PhD – Page 34 – ORGANIZING CREATIVITY

Lousy Form, Perfect Form, or: Why learning something late in life isn’t that bad.

2013-04-22

There's no need to feel stupid if you did something in an unnecessarily complicated way. Here's why.
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If you quit your PhD …

2013-04-19

Quitting a PhD can feel like failure. But take a look at the actual situation whether this is really the case.
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Another academic workflow visualization

2013-04-17

Visualized my current workflow when it comes to dealing with academic work. Includes references to apps and postings.
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Beware of data corruption devastating your Workflow Lynchpin

2013-04-16

Encountered the worst and most devastating bug ever. Some catastrophes work like nukes, this one is more like Alzheimer's' disease. Leads to a crucial recommendation: Keep your old backups, you might desperately need them.
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Recommendation: Colin Purrington’s “Designing Conference Posters”

2013-04-12

Shout-out and recommendation of another site dealing with scientific work. Great postings on lab notebooks, writing science papers, giving scientific talks, requesting letters of recommendation, and laptops in class.
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To Scan or Not to Scan

2013-04-03

Digitization of books has lots of advantages, but there are books that pose the question: To scan or not to scan.
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Happy Birthday “Organizing Creativity” 2!

2013-03-25

Hey, the second version of my book just had it's first birthday. A look at the download numbers and -- well, here's the one-page version freely available :-)
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Workshop: Scientific Work — General Tips when Dealing with Literature

2013-03-24

There are tips that do not fit neatly into a category, yet can be impressively useful. Here are some regarding scientific work and literature -- the foundations on which we build our work, and our careers.
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Perfect Memory and Polymaths in the 21st Century

2013-03-21

Some thoughts on why polymaths are no longer possible -- and what we need instead.
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Living and Killing with PowerPoint (or Keynote)

2013-03-16

Two great videos on how NOT to use PowerPoint. Also: A marriage proposal.
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This is a private blog showing my opinions. If you have an issue with what I write here, either don’t read it or talk to me directly. Don’t waste your time — or mine — dragging my employer into matters where they hold no authority.

The institution I work for, or rather the people officially representing it, have already distanced themselves from this blog. I find this unnecessary, as I’ve clearly stated in the «About this Blog» section that this is a personal blog.

Frankly, I have nothing but contempt for those who lack the backbone to address their concerns directly and instead resort to passive-aggressive tattling to others. Such behavior strikes me as not only cowardly, but also spineless, gutless, and wholly unprincipled. Moreover, these efforts are as pathetic as they are futile.

That said, I might listen if you present compelling arguments and evidence, as constructive feedback is always welcome. Who knows? We might even both gain something valuable from the interaction.

A comment for those seeking to use this site for personal gain: Given the increase in requests, let me be clear. I write on this blog because I want to. It’s my hobby, my playground. Sometimes people point me to interesting products/services and I write about them. But any request regarding ads or sponsored placements ends up the trash without a reply. And if you think something would be of interest, differentiate yourself from the spammers by referring to a posting — in an intelligent way. (I get enough auto-generated mails to identify them immediately.)

BTW, posts can get updated after I published them if I spot spelling errors (not a native speaker) or think a different wording might improve precision and clarity.

This blog is not focused on a single topic, or method. As long as it is relevant to improving creativity (or allowing it in the first place), it's fair game.
Some postings on this blog deal with freedom, as I think that we need freedom of thought, of speech, of association, etc. pp. to solve mankind's problems. Thus, some postings may seem a bit remote when it comes to organizing creativity. Freedom is, however, the bedrock of creativity.
The heterogeneity of the postings can make reading this blog a bit cumbersome, at least if you are only interested in one topic. You can either use the search function (above), or use the categories or the tags to narrow down the postings you see.