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Michael Nielsen's "Principles of Effective Research"

23 August 2004

This is the first posting after a very long period of silence. I will try to be a little more consistent in my postings from now on, especially because it looks as if I might actually have a couple of readers!

Yesterday, on my way back to Aalborg from Toulouse, where I attended a meeting of TC1, I finally got a chance of browsing through an essay by Michael Nielsen entitled "Principles of Effective Research" that had been sitting on my "to read" list of print-puts for a while now. (For the record, Michael Nielsen is a co-author with Isaac L. Chuang of "Quantum Computation and Quantum Information" that is one of the best introductions to quantum computation.) This is a very honest essay that addresses some of the habits that lead to (in)effectiveness in research. Reading it has been a cathartic experience for me, as the author touches upon many of the states of mind and bad habits that make me, hopefully only at times, particularly ineffective and frustrated in research. In particular, I have seen some of my psychological attitudes and idiosyncracies very well described and exposed there. I strongly recommended reading this essay to anybody interested in the research process.

On the role of proactivity in research, Michael Nielsen writes:

How can we learn to become proactive? I don't know of any easy way. One powerful way is to be inspired by examples of proactive people. This can either be through direct personal contact, or indirectly through biographies, history, movies and so on. I like to set aside regular time for such activities. Another powerful tool for learning proactivity is to remind ourselves regularly of the costs and benefits of proactivity and responsibility versus reactivity and irresponsibility. These costs and benefits are easy to forget, unless you're constantly being reminded that complaints, self-doubt, blame of others and of self are actually the easy short-term way out, and that chances are that you can construct a better life for yourself, at the cost of needing to do some hard work over the short term.

In the context of research, this means constantly reminding yourself that you are the person ultimately responsible for your research effectiveness. Not the institution you find yourself in. Not your colleagues, or supervisor. Not the society you are living in. All these things influence your research career, and may be either a help or a hindrance (more on that later), but in the final analysis if things are not working well it is up to you to take charge and change them.

I wish that from now on I'll learn from his advice, and not only in research. The principles addressed by Michael Nielsen do not only apply to research, but to our lives as a whole.