Jia-Bin Huang Profile picture
Aug 13, 2021 β€’ 10 tweets β€’ 4 min read β€’ Read on X
How to keep track with the literature?

Getting started with research but overwhelmed by THOUSANDS of papers each year? How could one stay sane keeping track of the literature? 😱

Here are some tricks I found useful. 🧡
*Track the people, not the papers*

There are far fewer key people who are driving the field forward than the number of papers. Check out who the authors are when you read papers. Overtime you will recognize the important ones.
*Read papers with good related work*

A good related work section saves you so much time by providing a clear, organized view for prior work.

Side note: Please save others' time by writing a good related work
*Organize the papers*

Don't read papers individually. Think about how are they related (similar in some aspects, but different in others). It often helps to build a table with columns specifying ATTRIBUTES.

With this table, reading new papers becomes easy (just add more rows).
*Avoid reading the paper*

Instead of spending time reading the actual paper, find resources that are much easier to digest, e.g., a talk, a youtube video, teaser results, introductory video, or an overview figure.

Very often understanding the gist of the paper is all you need.
*Read with a purpose*

Before investing time on reading a paper, think about WHY you are reading it. Are you reading for the experimental setup, the organization, the story, the style, the method, or the visualization?

You almost never need to read a paper from top to bottom.
*Identify the trend*

Use your favorite tools to find what's hot/trendy, e.g.,
arxiv-sanity.com
paperswithcode.com
twitter.com
Hope this helps! What's your favorite methods for keeping up with the literature in a fast-pacing field?
Excellent points from the one and only @tzumaoli!

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More from @jbhuang0604

Oct 26, 2023
How to get unstuck?

"It doesn't work." πŸ€·β€β™€οΈπŸ€·β€β™‚οΈ

In most research projects, ~99% of the time your experiments DO NOT work. What should we do to get ourselves unstuck? πŸ€”

Sharing some tips I found useful. 🧡
*Help your mentors help you*

Tell them:
1⃣ WHY did you do the experiments?
2⃣ HOW did you do the experiments?
3⃣ WHAT did you see from the results?

Your mentors have more experience than you and are willing to help.

But you have to help them help you.
*Make your experiments easy to understand*

If you only verbally describe why/how/what you did, it's difficult for others to fully understand the process.

πŸ‘‰ Visualize your workflow
πŸ‘‰ Document the details

Your mentors are more likely to catch some issues here and there.
Read 11 tweets
Jun 5, 2023
How to draw an overview figure?

Creating a clear and informative overview figure is crucial for visualizing HOW your method works.

But how? πŸ€” Let's deep dive with 🐒 Image
*Choose the right level of abstraction*

Simplifying complex procedures helps improve clarity.

Ask yourself what the key message you want to convey. Don't overwhelm your readers with unnecessary details. Image
*Think in terms of computational graph*

Most methods process some INPUT with some COMPUTATION to produce some OUTPUT.

Visualize the flow with a "computational graph".

β€’ Nodes: Computation
β€’ Arrows: Dependency Image
Read 14 tweets
May 30, 2023
How to write a rebuttal for a conference?

Writing an effective rebuttal helps answer questions, address reviewers' concerns, clarify misunderstandings, and help the AC make an informed decision.

But it takes work to write a good one. 😟

Sharing some tips I found useful. 🧡
*Start positive*

Start with summarizing all the strengths noted by the reviewers and adding quotes to provide evidence.

Remind the reviewers and AC of
"Why should this paper be accepted?"
*Neutralize negative comments*

AC and other reviewers may only see all the NEGATIVE comments you responded to.

Neutralize them.

limited novelty πŸ‘‰ technical novelty
insufficient experiments πŸ‘‰ experimental validation
missing baseline πŸ‘‰ baseline comparison Image
Read 9 tweets
May 3, 2023
How to meet with your advisors/mentors?

If you are a grad student, having effective regular meetings with advisors or mentors is absolutely crucial for your success!

Here are some tips on how to make the most of it! 🧡 Image
*Present results*

❌ Collect and present the results you got in the last week? Terrible idea! 😱

Your advisor sees your results for the first time in the meeting? It means they don't have time to understand and think about them.

βœ… Share and discuss results async FREQUENTLY.
*Make an agenda*

❌ Dive into technical details too quickly.

βœ… Make an agenda. Manage the meeting to ensure you cover all the topics you want to discuss.
Read 8 tweets
Apr 15, 2023
How to do experiments?

Junior students often feel stressed before the weekly meeting with their advisors because their experiments do not go well. 😩😰😱

Some tips on why, what, and how to do experiments. 🧡 Image
*Why? πŸ€”*

❌ Do an experiment to get improved performance.
βœ… Do an experiment to test a hypothesis.

Many students trying to show improved results with experiments are missing the point.

Your goal of experiments should be to validate/test your research questions.
*What? πŸ€”*

What experiments should we do?

This involves three main steps:
1⃣ identify key research questions
2⃣break them down into baby steps
3⃣design experiments that best answer those questions
Read 11 tweets
Apr 5, 2023
How to multitask?

Feeling overwhelmed with multiple tasks on your to-do list? 😩

How do we effectively manage and juggle between tasks? 🀹 πŸ€Ήβ€β™‚οΈ πŸ€Ήβ€β™€οΈ Some tips below.πŸ‘‡ Image
*Calm down*

Don't panic! With good prioritization and strategy, I am sure you will nail this!
*Prioritization*

Multitasking is just an illusion of rapid context switches.

To do well, identify each task's importance and urgency and develop a strategy.
Read 10 tweets

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