planning your science

I had two interactions today that made me think seriously about big-picture and design things. I like design language: How do you design your whole research program, and how do you design individual projects so they fit into it. One interaction was in the Astronomical Data Meeting at Flatiron, where Vivi Acquaviva (CUNY) talked about the intersection between what you are good at, what is important, and what brings you joy. That's a hard intersection to find. Or way too easy; I am not sure. The other interaction was a conversation with Jiayin Dong (Flatiron), who is thinking about faculty job applications and the like. How to talk about your research in terms of the next decade instead of the next year?

One comment that is frequently made by Hans-Walter Rix (MPIA) is that he feels like most early-career (and even mid-career) people spend too much time doing their science and not enough time planning and justifying their science. It is important to be able to answer “why” questions about your research, and in the medium term it helps all your projects.