I believe I doing the right thing by studying everyday
17 Jul 2009
No updates in a while. I move to Chicago in a month and a half and start up school a month after that. So I've started with the research. It's been keeping me busy. (The title of the post, incidentally, comes from a very apt, funny and sad Google search that someone used to find my site.)
One thing I swore when I created the scratchpad was that I would use it to jot down research notes and make my research process open and accessible. Although I don't realistically think more than 2 or 3 good friends actually read the thing, it was kind of a romantic idea. So I'm a little disappointed with myself that I've turned to a private, pen-and-paper research journal out of a niggling fear that I might get "scooped" if I put all my research up in real time. Sigh. The best intentions are inevitably overpowered by selfish, personal safety concerns. Stupid greed.
At any rate, the work currently has me reading Carl von Clausewitz's On War. I may put up some thoughts on it in the next few days.
3 Comments
Steve
17 Jul 2009 4:33 am
Notwithstanding whether or not the "scooped" fear is well-founded or not, there's another reason to possibly be circumspect about the research process: depending on how fully-formed your research notes are, posting them might compromise your ability to publish your work later. Many journals are really persnickety about "prior publication". It's probably not *that* big of a concern, but if, as you're posting notes, you find yourself thinking "this would make a good paragraph in an article about this subject", you might think twice about posting.
Alexis
17 Jul 2009 2:09 pm
Very true, though my notes tend to be quite a bit more cryptic than that so I would probably dodge that particular bullet.
Steve
17 Jul 2009 3:36 pm
Well, that's good. Post away, then! :-)