I wish someone had told me摘要

简介

这一篇会简单总结一下I wish someone had told me这篇文章的内容, 自己也是在知乎刷的时候看到的, 就看了一下.

原文的链接如下: I wish someone had told me

内容介绍

这篇文章的核心是在介绍在学习生活中, 一些非专业的技能是十分重要的。但这些技能在刚开始读书的时候可能没有注意到, 所以这篇文章就是在告诉你一些作者的体会.

The technical knowledge we acquire during our scientific education is not necessarily enough for a successful academic career. A whole set of non-technical skills are in fact needed "to make it" in academia (not to mention, in life in general). Obvious, perhaps, to a successful academic, but not so when you just begin your PhD.

下面是作者认为一些重要的技能, 包括:

• 沟通的技巧
• 专注和毅力
• 自信和说服力

These soft skills include people and networking skills, communication skills, focus and perseverance, self-confidence, and persuasion.

对于这些所有的能力来说, Practice makes perfect. 下面会就作者在文章给的几点建议依次讲一下.

表达能力

关于交流的重要性, 就是你需要能把你做的东西描述给别人, 可以让他们知道你做的东西有多好, 给他们留下一个印象.

You might achieve some amazing results, but if you are unable to describe them and share their significance with others, they are unlikely to leave a mark.

所以作者给出了一些提高表达能力的方式, 多读好的表达, 然后使用他们, 这一部分是对于paper.

Read a lot. Identify what elements you liked of a well-written paper, then try to use the same narrative devices.

同样, 如果参加talk的时候, 我们发现演讲者有一些好的表达, 好的讲的风格, 身体语言等, 记录下来. 接着就是尝试去练习和使用到自己里面. 

Similarly, when you attend a talk that you find clear and inspiring, note down what struck you: the slides' style, the voice and body language of the speaker.  At the first opportunity you have, try adopting those characteristics into your own presentations. The same can be said for posters. Practice explaining your research to your friends — can they actually understand what you do?

所以, 我们总结一下这一部分的内容：

• 只有有好的表达能力, 能把你做的表达出去, 别人才知道你做的有多好.
• 我们可以从别人好的paper, 好的talk中学习书写和演讲的技巧.

找寻合作伙伴

在所有的事情中, 人是最重要的. The single most important resource of any project is people.

但是每个人都有自己的事情, 我们需要一个理由来让他们和我们合作, 来付出时间. They need a good reason to dedicate their time to you. 那么我们应该怎么来做呢, 作者给出了下面的建议.

First of all you need to grab any opportunity you have to interact with your peers.(勇敢与别人交流自己的想法)

Second, you want to leave a new acquaintance with a good, lasting impression of yourself by being polite and confident. Remember, also, that in any healthy scientific debate there is room for confrontation, but always with respect.(要给人留下一个好的印象, 要礼貌有信心)

所以说, 总结一下这一部分的内容就是

• 多与人沟通, 不要害怕, 遇到合适的要多联系, 保持交流
• 沟通的时候给人留下好的印象, 可以有争吵, 不要一直坚持自己的意见, 要听取别人的想法, 不要有先入为主的观念, 认为自己就是对的.

总结能力

有的时候, 我们需要快速总结的能力, 比如可以在60s的时间内说明自己所做的核心内容. Can you explain the essence of your project and its implications in 60 seconds?

我们需要在一些演讲, 会议的时候能使用简短的语句进行描述, 别人不会一直听你的内容, 你需要简短的快速的概括的说完所有的知识点. Treat meeting people at conferences like speed dating: you get their undivided attention for no more than a few minutes.

最后, 我们需要在面对不同的观众的时候使用不同的描述. This means you have to use a different approach depending on your audience.

所以总结一下, 这一部分就是: 

• 我们要能对我们做的东西的核心点, 创新点很明白, 不是为了做实验而做实验
• 我们需要可以在短时间讲明白我们在做什么, 以及这个东西最重要的特性.

专注和毅力(不要放弃)

It doesn't matter how fast you run the first mile, if you can't run the whole course you are never going to finish the race.

Ups and downs are part of every PhD project and, regardless of whether your project turns out to be the flagship of the whole lab or not, you will learn that tasks that seem insurmountable at first can be tackled by breaking them down into manageable pieces. 

最后的最后, I think that ultimately to succeed in academia it is important not to lose focus of the main reason why (most) people embark on a PhD: the drive to gain new knowledge about the world. 

When experiments don't work, it is easy to mentally drift away. When that happens, just stop for a moment and remind yourself of why you are passionate about science. It won't fix your experiments, but it will make you go back to the lab with renewed enthusiasm.

知道自己的目标, 不要放弃.

总结

总的来说，这篇文章讲了关于下面的几点

• 表达能力, 能说给别人听自己做了什么
• 寻找伙伴, 在会议上或是其他情况, 要能和别人交流, 遇到好的保持联系
• 总结能力, 知道自己实验的重点和创新点, 能简短的说给别人
• 不要放弃, 要有毅力