Sony Reader

I learned via the Wall Street Journal that Sony is releasing a new electronic book reader called Sony Reader. It uses a special E-ink technology that creates high-contrast text with very low power. The device looks really nice. What I'm hoping is that one day they will put technical books into e-book form. It would be nice to travel and have access to my library of physics books in a handheld device.

David Mermin on talks

Here's a quote for today:

The most important question to ask yourself in preparing your talk is why on earth any physicist might be interested. This is dangerous: There is always the risk you will find no answer. But that is not necessarily a cause for alarm. Often when working on a problem for a long time, one does indeed forget what first led one into that line of endeavor, so if at first you can find no answer, think some more. What is there in the subject to capture the imagination of one lacking your highly specialized skills? Give yourself a week. If you still can find no reason why anyone not directly involved in the work should find it anything but tediously obscure, then you should find something else to talk about. Indeed you might then seriously consider finding another area of research.

It's taken from a Physics Today article called "What's wrong with these talks?" by David Mermin.

Caffeine overdose

I went to bed early, tossed and turned and got up at 1 am, then got back into bed at 3 am. Ick, I think I had a caffeine overdose. I'll have to stop having coffee after lunchtime.

One page per day

Avoiding your work is, paradoxically, a common problem in any creative career. Perhaps it has to do with perfectionism. Artists, writers, scientists, etc only go into their respective fields because they have a passion to create their own masterpiece. But the years of work involved in creating that work is terrifyingly intimidating.

Writers have come up with various ways to combat procrastination. According to a friend of mine, Ernest Hemingway wrote one page everyday even when he had a hangover. Another writer wrote four pages a day after which he could polish all the silverware he wanted.

I want to come up with a physicist version of this method and I have arrived at the following proposal: do one hour of research every morning.

Where does my time go?

I feel like I don't get much done (at least not as much as I'd like), so here's a list of how I spend my non-work time during the week.

Fun: Battlestar Galactica (1 hr), Lost (1 hr)

Exercise: hockey practice (3 hrs), gym (6-8 hrs)

Class: Noise and dissipation lecture (3 hr), Theory of Solids reading group (1 hr)

Meetings: Meeting with advisor (1 hr), postdoc meeting (2 hrs), group meeting (1.5 hr), condensed matter theory seminar (1 hr), physics colloquium (1 hr)

Sleeping (56 hr)

Eating (21 hr)

News reading and email (??)

Which leaves me 67.5 hours during the week to do "real" work. My real work consists of doing reading for classes, attempting problem sets, reading the arXiv, doing research, and organizing my research/class/etc materials.

I'm going to start keeping time cards everyday to see what's going on.

Limits on addictive behavior

I want to commit to some limits on addictive behavior. So far I have 1) no more than two cups of coffee and two cups of tee per day, 2) no more than 2 x 15 minute gaming breaks.

I have a sort of flow chart to fighting off sleepiness. Caffeine --> exercise/news reading --> email --> web surfing/gaming --> napping. (X --> Y means if X doesn't work, do Y)

Link of the day: Math screensavers and exercise videos

I found some cool stuff this morning. First, Chris Lomont has a bunch of math-based screensavers including Mandelbrot sets, knots, and polyhedra. Second, John Sokolowski has an excellent site called Athlete 365 which includes a library of exercises, many illustrated in video.

Handedness in hockey

Just like neutrinos, it seems like NHL players prefer to shoot left. I searched on the web and found a few fans who noticed the same thing (here and here).

I'm right handed and I shoot left. When I first started playing hockey, I shot right, but the coaches made me switch to lefty. They said I stickhandled and passed better. I'm not sure if they were right (in fact, I wasn't very happy about the switch), but now I just play lefty all the time. Unfortunately, I don't have a strong upper body so I find it difficult to shoot lefty. My shot is definitely stronger with my right hand on the bottom of the stick.

Don't tell me what I can or can't do!

The title of this blog post is a reference to a quote from the TV show Lost. In the episode "Walkabout," John Locke, a former paraplegic, says variations of this phrase when people put him down.

