Research
A retrospect of my unsupervised venture into research, my stand on the distribution of scientific knowledge, and some tips you should know. Sit tight!
Truth be told: there is more about knowledge acquisition than schooling.
The ability to understand information is a skill never taught. You always have to figure it out by yourself with experience.
"Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it." - Albert Einstein.
Today, I will dissect how embracing the academic mindset would help you stay relevant and increase your knowledge. You don't have to be a PhD student or a research scientist.
Process
Thriving in a research setting can be a fulfilling and life-affirming experience. However, when push comes to shove, many prospects will retreat.
Understanding the research process is critical before one can embrace the academic mindset.
The research process starts with being curious about something. Assume you were reading some literature and a thought crosses your mind. "Will this idea work?" "Why is...?" "What if...?" You might probably ask yourself. That there is the epiphany.
I consider my unsupervised venture into research a golden bullet point - nifty enough to be used for illustrations.
If interested, check out more about TLA+ on Leslie Lamport's website.
It does not stop there! An academic mind will review some literature to understand things better.
The papers published in research databases like Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, ResearchGate, Scopus, Web of Science, IEEE Xplore, DOAJ, JSTOR and PubMed etc., will suffice.
Andrew Ng gave a Stanford lecture explaining how to read research papers.
Hold up! There is a catch! The "Catch-22."
The research process might turn out to be endless. The more you seek the answers, the more you will question, and the more you will seek answers. To fight a rule is to accept it.
Then, there is freedom. Freedom to choose whichever field sparks your interest. Freedom to explore a path, whether right or wrong. Freedom to research.
Nevertheless, with infinite freedom comes infinite responsibility - you will probably work seven days a week!
That should not scare the heck out of you.
An academic mind will remember to take a break when it feels like the world has stopped.
Open Science
Alexandra Elbakyan - the creator of the controversial Sci-Hub website, has received bipartisan support for her contribution to open science. Sci-Hub is a shadow library that provides free access to research papers without regard to copyright.
Open access (OA) publishing relative to paywalled journals allows free access to research - accelerating discovery and progress. Sites such as openacessbutton.org enable scholars to share their research upon request.
The Open Hardware Summit encouraged sharing tools and techniques for creating open-source hardware. Still OA.
Embracing the academic mindset is embracing OA.
Ubuntu
In the spirit of humanity, find some of my OA publications below:
P.S. Post-Mortem
Writing this issue, I aimed to highlight the idea that having an academic mindset is the bridge to gaining and sharing knowledge. Hopefully, by picking instances from my venture into research, you were able to learn the research process and appreciate open science.
One of my favourite podcasts, Embedded, in an episode that featured Alexandra Covor, ended with a brilliant quote - which I thought I should share:
"Enjoy the journey, and try to get better every day. And don't lose the passion and love for what you do." - Nadia Comăneci.
Stay curious and embrace open science!
Ꭱαɳԃσ𝓶 ᑭσട𝜏 ᙏσɾ𝜏ҽ𝓶ട
tinegachris