academia & rationality (pt. 1) - by Lydia Nottingham

I study mathematics at Oxford; I took a leave of absence, and I’m planning to go back in the spring. Today, I met an ex-CFAR math professor. I didn’t know any such people exist! We spoke about having a foot in both worlds. L: something i’ve been thinking about is the tradeoff between blog posts and research papers. i think i’ve been idly writing blog posts in the hope some of them will turn into research papers, but i don’t know if that’s realistic at all. early in inkhaven, i asked for examples of blog posts that have turned into research papers. and i got sent a few — in particular, some decision theory and incentive design stuff. it’s possible my process should look more like this: blog to generate / process ideas go away and run experiments / write up theory / write research papers about the ideas come back to blogging for dissemination & share any thoughts / directions that didn’t make it in on any given sunday, i can write 1-2 blog posts off the bat, and i can read research paper

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• Malaika Aiyar