It looks from social media like this was a great week for me. I had some papers get in and that's what I shared. What I didn't share is the biting rejections I received this week for a couple papers I believe in. I'm lucky to now be old & having multiple irons in the fire. (1/N)
That might look like a humble brag but I want to really communicate how not special I/we (slightly sr. researchers) are. Before the 4/6 ICLR I had an 0/5 NIPS. I'm young enough that maybe my batting average is going up a teensy bit but it's largely just plain statistics (2/N)
The appearance of prolific-ness comes partly from an OK batting avg., but depends crucially on having a large denominator. It takes some guts in PhD to get back off the floor after taking a licking and that licking really smarts when it's your only paper that semester/yr. (3/N)
That's where maybe being a white Jewish man who's been told by teachers and television, and Hollywood that he's the picture of tech might help: ***Of course I can get a paper in, I "look the part".*** (4/N)
Of course I cannot every claim to fully appreciate the experience of a black/female/etc student. But the closest I can come is to remember being a young musician who wanted nothing in this world more than to be able to play like my heroes (all black) (5/N)
And I remember truly doubting that it was even possible for a nerdy Jewish kid who can't dance to play with the as big a sound or as deep a groove, or to have the melodic genius of Charlie Parker or John Coltrane or Sonny Rollins (6/N)
I hope everyone out there struggling through paper rejections realizes that no one, in this field or others, is special. Everyone's poop stinks and everyone gets papers rejected, often their very best work. (7/N)
Take the criticism, use it only so far as it helps to make the papers better. But do not get dejected over a rejection. I have had more than half of all my submissions to date rejected, and statistically, so has almost everyone else. (8/N)
There's a bad kind of cockiness (the kind where you aren't open to criticism), and there's the good kind that protects you through like armor, through a career filled with constant rejection (9/N)
Sit down with the feedback and read it like it was two strangers, one reviewing the other's paper. Take the parts you would agree with if you were a dispassionate 3rd party. Throw the rest out. Then push hard and move on. (10/N)
I've exceeded my annual quota of Tony Robbins-ish motivational nonsense, so I'll stop here. But seriously, look at conference reviews as a checkpoint, not as a verdict. It's going to be ok. (11/N)
Completing dangling thought here. Just wanted to make the point that even with all the privilege in the world (economic stability, loving parents, growing up in Jew-tolerant 1990s NY), the thought that maybe somehow I'm not "supposed" to do something was terrifying (k/n)
We should demystify the process, talk less about genius (more about elbow grease), and make sure that ***everyone*** gets a full sense of how ubiquitous failure is en route to those career cookies.
