Weeks 101-103

Week 103

#phdlife week 103

Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they should use R or python they didn't stop to think if they could use either

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) September 20, 2020

Week 102

#phdlife Week 102

Three PhD students walk into a bar.
The bartender offers a free drink for the smartest person in the group.
The bartender asks each student separately if (s)he is smarter than the other two.
No one gets a free drink.

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) September 13, 2020

Week 101

#phdlife Week 101

PhD 101 for computational / data science-ish research project:

Learn & practice reproducible research. The Turing Way handbook is a good place to start: https://t.co/WNbRrRUFoq

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) September 6, 2020

Weeks 91-100

Week 100

Today marks the 100th week since I started my #phdlife, so I thought I'd share some tips based on my personal experience, mainly for new and early-years PhD student or anyone curious.

1/17

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) August 30, 2020

Week 99

#phdlife Week 99

One of the most common bias in research is our own cognitive bias, which has no design or statistical remedy. One way to spot and mitigate this elusive bias is by listening to others' views, especially when they contradict our prior beliefs.

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) August 23, 2020

Week 98

#phdlife week 98

Had to submit an article review and suddenly had flashback to my doctoring days.

What do these situations have in common?

Both require me to explain "how bad things are" as politely as possible

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) August 16, 2020

Week 97

#phdlife week 97

You can tell a lot about a person based on name and format of the files they sent

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) August 9, 2020

Week 96

#phdlife week 96

PhD research is the deepest rabbit hole I've been down so far

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) August 2, 2020

Week 95

#phdlife week 95

I have a joke about plagiarism but it's just a copy from someone else's

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) July 26, 2020

Week 94

#phdlife Week 94

I want to do some Bayesian statistics but I don't have enough prior knowledge

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) July 19, 2020

Week 93

#phdlife Week 93

I miss the days when people were talking about cell culture, not cancel culture

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) July 12, 2020

Week 92

#phdlife Week 91

Data scientists should be charged with animal trafficking and animal abuse because they import pandas and feed them to python

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) July 5, 2020

Week 91

#phdlife Week 91

2020 hierarchy of evidence:

5. Randomized controlled trial
4. Systematic review & meta-analysis
3. "Science" news article
2. Twitter comments
1. Broadcast message in family WhatsApp group

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) June 28, 2020

Weeks 81-90

Week 90

#phdlife Week 90

You had me at open access

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) June 21, 2020

Week 89

#phdlife Week 89

What is the collective noun for a collection of unfinished research projects?

A doctor of philosophy

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) June 14, 2020

Week 88

#phdlife Week 88

These past few months have taught us that prior beliefs, false assumptions, and extrapolation are dangerous when mixed together

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) June 7, 2020

Week 87

#phdlife Week 87

A calculated doubt is often more informative than an unfounded confidence

Unfortunately we often pay little attention to the adjectives

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) May 31, 2020

Week 86

#phdlife Week 86

Science journals should one day publish an issue with a list of 100,000 author's names whose papers been rejected covering the front page in @nytimes style.

"They Were Not Simply Names on a List, They Were Us"https://t.co/9dMqOxG47v

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) May 24, 2020

Week 85

#phdlife Week 85

A successful project requires a combination of motivation, knowledge, time, and good management

When there seems to be no progress, check which ones of these are lacking before anything else

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) May 17, 2020

Week 84

#phdlife Week 84

Draft: 2,000 words
Final version: 200 words

No one will see the deleted 1,800 words, but your future self will remember the thought process and make use of this information. Think of it as a form of reinforcement learning.

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) May 10, 2020

Week 83

#phdlife Week 83

Be confident about your strengths
Be honest about your limitations

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) May 3, 2020

Week 82

#phdlife Week 82

PhD students are perhaps less likely to be affected by these times of great uncertainty as we used to eat uncertainty for breakfast

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) April 26, 2020

Week 81

#phdlife Week 81

Frustration is like a mild infection.
We don't know we have it until we spread it to others.

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) April 19, 2020

Weeks 71-80

Week 80

#phdlife Week 80

There is light at the end of the tunnel.

But if that seems to be too far off, make the tunnel brighter with your own light ✨

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) April 12, 2020

Week 79

#phdlife Week 79

Every hardship is an opportunity to learn and grow

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) April 5, 2020

Week 78

#phdlife Week 78

Public:
Science is so confusing. These experts fight among themselves - I don't know whom to trust!

Phd student: pic.twitter.com/o4X6y4c7dv

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) March 29, 2020

Week 77

#phdlife Week 77

Stay positive in everything except test for acute infection

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) March 22, 2020

Week 76

#phdlife Week 76

I have years of training in medicine, epidemiology, health data science, and molecular biology, yet the subject I have the most expertise on in the current pandemic is social distancing.

