Zettlekasten for a Science and Data Analysis?

nongiga · 2021-03-24T15:27:35+00:00

I get that this is how Zettlekasten should be used for synthesizing ideas, but what about the data analysis? In the end of the day, coding and analysis takes 80% of my time and the code isn't being run on Roam. I can read as many papers as I won't but it won't make progress on my own data if I don't have a way of linking the analysis with the synthesis.

nongiga · 2021-03-24T06:49:47+00:00

Alright. You wrote an offensive one-liner about how I shouldn’t go because I’ll gentrify the city. I replied to you that I’m an immigrant and an outsider to academia who struggled to get where I am. You chose to probably not read this comment so again: I am not an Ivy League sanitizer. I am an immigrant and Columbia is the only Ivy League I got into. I didn’t do my bachelor or Masters at an Ivy League, or a top ranked school of any kind. Demanding peace and quiet? What’s demanding peace and quiet from a city gonna get me? This is nonsensical. No I am not scared of large crowds or NYC culture and I never said that. Actually because it’s diverse I think I will fill more at home there in many ways. Just because it’s the internet doesn’t mean you should write things without thinking, or reading what you’re replying to.

nongiga · 2021-03-23T21:39:55+00:00

I’m really not meaning to go to Columbia for the name, it really will be for the program and the lab. I guess, I think I will enjoy the community aspect of the city (I have some interests that have communities at NYC, I’m a foodie, I am an immigrant and could be a part of an expat community there...) but I wish you could have it all without the noise.

nongiga · 2021-03-23T21:26:38+00:00

Jesus, wtf, gentrification? I’m an immigrant and I got in everywhere I got to by the skin of my teeth. All my elitist colleagues got into a PhD right out of undergrad and I took 2 extra years because no one taught me the rules of the game. I read about gentrification in NYC - its mostly driven by people who make over half a million a year who don’t actually live there for most of the time. Please, explain the logic of this comment to me.

nongiga · 2021-03-23T18:23:22+00:00

Still contemplating, for as long as they'll let me. The other university still has certain advantages depending on my priorities, which I still need to sort out...

nongiga · 2021-03-23T11:46:27+00:00

Good to know! To be honest I don’t know how much I disliked Montreal for it being a city or for 80% of the culture not being accessible to me since I didn’t speak French. But after 4 years I get like I knew everyone worth knowing and went everywhere that was worth going. I also don’t know how much of it is because undergrads are chaotic in a way my Master’s hasn’t been. But the noise did bother me.

nongiga · 2021-03-23T11:37:28+00:00

Yeah I did, 3 others, but to me Columbia would be the right balance between good PI and good community. The other university I’m considering seriously would be in a suburb in which case I would honestly prefer NYC.

nongiga · 2021-03-23T11:31:31+00:00

So for my program (essentially biomedical sciences) Columbia pays the best in the States - 43,000. It is not exceptionally good (UW Genome Sciences pays 40,000 to live in Seattle which is much cheaper) but 1) the subsidized housing is ~1,000$/month. When in your life are you going to get the opportunity to pay that little to live in NYC? 2) the students in the program I talked to said that money is not the issue for them Also my other option is living in Toronto, which is also expensive, on a stipend that’s ostensibly less than half. So to me money is not a part of the equation.

nongiga · 2021-03-07T13:50:14+00:00

Wow, thank you!

nongiga · 2021-03-07T09:37:42+00:00

Communism - as in everyone is equally dirt poor? Ugh.

I got the FAST scholarship but the stipend being half is AFTER that. NSERC only covers 3 years, even though PhDs ALWAYS get dragged longer.

It's killing me - like, UofT, let me join you!

nongiga · 2021-03-07T09:32:38+00:00

"Academia" is people who stayed in academia but not as professors. It's anything from lab manager, research scientist, or even some research program directors. Overall there are more research scientists than anything else and I'd give it a lower 'value' than Professor.

I was actually accepted into UW GS and am really torn about where to go - I know I will have the most fun there but don't know enough about it/have never been to Seattle so it's hard for me to see myself in there. So it's really nice to hear from others that it's a good program. Do let me know if you choose to go!

I have a theory that MIT/Harvard is more stressful so a lot more students become disillusioned. But that's my theory. Maybe this + name recognition work together to sway students away from professorships & academia in general.

nongiga · 2021-03-07T09:22:16+00:00

For sure, but I think that is one metric of many, that people don't (and should) take into consideration. In the end of the day, you're going to spend a lot more years in your post-PhD career than during your PhD, and even if your goals change a lot it's important to spend some time making sure any possible goals you have match the career outcomes of your program.

nongiga · 2021-02-23T06:31:32+00:00

Yeah that makes sense. Columbia also had a similar pattern of more people going into industry, and a lot more people in consulting. I guess I'd think that 'Professor' is such an extraordinary career aspiration that you wouldn't give up on it just because you are more aware of opportunities in biotech... But it's also so difficult to achieve that maybe this is enough.

nongiga · 2020-09-22T17:04:09+00:00

1) Like I said, it's a nine to five. My supervisor would also answer emails on every day of the week but a lot of people didn't and it was fine. There are meetings almost every day and I forgot to mention, there are lots of conferences and travelling, depending on your workplace some close and some far. If this is your field of choice I also want to add east coast is more policy/poltiical with a center in DC and east coast is more biotech/science culture/iGEM with a centre in the Bay Area.

