2016-04-15
2016-04-12
Research coherence
One common advice on research is to have a coherent theme among our papers. I heard this from a bigwig around 2003 after getting my PhD.
This is one of these advices that I agree in principle but have violated in practice.
=D
Yes, coherence can help recognition from the community, especially when one enters a new field.
However, I am not sure if this should be intentionally aimed for. Unless you are extremely smart and versatile, you are likely end up doing related stuff without even trying.
There is this implicit force that drags us towards similar, and thus incremental, ideas. We should fight against this force, not follow it.
So, just do whatever you like. You will have more fun and more likely to produce novel stuff which, even if lacks coherence, beats being incremental.
2016-04-09
How to design talk slides
Using slides is a popular way to give presentations. I am not sure if it is the best way, but things can go very badly if done in the wrong way.
Take a look at Jim Blinn’s post about giving presentations.
Below are some quick high level suggestions. (I plan to refine this post later.)
Aim for simplicity and minimalism.
The slides are for conveying information to your audience, not serving as memo for the speaker.
Use intuitive pictures, illustrations, and animations, instead of texts and (worse) equations.
If you find yourself worrying about typography, it is a sign of too much texts.
No sentence should run over one line.
Rid of visual clutters like bullet points.
Gratuitous colors and unnecessary font variations tend to confuse people.
2016-03-29
HKU CS student recruiting
2016-03-27
Equality versus fairness
A CEO gets paid 100 times the average employee salary. It is definitely not equal. But is it fair? The answer depends on whether the CEO has contributed 100 times than the average employees.
It is not always easy to tell fairness from equality, but it is important not to confuse the two.
Fairness should be maintained, but it is unfair and counter-productive to enforce equality.
Algorithmic species
Algorithms can already devise algorithms and write programs.
It is just a matter of time before they can do that in a scale massive enough to displace many, if not most, programming jobs, just like what robots have already done to the manufacturing jobs.
WYSIWYG editor
Some people told me that they prefer Word over Latex for paper writing due to a more direct WYSIWYG interface.
It is true that using Latex is more like coding than writing. But is Word really more WYSIWYG?
One of my PhD students, J, is interning with a top HCI lab that prefers Word. J already has first-authored multiple SIGGRAPH papers via Latex, but had difficulty figuring out how to use Word, such as citations and cross references, even after the internship mentor provided a previous paper Word file for example.
The main problem of a binary file like Word is that it shows what is there but not how it got there.
Take citations as an example. Even starting with a complete paper, there is no way to tell how to add a new citation just by looking at the file alone. One has to search online or via the in app help.
In contrast, a source file like Latex shows how everything is done, even though we have to take an extra compilation step to see what it looks like. But that can be a single command with a makefile, which also clearly shows how to build everything.
The ideal tool should allow authoring in both directions: on the source (like Latex) with outcome immediately visible (like Word), or on the outcome (like Word) with the source automatically modified.
But for now, Latex is more WYSIWYG than Word for me.
2016-03-24
Recording and sharing presentation
Talks are usually easier to understand than the corresponding papers. To get accepted, papers need to be written in a way that look formal and rigorous, but not necessarily easy to understand. However, when authors present their (accepted) papers, they tend to cut the chase and talk straight.
In the past, people have to attend conferences for the talks.
Nowadays, everyone can easily share their talk slides online.
Better yet, record and share your presentations as videos (e.g. via PowerPoint). This can be done during practices or official presentation.
You do practice your talks, right? So why not record during your rehearsals, so that you can review now and share later.
Recording in official presentation might be trickier, e.g. the conference may prefer presenters using a shared machine and the recording might disrupt your presentation, but can be worth a try.
I have not done this for my own talks, but realized it can be a good idea after watching a few recorded talks online. I really appreciate the efforts from the authors, and plan to do so for my future talks.
2016-03-22
Some stuff I learned from recent interactions
[from a senior colleague]
Always be nice to people, or at least be gentle and polite.
Leadership requires doing what should be done but others don’t.
[from a former advisee]
Do not hesitate to ask people for help. I used to be tough and avoid troubling others. But since I am very happy helping him, some people might feel the same towards me.
Try and learn new stuff like a junior grad student.
[from a group of HCI collaborators]
Writing papers in MS Word will not kill me. Find tools to help the collaborative process.
[from the US patent office]
It can take 12 years to grant a patent!