Greetings from a very very early morning walk from a and empty, pretty dark, but absolutely awesome downtown Oulu You don't have the time to not give yourself the gift of a good walk every day And you don't have to do a lot. Just work a bit on day 1, a bit more on day 2, and on day 3 try to extend it just a couple of steps more simohosio.com/qs/

Academics are insecure about their imperfections just like anyone else. Yet, that's what folks miss. Don't slopify everything. Just be yourself. Cliche but so true.

There is a way to do stuff while having fun and spending absolutely no extra time: simohosio.com/the-catch-in-t… I'm a big advocate of finding different creative ways to squeeze in one good walk per day. We've got a lot of tools now that allow you to use that time also efficiently. Although, just wandering the world and nature around you are also great ways to put the time to good use Anyway, if you manage to build yourself a system where you consistently put tiny drops of effort into something bigger on a consistent basis, congratulations. You can now start building something great. And the only thing holding you back is probably the belief that "it's not that simple" Because it kind of is.

The longest study of adult life ever run finds relationships predict health and happiness better than money or fame. The PhD is built to isolate you, and relationships are the first thing cut at a deadline. Message one person you've let drift today. More of this in the Edge Academia newsletter → simohosio.com

My guess is if you are in academia you are a pretty good thinker. By the same virtue you also might be a pretty good overthinker and overthinking is one of the easiest ways to catastrophize everything, including the stuff that hasn't even been decided yet. It's a lifelong journey to learn to see things how they are, but not worse. In some cases it's good to see them better as they are but our brains are fine-tuned to see the dark... Sometimes just stop and write down all the good things you have in your life. And the real brain twist here is that some time ago you probably said that having what you have now would make you happy and fulfilled. Did it? If the answer is no, that next shiny milestone or promotion in your head is not going to do it either. Pic from simohosio.com/stop-seeing-yo…

Your mind produces thoughts like an inbox produces email, with no quality control. You review claims for a living, so review the ones your head makes at 11 pm. One stinging thought today, evidence for, evidence against, a fairer sentence. More of this in the Edge Academia newslet

The more you focus on just frantically getting more done, the more you will get done, and the more will magically appear on your desk. There is no version of reality in academia where your workload decreases by doing more of it. More is always more, and more begets more. Let me ask you a serious question. Have you ever sat down with yourself for even just 30 minutes or 1 hour and written down what success looks like to you? I know, a radical idea. Pen and notebook. Not 200 tabs and apps open. Just you and a brutal giga dose of iced coffee and your thoughts. And that pen. Write that down, and then revisit it next week to see if you still agree with it. Tweak it a bit. See if you can make any directional changes in your life toward that direction. Don't wish. Really, just ask what you can do to get closer directionally to that vision. You have the answer already. Then it takes a lot of guts to make the changes necessary or learn the new skills necessary. But at least you know what to do. Which is more than what most know. I bet you are in a position where you once hoped to be. You are already in a position you once said would make you happy. And if it doesn't, you really think the next position will? That loop is the trap. Find your happy place.

What you pay attention to becomes your life, and your attention is being pulled on purpose toward things you can't affect. One 45-minute block today, phone in another room. Count the minutes before you reach for something. More of this in the Edge Academia newsletter →

You control your body, your attention, your thoughts and your words. Funding rates and reviewer two are outside the list, and energy spent there is gone. Two columns today, mine and not mine. Act on the first. More of this in the Edge Academia newsletter →

Goals set a direction. Plans decide what happens on a Tuesday in February. Shrink the thing you keep failing at by half, twice, attach it to something you already do, and write it as "when this happens, I do that." More of this in the Edge Academia newsletter →

Feelings follow what you do, far more reliably than the other way round. Reading about writing feels like writing, and that's the trap. Pick the thing you're waiting to feel ready for and do a two-minute version today. More of this in the Edge Academia newsletter →

From: simohosio.com/ai-slop-papers… / it's crazy how even tenured senior faculty falls for... vain optics and nonsense. I know I know, if we're to tap into the wonderful giga-productivity of the future that is driven by AI, there should be nothing wrong with publishing 15 or even 150 papers per year. And I'm sure there is a handful of people out there who are already doing this, but the vast majority is just producing nonsense. If anyone has any ideas about the underlying psychology of this phenomenon, hit me up. Going to write up my own wild guesses soon. Personally, I don't really see a big problem. I'm just very interested in why people self-destruct this way. I don't see a problem because I don't think a paper carries much value soon anymore. Research, yes. A paper as we know it now? Nope. Also, I think as AI is taking over, the human connection will just grow in value. A fair strategy going forward is just to do stuff together with good people and team up. You'll go much further that way.