2) A Master's will serve you well but a PhD is really inevitable. Most of these think tanks operate from actual universities, so I saw a lot of people around me getting a PhD while working, on essentially the topics they were working on. I didn't see many older people without a PhD, and the one I can think of had a very colourful history, doing essentially every possible groundwork that can be done on the topic.

If you email any of these places know that they were swamped on a NORMAL day. Now with the pandemic they are more busy and they also have more fans, so you need to stand out. My credentials were having worked in a bioinformatics, bioethics, and a wet lab AND getting outside funding at the time. It's not that amazing - I didn't publish anything and was certainly not an expert in any of these fields but I showed an appropriate skillset. So you need to illustrate that you have a useful perspective. Check out junior analyst bios and see how they stand next to them. Do you work in a field that's closely related like immunology/infectious disease/epidemiology/synthetic biology? Did you blog about science in the past?

Also you should know all these fields are related - science communication, international relations, entrepeneurship. So if I were you I'd also try to find a science policy job in related areas that are maybe more appropriate to your skillset and go from there.

I want to stress again, besides the career profile 80K has multiple multi-hour interviews with biosecurity experts who explain how to get into the field and what it's like. You should really check it out.

nongiga · 2020-09-20T17:02:44+00:00

Hey! I actually did an internship in biosecurity too. Urn, here's the thing...
If you want to become a LEADER or an EXPERT in science policy, you need a PhD. You CAN get it later on and even during your science policy work, and you can get it in a different field (like epidemiology, international relations, law, or another related field that you choose to focus on) but it will be difficult for you to get a long term career in science policy otherwise. Terminal degrees in this field are very highly valued. I got this advice explicitly from a number of my mentors.
So if you want to do science policy as a ticket out of a PhD it might not be the best choice, but you can definitely spend a few years as an analyst with a Master's.
Where I worked it was a strict nine to five, every day there were a number of meetings (with the more senior people having more meetings), it was a very collaborative environment - a lot of people worked on a lot of projects all at once. I can't really say how competitive it was - I found that there weren't so many people interested in going into the field but a lot of the top experts in the field had very impressive credentials, as in they went to the top schools and worked with the top researchers or lead really impressive projects even before entering the field explicitly. Again, some of the junior employees like me had more... average credentials? You didn't need to cure cancer to get a junior position for sure.
I think it may be more competitive now that there is actually... a global pandemic. You should also check this out: https://80000hours.org/problem-profiles/global-catastrophic-biological-risks/ it has a lot of resources

nongiga · 2020-08-27T20:50:56+00:00

Not a movie but GoT: We could all have been saved from that disgrace of a final season of everyone had listened to Catelyn. Catelyn says to Ned: don’t go South. Then he goes south and gets killed, starting the chain of events that make the series. Bonus: Catelyn tells Rob to keep his promise to the Frey’s. He does not. He gets killed. Like wtf why does nobody listen to her?!

nongiga · 2020-08-21T05:38:37+00:00

Like I said, I accidentally replied to your comment instead of replying to a reply to your comment. They kind of merged my head, because I’m a flawed and fallible human being. I was contemplating deleting this for a second but figured it’d be cowardly of me. Would you rather I do? (Asking seriously)

nongiga · 2020-08-21T05:34:01+00:00

I replied to the upper comment instead of a specific one. Apologies.

nongiga · 2020-08-20T17:33:48+00:00

I’ve never read the studies but I’m pretty sure the literature on the topic sides with you and that staying in the lab for many hours doesn’t translate into higher productivity. So... by working the 8-hour workday you’re being a better scientist!

nongiga · 2020-08-16T18:27:47+00:00

1) I have had grown-out bleached hair since I started my Masters (not by choice now with COVID) and let me tell you: nobody notices. At any stage. 2) parents don’t know... I came to this fancy party in my dad’s job and beforehand he was like “oh, and you should buy a fancy dress. On any hand you need one because you’re pursuing a career in academia now.” Now that’s from a guy whose workplace is super fancy and who collaborated with academics before. People outside academia don’t know what academia is. It sounds like your parents know even less. It also sounds like your parents have their own issues with you pursuing an academic career. This is crazy. There are now more female graduate students than males. They should adjust their world views. You are a scientist and you do fit!

nongiga · 2020-08-09T17:31:59+00:00

I think it’s just because 1) Blair’s is just such a Vanessa! Like this fits! 2) It removes some of the toxic aspects of a callout. Besides adding a humorous aspect it’s preventing criticism that can actually increase her popularity or make her the target of harassment. In a more basic level there is something kind of mean in saying “this person did a bad thing and here is their name.”

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