Confessions of a researchaholic

This guy knows how to hire, at his early twenties, better than most people I have seen.

The best way to evaluate whether someone can do a certain job is to make them do it, in a smaller scale that is feasible to deploy and yet realistic to the real job.

Hiring students adds another layer of difficulty due to their potential to grow and change. We are evaluating whether they can eventually do top research, which cannot be predicted based on what they have done in the past such as grades.

The introduction part of top research papers shares the following common structure, which I use to vet and hone potential ideas while drafting the paper/project:

What problem we are trying to solve.
Why it is important, and why people should care.
[Picking the right problem is the most important stage of a research project. Proceed only if this part is very convincing.]

What prior works have done, and why they are not adequate.
Say only high level big ideas. Details should go to a previous work section.
[If you can find only details but not big ideas, it is a sign that the problem domain is saturated.]

What our method can offer: sales pitch for concrete benefits, not technical details.
[Imagine we are doing a Super-Bowl commercial here; every second costs millions of dollars. Lacking of significant benefits is a sign that the idea is incremental.]

Our main idea, giving people a take home message and (if possible) see how clever we are.
[“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” – Albert Einstein]

Our algorithms and methods to show technical contributions and that our solutions are not trivial.
[This part is less important for truly brilliant ideas, but still necessary for the rest majority.]

What are the (anticipated) results, applications, and benefits; stuff ordinary people would care in the real-world.
[Let’s do something really useful.]

If you are mentoring someone who is clearly not suitable for the profession, and you think you are being nice by keeping him/her as long as possible, you are actually doing a big disservice to everyone because:

. The time and efforts you sink on that individual can be more effectively spent on other tasks, including mentoring other more qualified people.

. That someone can be happier and more successful at doing something else. You are delaying or (worse) depriving his/her opportunity.

. You are degrading the performance and reputation of yourself and your institution.

. That someone can set up a bad example and cast off negative influence to nearby people.

. You are wasting money and resources sponsored by taxpayers or shareholders.