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) March 15, 2020

Week 75

#phdlife Week 75

If you ever feel anxious that your research hasn't made any impact yet, remember that it takes thousands of deaths over a few months to teach our society basic hygiene

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) March 8, 2020

Week 74

#phdlife Week 74

Today's weather is academia:
seemingly warm with a chance of heavy storm at any time

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) March 1, 2020

Week 73

#phdlife Week 73

Wits before words
Content before cosmetic
Collaboration before competition
Ethics before everything

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) February 23, 2020

Week 72

#phdlife Week 72

Every grant / project / scholarship application across all career stages in academia be like pic.twitter.com/LA6tfAuR2A

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) February 16, 2020

Week 71

#phdlife Week 71

The #coronavirus outbreak reminds us that the most dangerous and contagious disease is misinformation

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) February 9, 2020

Weeks 61-70

Week 70

#phdlife Week 70

Decided to work today so I can produce a file prefixed with 20200202_

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) February 2, 2020

Week 69

#phdlife Week 69

Recent family gathering events taught me that before checking if everyone is on the same page, make sure that they are on the same book first

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) January 26, 2020

Week 68

#phdlife Week 68

Another article highlights the dark side of research culture: https://t.co/PuEdg9YrUN

I agree one of the main drivers is the overemphasise on publications. Modern research often demands a big team effort which requires various sets of skills beyond writing.

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) January 19, 2020

Week 67

#phdlife Week 67

Me implementing loops in Python 🐍 pic.twitter.com/Y1hWfPDYht

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) January 12, 2020

Week 66

#phdlife Week 66

Mental health, in particular happiness, is the fuel that keeps our engine running. Make sure to always have enough for the journey and refill when needed (responsibly).

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) January 5, 2020

Week 65

#phdlife Week 65

People out there are already busy making plans for the next decade but we academics are still replying to emails from last year

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) December 29, 2019

Week 64

#phdlife Week 64

This past month I went to at least 4 group dinners & 2 institute christmas parties. Academia is so much more fun and rewarding when you can be friends with your colleagues.

Happy holidays 😀🎄

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) December 22, 2019

Week 63

#phdlife Week 63

Twitter is one of the best resources for science, if we 'stalk' the right people.

It can show the latest literature, events, news, and trends in our fields of interest on daily basis; with occasional memes and cat pics in between as bonus.

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) December 15, 2019

Week 62

#phdlife Week 62

Wake up at 4am on Sunday 😴
Train to London Heathrow 🚈
Airplane to Frankfurt ✈️
Bus to Heidelberg 🚌
Conference at @embl Heidelberg 🤓

Just a normal day in academia

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) December 8, 2019

Week 61

#phdlife Week 61:

Productivity tips:

If you do a lot of computational works and typing, learn touch typing and invest in a good keyboard, monitor, and seat. Also stretch your back regularly.

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) December 1, 2019

Weeks 53-60

Week 60

#phdlife Week 60

Celebrating birthday this weekend

I was young and stupid before starting my PhD

Now I am just stupid

But hey, it’s a progress 🙂

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) November 24, 2019

Week 59

#phdlife Week 59

So according to this survey by @nature https://t.co/arP6F6xc70

there are at least 63 respondents who think that the most enjoyable aspect of being a PhD student is social life.

Can I make friends with these people please? pic.twitter.com/x3Lq7o6NAX

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) November 17, 2019

Week 58

#phdlife Week 58

If chemists print out the periodic table of the elements and put it up in every chemistry building, epidemiologists / statisticians / data scientists should do the same with the 2x2 contigency table / confusion matrix

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) November 10, 2019

Week 57

#phdlife Week 57

There are 4 types of people:
- Know stuff
Talk about stuff all the time

- Know stuff
Don’t talk about stuff

- Don’t know stuff
Don’t talk about stuff

- Don’t know stuff
Talk about stuff all the time

Knowing which one is which is critical

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) November 3, 2019

Week 56

#phdlife Week 56

It's adorable to see people in some countries celebrate Halloween with "Trick or Treat" tradition once a year.

In academia people celebrate "Publish or Perish" tradition all-year round, and it's far scarier.

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) October 27, 2019

Week 55

#phdlife Week 55

I am reaching this point of the project where I can correctly type the full path of files buried 7-folder deep from the root without auto-completion

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) October 20, 2019

Week 54

#phdlife Week 54

A "failure before success" story like that of the recent Nobel Prize winner Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe won't become a story until success is the ultimate outcome. We need to build a community where everyone feels safe even when failure is the outcome.

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) October 13, 2019

Week 53

#phdlife Week 53:

Last year, impostor syndrome / self-doubt was the main villain in my PhD story, but many more enemies are lurking in the dark. There are two that I need to defeat this year: envy & jealousy

(And yes, I'm a fantasy fan, hence the narrative) https://t.co/T3WjdYVuv7

— Albert Henry (@AH_AlbertHenry) October 6, 2019