned from My Dissertation
Lessons Learned from My Dissertation
A Good Literature Review is Sometimes Better than a New Project
Me having to come up with a project is actually a failure of the world
So often I find products announced on Reddit as the hot new thing. “Use this library in your react app!”, “use this lightweight framework!”, “my Task app is unlike anything out there!”.
The fact is, there are so many great services out there. And so many people willing to help work on open source projects. Learning by doing is one of the best ways to learn, but When you’re considering taking something seriously you should ask “does this already exist?”. If it does, That’s a GREAT thing. So many things already done, so many edge cases you haven’t considered. You can build on that work! Maybe your project should just be a PR. Maybe it’s just a bug fix or an added feature to an existing solution. That will better position you to learn from others and make better stuff.
Iteration over innovation is not fashionable, I suppose people hope their project will be “the next best thing”. But contributing to existing solutions lets you approach unique problems, rather than finding you have to implement with for the eighteenth time (not that I’d know anything about that…)
If you don’t like what’s out there, maybe you don’t need to start from scratch. Maybe you need to start tidying up what already exists, and improve the existing solutions.
Learning from what’s Already out there is Actually Really Cool
The scientific process is like a Ritualised Tradition.
Take Advantage of Your Mentors
When I was at university, I treated it like a collection of resources. There were the textbooks I didn’t read, the lectures I didn’t attend, and the seminars I pretended didn’t exist. I felt seminars were just places I would go to get my homework marked, so I never went. In reality the only difference between uni and YouTube is you can actually talk to university professors. While you’re at university, you’re supposed to interact with peers and mentors. The whole point is you collaborate with others, so your projects shouldn’t be self taught. A dissertation is the pinnacle of that. You get to meet with your supervisor and discuss a topic you are interested in but know nothing about with an expert. Often those conversations are one on one.
Theoretical Vs Practical Research
Sometimes you should just build something cool instead of try to outstretch yourself with hyper technical research.
...sharpening our axes and sorting our tool boxes - Sol and Morty Leftover - Always Organising (while being in mess). Always optimising Important Qualities of Engineering [[UNIX Philosophy]] What Do We Do Now? [[[How should we]]