Top 10 Things I did RightWrongin Graduate School.ppt

Top 10 Things I did Right/Wrongin Graduate School Greg Morrisett Goal, Caveats Background You should think and plan now how to get the most out of grad school. Where do you want to be when you finish? Take specifics with a large grain of salt Personal history: Small, liberal arts undergrad school [’89] Carnegie Mellon for grad work (PL) [’95] Cornell faculty [‘96-’03] Harvard faculty [‘04-now] Things I did wrong: #10 Spent the first year isolated from my fellow students. Lived alone Worked alone Went out of town a lot They had fun, I was miserable. Make the effort to get to know them. Wrong #9 Assumed I wasn’t good enough. U. of Richmond is no CS powerhouse Fellow students from IIT, Princeton, Berkeley, MIT, Stanford, etc. Yikes! Felt like a fraud. (Still feel like a fraud.) (So does everyone else.) By the end of quals, field was more level. Everyone admitted can do well! Wrong #8 Was scared to ask advisor for stuff like books, travel money, equipment, etc. You’re expensive (~$50K) If I can prevent RSI, I’ll spend a lot of money. Equipment is not. Money is renewable, time is not. You need the proper equipment to get the job done. It never hurts to ask. Wrong #7 Lots of classes, little homework. (CMU had no course requirements) Better to do few classes well. You’ve got to get your hands dirty to really learn something. (Re-prove that theorem, hack that algorithm, measure that performance, etc.) Learning by osmosis doesn’t work. Wrong #6 Was hyper-critical of visitors and talks. It’s easy fun to be critical. Until you’re the one under the glass. It’s easy to be cynical. Cynics aren’t good researchers. Try to keep an open and receptive mind. Before forming an opinion, ask how you would (realistically) have done and presented the research. Wrong #5 Never took courses outside of CS I’ll be doing CS for the rest of my life I can learn CS topics on my own I need help with stuff I don’t do well I either won’t or can’t make the time now I wish I had taken: Writing,