Grant application season for Simo. Not going to lie, it's a little bit painful to prepare the entire whole thing just to already know that reviewers will complain about something anyway. Daily battle to keep a positive mindset, battling against the odds in that sense. I wish I could have a chat with the reviewers instead. Meh. It's fine. One's got to do with what one's got to do, but I will just tell you that I do find it, personally, a little bit akin to a crime against taxpayers and humanity in general. So much of one's taxpayer-funded job goes into begging for more taxpayer money. All the while, you could actually be doing the research already, trying to benefit humanity. But every time I start getting these thoughts, I'm reminded how much dumb money the world is filled with. It's okay. But the distribution of it should be handled maybe a bit better. One thing is sure: all these thoughts go away after a good session at the gym and that good old overdose of iced coffee. And the mandatory morning walk: simohosio.com/qs/

"Use your mornings to do focused work" . "Ridiculous!" "I have kids!" "This guy has no idea what he's talking about!" Look, you take the wins you can and work very hard to ignore the ones you can't. It's a buffet, not a recipe. No other way to go about things. Our worlds are different. So is everyone's. Nothing in social media generalises. Half of the days, I can't even follow my own advice! I know it's not easy. And I fall for it every day too, I am jealous of a billion things that don't fit my current world. It's a daily struggle to focus only on what's possible. But given how infinite the world is at the moment (and it's never been easier in the history of humankind to find options, to create options, and to knock on doors), I'd say we have it pretty good right now. Find and claim the wins you can. Repeat daily.

thanks to everybody now being an expert statistician (Opus 5 🤢 ) we now we see 2-6 citations added to papers to justify using p threshold 0.05 oh, how fast this all changed

More people need to read this. We are all just human.

Discord 💀 Slack 💀 Mail 💀 Teams 💀 Calendar 💀 Coffee and L-Theanine Morning walk, done Good sleep Brain.fm Dive - (And strategically placed how-to-relax book in the background that I still have not finished or learned) (And Kikkeliskokkelismiehen tuhannet kasvot also peeking there, which one I HAVE finished...and learned)

The academics who can still sit with one hard thing for 90 minutes per day will own the next decade. Everyone can now send out a paper with shallow ideas with AI in an afternoon, Deep is tough. And it starts with your mind. It's the craziest thing in the world when you just, for a couple of days, start practising self-awareness and look at where your focus leaks when you're supposed to be working on something important. Thinking of your problem, through reading and writing. It's infuriating. Makes you angry. First you get crazy mad at all the distractions and everyone else, and then, at some point, you have to admit defeat and just look in the mirror and face the fact that it's your own fault. You're the one who is ultimately distracting yourself from doing the work. And yes, of course, there are people who have too much work. I'm not blaming them, and this is not to say that everyone has enough time to do meaningful work. It's a crazy world. But for the vast majority of us, we choose to be distracted by stuff rather than slay the dragon and work on stuff that matters. Good planning can help. It's not a panacea, but at least that gives you a fighting chance. Give yourself that gift. --> simohosio.com/planners/

Okay I laughed a little. Not a laughing matter, though. It's crazy how many people have turned into slow language model zombies.

Flashback to 2012. Still have warm memories of "Reject Bingo" -- a whiteboard where we logged submissions to the same important venue, and everyone could publicly guess whether something would be accepted or rejected. Everyone cross-authoring most of it, so no hard feelings. Some papers are better than others, we all know that. But we also know how random peer-review is. So it's really hard to guess what gets in and what gets murdered at the gates. +3 points for a correct "accept" -1 points if you guessed accept and the paper got rejected -3 points if you guessed reject and the paper got accepted Fun fact: wisdom of crowds did well. Research is so much fun in a good team.