Interlude: Learning Experiments, Strategic Co-Authorship, and Outsourcing Your Thinking
I’ve talked to a lot of researchers who struggle to stick to a writing schedule. Maybe that sounds familiar.
The reasons for this struggle are often external (meetings, students, clinical duties) or internal (a lack of motivation, direction, or willpower). But no matter the reason, it’s easy to feel like you’ve failed for not sticking to the schedule.
That feeling is real—and also not helpful. Instead of seeing these obstacles as failures, you can treat them like experiments. Put on your scientist hat and analyze the data. Notice where things worked and where they didn’t.
Say you planned to write the Introduction today and didn’t. Instead of thinking, “I failed,” try “What got in the way, and what could I do differently next time?”
Then you can learn from what didn’t work, so that the next time that obstacle shows up, you’ll know what to do.
So the next time you miss your writing goal, resist the urge to call it a failure. Call it a data point. You’re already trained to run experiments and learn from data. Give yourself the same grace with your writing.
Now onto this week's round-up...
Round-up
Featured
Is AI Making Us Boring?
Last year, I had the honor of supporting a few remarkable researchers with their TEDxNewEngland (formerly TEDxCambridge) talks. In this talk, Sandra Matz, a computational social scientist at Columbia Business School, shares what really happens when we let algorithms decide for us. She reveals how algorithms limit what you see, try, and ultimately become. And she shares how you can use AI to fuel your curiosity and expand your world.
Reading
How to think in writing: the thought behind the thought
I had a hard time pulling just one quote from this piece. If you have a few minutes, it’s really worth reading the whole piece.
“When I write, I get to observe the transition from this fluid mode of thinking to the rigid. As I type, I’m often in a fluid mode—writing at the speed of thought. I feel confident about what I’m saying. But as soon as I stop, the thoughts solidify, rigid on the page, and, as I read what I’ve written, I see cracks spreading through my ideas. What seemed right in my head fell to pieces on the page.
”Seeing your ideas crumble can be a frustrating experience, but it is the point if you are writing to think. You want it to break. It is in the cracks the light shines in.”
Beyond genuine collaboration: the rise of strategic co-authorship in contemporary academic publishing
I had a hard time pulling just one quote from this piece, too. If you have a few minutes, I highly recommend reading the entire article.
”Most fundamentally, the academic community must acknowledge that current incentive structures systematically undermine the principle that authorship should reflect genuine intellectual contribution. The integrity of science depends on honest attribution of scholarly work. When publication counts matter more than contribution quality, when metrics can be gamed through strategic arrangements, and when power imbalances enable exploitation, the scientific enterprise loses its foundational commitment to truth and accountability.”
Accountability or acknowledgment? Untangling authorship and medical writing support in scientific publishing
”All major guidelines concur that medical writers should be listed as authors if and only if they fulfill the same substantive criteria expected of any other author, including significant intellectual contribution to the design or analysis, involvement in drafting or critically reviewing the content, approval of the final version, and accountability of the research work.”
Watching
Don’t outsource your thinking
”We’re moving into this time where we’re gonna sub out writing to AI… But what is lost is what comes out of the process. What is lost is a way of thinking… And it’s the fun part too. It really is what you learn in the course of a day spent writing. Things you didn’t know. Ideas that you didn’t expect… And to sub that out to a machine seems like to deprive yourself of something really important.”
Thank you so much for reading.
Warmly,
Crystal
