Friday, May 5, 2017

The way forward

While I take back none of my concerns, the right path forward is always just that: forward. It may well be that this endeavor is doomed but, if that turns out to be the case, it must be due to things outside of my control, not things that I simply gave up on.

With that said, here's the plan for the summer: read and comment on a paper every day (every day interpreted as 6 days a week minus a few vacation days). The only way I'm going to get a faculty member on board with this research is to show that it's viable. To do that, I need to complete my survey paper. To do that, I need to survey the literature.

It's not particularly inspiring (the "literature" is much more of a wasteland than one might hope). It's a lot of work. It's tedious at times. It involves a lot of effort wasted on papers that end up having no bearing on the problem. It's also what you do to prepare yourself for PhD research. I knew that going in; I had to do it for my master's work as well. I'll do it again. I just hope it works.

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