Ever since I reached college age, I feel increasingly pressured by the ever-growing cacophony of voices telling me to do this or that. When I got into graduate school, it seemed like everyone had an opinion on where I should go. One professor wanted me to learn his specialty, so he pushed me towards the school best for that. Some people thought I should go to a "brand-name" school to maximize my marketability. A few people apparently didn't seem to think I was very bright, since they didn't really encourage me to apply to top schools. If I had to do it over again, I'm not sure I would have told anyone where I got it unless they had some useful advice. As one of my friends aptly said, "I am not a democracy. You do not have a vote on where I go to school."

Career advice, I can partially understand that. But I see so many other areas in life where people are ridiculously obtrusive. For instance, I used to have short hair up until a year and a half ago when I just stopped cutting it and let it grow. A few months ago I contemplated cutting it and I felt so much social pressure not to. My roommate said, "I know it's tempting, but don't cut your hair!" I get noticed by men much more now that I have longer hair and it makes me feel like I must have been less of a woman when I had short hair. (If you're wondering, I've decided to keep my hair long for now, so I can get more experience with the situation before making a choice.)

Something that really annoys me is when people tell me I work too much. I talked to all my friends who have gotten good jobs in physics and they all worked like crazy. No one can be successful in science without working long hours. I often feel like I have to cover up my working habits as if I were an alcoholic. It is true that there have been times when I've worked to escape from personal problems, but mostly I have had very good reasons for working. I studied very hard in college and I have no regrets. It was like intellectual first love; I didn't want to lose time when I could be learning something beautiful. Now that I look back, I was right. I can't go back to learning Nyquist's theorem or the Schrodinger equation for the first time. The question is not what do you want to do with your life, but what do you want to experience (as Steve Pavlina says).

I think about what I could be doing besides physics and I can't see that the alternatives are any better. Lawyers work really long hours and a lot of that work is apparently boring. Doctors have trouble running profitable practices due to the rising costs of malpractice insurance. Being an engineer in a high-tech company seems really boring. One of my friends ia biomedical engineer and she showed me her workplace -- a maze of cubicles. Frankly, her co-workers seemed un-interesting and lethargic. I can't imagine being a bright, creative person stifled in that type of environment, having to do what is expected. Everyone has a different focus in life. Some people want to create a wonderful family. Some people want to buy their own island and yacht. Some people want to "save" the world (charity work). I want to work in a creative, meaningful craft (at least that is what I want now). Some people want it all - a great family, great work, and money!

What really bothers me is who's telling me what I should do. One group is my peers. "Don't play video games. They're addictive." (My response: "Well, they make me happy because I feel like a kid again!") "I'm almost 30. I'm getting old." (My response: "Speak for yourself. No one's stopping me.") How can a 25 year old claim to be old?! The other group is parents and elders. I suppose that an occupational hazzard of growing older is wanting to tell younger people what to do because 1) you no longer have the opportunity to make those choices and 2) a sense of entitlement. I don't believe that older equals wiser. Many people don't get wiser; they just reinforce the same beliefs they've had since they were 20 years old. I don't see why a 60 year old person who treads a narrow path should be respected more than a 30 year old person who has tried to make the most of his/her short time on this earth. I refuse to be put down anymore. Don't tell me what I can or can't do.

Worker bees

I heard about a graduate student in archaeology who finished her undergrad in three years, graduate school in four years, and was hired as an assistant professor right out of grad school. Apparently, she worked 10-12 hours per day. How does anyone do that? I feel jealous...

The only recreational activity I might be able to reduce is news reading (which probably consumes 1-1.5 hours a day). Steve Pavlina views reading the news daily as an addiction. I used to read a lot of articles in depth, but now I skim headlines and just pick about 10 articles to read. I used to spend a lot of time organizing and cleaning, but I don't have to do that anymore, just a little maintenance now and then. The other fun things I do are hockey and watching two TV shows and I don't really want to give that up.