Strategies to Keep Working

1. Strategies to Keep Working Borrowed extensively from Ching-to Albert Ma Department of Economics http://people.bu.edu/ma/Beautiful%20Mind.pdf

2. The Key is to ALWAYS have new projects • Hence, the answer is what this course is about – finding research topics and doing the research. • Economics is about more than the allocation of resources; it is about behavior. • At the individual level (optimization) • At the collective level (markets, for example) • At the economy level (macroeconomics) • At the world level (trade) Look for your topics at all these levels. • Economists simplify, then analyze. We use models based on assumptions. We emphasize some issues over other issues. We learn lessons from our analysis.

3. Learning by doing • There is no better way to understand research than by doing it yourself • Understand the papers you read by doing them yourself • Work the proofs, prove the propositions • Work out an example you’ve constructed yourself • Find equivalent data, and test the empirical model • Put yourself in the author’s position, try to go through the same creative process • Explain it to others

4. Getting your own ideas • Sometimes you can get ideas by the previous process of “redoing” the research someone else has done • Find an error • Find a better way • More common, you need your own idea • Make sure your research interests you • Find out a little about what others have done on the topic, but not too much • Don’t impose constraints on how you think about the problem • Design your own way to think about it and approach it.

5. Developing ideas. All research topics have multiple ideas, seek to find them all. • Interact with others informally • Try to develop less formal relationships with faculty, beyond your advisor • Attend social events, like the Friday afternoon get togethers, where often economic ideas are discussed • Go to lunch with other graduate students, and talk about research ideas, not your dissertations

6. Developing ideas (continued) • Interact formally with others: this is a key for developing good ideas and keeping working • Discuss your ideas with senior faculty, including but not limited to your advisor • Talk to other graduate students. • Form a dissertation/thesis group • Meet weekly to discuss everyone’s progress • Don’t make the group only your friends. See diversity in the group. • Read and critique each other’s work • Feedback is crucial for this to be useful

7. Develop good work habits • If you wait for inspiration, it will rarely come, and you will not get your research done. • Think positive, have confidence in yourself • Recognize that doing research is hard work; plan on working 5 (or better 6) days a week. You are not an undergraduate anymore. • Vacations are time to get extra work done, not to escape. After you are a full professor • After you are a full professor you get to take time off, but by then you have no life, so you don’t. • Really, make sure your work time is focused on your work, not on distractions.

8. Develop good work habits (continued) • Have a dedicated place for your work. • Don’t think you can do it in front of the TV, and you probably don’t want music in the background. • Ignore email, the web (except for looking up research related ideas) and try to avoid family distractions. • You will need significant self-discipline • Few of us are intelligent enough to just “do” research • We need to work at it, slowly, and tediously • Prepare for long periods of concentration

9. Some advice • Try to write something everyday • Write your first draft “poorly.” The point is to get out the idea, not to craft the story yet. • Do many, many revisions • Share revisions with other grad students • Make a presentation of your work, even if it is unfinished • If you are unsure about it, still make the presentation. • Ignore your ego, develop a thick skin • Let people know it is preliminary, and you are looking for direction.