lukeprog comments on Scholarship: How to Do It Efficiently - Less Wrong

113 Post author: lukeprog 09 May 2011 10:05PM

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Comment author: lukeprog 09 May 2011 10:59:47PM *  28 points [-]

I had a full-time regular day job up to March 4th of this year. To have time to do scholarship, it helps to:

  • have a very non-needy and independent significant other
  • have no children
  • no TV, no video games, no movies, no internet wandering
  • eat well and sleep well so that you have energy without needing much sleep
  • be synthesizing your research discoveries in your mind while in the shower, while going to work, while eating
  • be absolutely obsessed with figuring out the world
Comment author: Jordan 10 May 2011 05:47:03AM 3 points [-]

Can you comment on what the end goal is for all your scholarship, aside from satisfaction?

Comment author: lukeprog 10 May 2011 05:59:47AM 11 points [-]

Right now, solving the 'first stage' of metaethics and then making novel progress on CEV. That's where almost every heavily-cited post I've written on LW has been heading.

Comment author: wallowinmaya 10 May 2011 03:31:05PM 2 points [-]

Do you plan to get involved with academia, or to be more general, is it advisable to aim for an academic career? Or do you consider academia to be too costly, ineffective and mainly focused in narrow, obscure or otherwise irrelevant topics?

Comment author: lukeprog 10 May 2011 09:36:09PM 3 points [-]

Carl Shulman is a better person to ask this of.

Comment author: thomblake 09 May 2011 11:05:55PM 3 points [-]

As another data point, I differ from that list in that I have a somewhat-needy significant other, some tv / video games / movies / internet wandering and not enough sleep, and I've had a terrible time doing scholarship over the past several years.

Comment author: [deleted] 09 May 2011 11:11:07PM *  4 points [-]

As yet another data point, I have a half-time academic job, and even so I barely have enough time to do scholarship. I differ from the above list in that I do internet-wander and I do sleep poorly.

Hey, I'm working on it.