Empirical evidence suggests that the best background for virtual meetings is a photo of my office taken at exactly the same camera view of my office webcam so that I will appear to be joining meetings from my office regardless of my actual physical location.
2023-04-21
2023-04-16
Outside the mandates
Recently, during the preparation for an invited talk on a topic I have been working on for a while, I realized that even though I am familiar with the topic, I have yet to organize my thoughts into a coherent story, and I am glad that this invited talk motivated me to do just that.
Giving academic talks is outside my current main job duties and thus I wouldn’t be as incentivized to do that as teaching courses as an university professor or shipping products as an industry researcher.
But this experience made me realize that there are activities outside our official job mandates that can still benefit our careers in a less direct way or in a longer run.
2022-11-24
Thanksgiving
I am thankful for not having any meetings during Thanksgiving!
https://twitter.com/liyiwei/status/1595857254514774016
2022-11-11
Watching presentation videos in faster speed
Sometimes I watch presentation videos in double speed to save time and heighten focus (more attention is needed to parse narrations playing in faster speed).
2022-11-08
How to choose project team members
More people do not imply more productivity, sometimes it could be the opposite.
Every member should have a clearly defined role that fits their interests and expertise, so that the total union can cover the entire project with just enough redundancy for robustness (e.g., unforseen demands for certain types of knowledge or tasks, or unvailability for some members during certain stages of the project).
Everyone should have the personality to harmonize with others on the team. We don’t need to love each other, but if some members don’t get along the project will be in trouble.
For longer term projects or building your own teams, consider the growth potential of people in addition to who they currently are (e.g., 3 to 5 years down the road versus right now).
Deep focus
Recently I realized that I have not spent enough time for deep thinking and I can notice that my ideas started to suffer. Some of the causes were self-inflicted, such as letting myself distracted by meetings, slacks, or emails.
Regaining self-control is in order.
2022-10-10
For best results, forget the bonus
Bumped into this 1993 NYT article via hacker news yesterday about the pitfalls of incentives not aligned with the tasks, which prompted the question: what should the employees do under the current incentive system (which lets assume can only be changed by the management)?
One strategy that seems to work for me (which I have been executing at a subconscious level) is to focus on “doing this” without thinking too much (if at all) about “getting that”. Specifically, do we want to do this even without that?
For example, I worked on SIGGRAPH papers because it was a fun and exciting experience, not because I needed them to get tenure or promotion. (I used to tell people that I have the best job in the world because I get paid to do what I like.)
2022-10-04
Your life experience is no less valuable than your career achievement
In a meeting with a collaborator she told me that she is starting her post-doc in Tokyo and plans to work on an additional project during her spare time. I shared my thoughts about exploring Tokyo (and Japan in general) and how I regret for not even visiting the great wall during my 3-year stay in Beijing (I was considered a workaholic in MSR Asia).
If you just relocated for a new job, explore the new city/country/culture/food/people/etc. instead of just your work. As I progress in my life I miss more about not exploring a place than having an extra career achievement.
2022-05-11
Burning the 3 am oil
This comment from Elon Musk reminded me that back in the good old MSR Asia days when Harry Shum would buy people free food at around 3 am and I tried to convince everyone in my projects to go home no later than midnight.
🙂