In the past year, I’ve talked to many bright, curious, ambitious people who believed they couldn’t do research. That was me, not long ago.
Here I share my improved understanding in hopes of offering a more empowering model of what research entails:
Conversation
R.e. the point about how many papers don't count as research by this reckoning: the research you describe is scientific research. There's also engineering research, which is the project of building stuff to do stuff. Often conflated with scientific research.
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Fair! made a good observation the other day about how there’s a creation component of research (esp engineering research / in engineering systems) that feels less like understanding and more like invention.
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(Yes, and I think Kanjun's points here apply congruently: this kind of invention can be best understood as an extension of familiar creative tinkering, rather than a totally different process. And likewise, a focus on outcome over process tends to mislead.)