B-3. Discussions on my “military theories”
As the graduation is approaching, it’s time to generalize my “military theories” in my research, life, and management. In particular, I have exerted numerous “military theories” in these years and found quite effective.
B-3-1. Think twice before you act
Think twice before you act, and don’t send out troops without justified reasons. That means, if you want to work on one research idea, you’d better think beforehand several questions. (1) Why should I carry out this research? What problem is to be solved after this research? (2) If this idea is successfully realized, then what’s the meaning of the result? What kind of journal can the paper be submitted to? (3) If the idea looks promising, then how long will it take? If it will take three years while your funding is expiring, will you do it? (4) If the timing is OK, then what is the technical barrier? Is your machine suitable to do the job?
B-3-2. Carpet bombing
For a normal person, it is not good to throw three eggs to the sky simultaneously, only to find that three eggs all drop to the ground. So, once I find one research idea is feasible, I concentrate on this idea and perform systematical experiment till the work is complete. Then I stop the experiment and write a research paper. I don’t want to work on three types of experiments simultaneously, and do everything half way, only to find that nothing is all set. This strategy is similar to the military theory proposed by Chairman Mao, a previous Chinese leader. He proposed that when there are several groups of enemies from different directions trying to approach and attack our army, we don’t have to deal with them simultaneously, because that only divides our army into pieces and decreases our military power. Instead, we need to assemble all of our troops to kill one group of emery first, and then switch the direction to kill another.
B-3-3. Philosophy of two-step kinetics
In my opinion, if you don’t publish, then what’s the point of recording so many data? If you didn’t sell out your TV, what’s the point of keeping on making new TVs? I propose that the process of doing experiments and publishing papers is similar to two-step kinetics. If you are quick at recording data, but you are slow for writing papers, then you have no paper to publish. On the other hand, if you are good at writing papers, but if you do not have experimental data, you also have nothing to publish. What we can do is to make sure that the speeds of the first step and second step do match.
B-3-4. Kill two birds using one stone
It is not good to throw two eggs to the sky simultaneously, but it is good to throw one stone to the sky to kill two birds, if possible. The point is, a common person is doing one thing without realizing another meaning of this thing, but a wise person can appreciate another meaning of doing this. For instance, let’s say I’m making preparation for Surface Science Seminar. If I am a common person, I just randomly pick up a paper (no matter published in Nature, Science, or a journal you never know), use one night to prepare for it, and then present the paper as a required task. However, if I am a wise person, I would take advantage of this opportunity to (1) learn something different from my current research topic, so I can get new knowledge; (2) practice on making oral presentation, so I can do it well when I have a job interview later; (3) review a series of papers, so I can learn how to write a paper on Accounts of Chemical Research and present a talk at ACS meeting if I become a boss later, and the seminar attendants can also learn something new; (4) read a bunch of papers centering around the topic of presentation, and think about (a) What kind of study should I do after my PhD education? (b) To which corresponding author will I submit my resume to look for a postdoc? (b) What are the writing styles of these papers? What’s good, and what’s bad?
B-3-5. Prepare beforehand even though it’s not raining
A wise person can predict the future. If one thing will be done sooner or later, a wise person would do it sooner, well ahead of the deadline. When Francisco asked me to write reviews, I always finished the draft soon. In addition, I always make slides for an upcoming presentation, even though that presentation is due next quarter! Sometimes a member in our lab couldn’t present first in the first week because he was not prepared, then I was ready to switch my turn with him. When Francisco suddenly informed to present my final defense after three weeks instead of several months, I was always ready to go. That is similar to the case with firemen. If they are well trained at usual time, then whenever there is something urgent, they are able to fight.
B-3-6. Urgent things first?
Francisco always told me that “Urgent things first”. However, I believe that “Small and easy things first”. Let’s say I have ten research ideas. Nine ideas are easy to test and can lead to publications quickly, but one big idea is hard to do and quite risky. Then, I think a good way is to deal with the nine ideas quickly, and then concentrate on the idea left behind. Similarly, let’s say I have ten things in my mind today, such as (1) pay the Southern California gas company, (2) pay the electricity fee, (3) pay the tuition fee, (4) reply three emails, (5) make arrangements for my traveling, (6) renew my Chinese passport, (7) fill in the application form, (8) make a call to someone, (9) check a proof of an accepted paper, (10) do some experiments. A bad idea would be to do the experiments while letting nine small things packed in my mind, because (1) even if I finish the single experiment today, there is still a long way to go to finish the project; (2) if there are too many things in my mind, I can not concentrate on doing experiments; (3) if these small things are not finished today, they still need to be done later. It is not that you don’t do it today then you don’t have to do it later. Therefore, let’s say I have ten days to do these ten things. I would rather spend one day on getting rid of nine small things and then spend nine days on dealing with my experiments patiently.
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