How I Stay Curious in my Daily Life |
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- čas přidán 28. 08. 2018
- How I stay curious, creative, and motivated, sponsored by Merck KGaA Darmstadt Germany as part of their #AlwaysCurious Initiative!
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Another giant thank you to my Patreon supporters, including my amazing ribosomes:
Marcel Ward
Christopher Miles
Ben Krasnow
Mathieu Moog
Colin Jones
Palle Helenius
Phiroze Dalal
Tim Rhodes
Peter Cook
Brad
Filip
Edgar Romero
Diane & George Dainis
Thomas Davis
Alexandra Daly
Don Burlone
Tim McNally
Jose Cruz
Brandon C.
William Pilkington
Kevin Hardesty
Nick Ramos
Music:
"Classic Rose 2" by Vibe Mountain
"Fender Bender" by Bad Snacks
Trying to document grad school one CZcams video at a time, from lab equipment to genetics lessons to interviews with other scientists! Each video is a new view into life as a grad student, and the rollercoaster that is getting a PhD.
Twitter: @AlexDainis
Instagram: Alex.Dainis
Facebook: BiteSciZed
Patreon: / alexdainis
Thank you to DCMP for captioning! dcmp.org/
(All thoughts and opinions are my own and do not reflect the thoughts or opinions of my institution.) - Věda a technologie
This may be weird, but for me it's taking a shower. For some reason I can organize my thoughts better when I'm showering and it helps me look at the problem differently.
That’s not weird at all! I think “shower thoughts” are a thing for a reason. Anything to shake up your normal environment and get ideas flowing!
Yep, showering is where I solve a lot of my biggest problems. When coding, at least half my biggest, multi-day problems come from thinking in the shower.
yes, to me when u r sleeping or closing ur eye, distraction is least n u cam solve everything in the world to me haha
I am a programmer. I use the same technique when trying to bust through a problem. Nice expression of your solution. Hopefully, others will listen to this and give it a shot. Appreciate your videos.
I appreciate you watching them! I'm glad similar things have worked for you too!
Another brilliant video as always Alex
If I ever get stuck on a problem I usually play music and start drawing, and sometimes go exercise. The music and drawing began in high school, when I would drift off and begin doodling on the pages. It relaxes me and puts me in a groove and I would get back to my task feeling zoned in.
Yes! I wish I could draw more than just stick figures so that this would work for me too, haha.
Robert Root-Bernstein has written and spoken quite a bit on this kind of thing related to the hobbies of people that have made discoveries in science.
Thank you for the great explanation of something scientists (and I'm sure other creators) go through. As an undergrad I loved to play Guitar Hero on the Wii as it forced me to stop thinking for a few moments and focus only on the game. During my PhD, playing Wii (especially Mario Kart) did the same.
Today as a post-doc I face the challenge of protecting the "brain space" from myself. I want to fill that time with podcasts and audiobooks because I often hate to be alone with my thoughts. But I know how valuable that time is for my science, so it is a constant battle to balance this.
New to your channel and just wanted to let you know that I really love your videos! The energy and enthusiasm you bring when you talk about topics in science is great! I recently started up a science vlog and was wondering if you had any tips or things that were helpful for you when starting out?
Love your videos!
I can only agree with the points you raised. getting out and limiting phone time helps a lot to get new ideas. really nice video, and good luck for your thesis!
Thank you!!
I've picked up a number of these habits over the past several years, and they really helped me survive grad school. I wish I had this video 5 years ago; it should be used during all grad student orientations!
That's a huge compliment, thank you!
Hey Alex, thank you for the video. I really enjoy your content. I also liked the Bit-sci-zed videos as well. Please keep making videos. You have inspired me to have my own CZcams channel as well. But I would to focus my content on Computational Biology. Thanks again. Xxx
Great set of tricks!
Hey Alex, please come to beautiful Germany and work for Merck after your thesis! Trust me, it's worth it! The weather might not be better, but the countryside sure is, and so are most of the people! Also, there is lots of inspiring art and history and culture, especially science history is really a big thing here!
I do a lot of searches online, one common one is searching to see if an invention idea already exists in the real world (even if something is vaguely related).
When i do this - i like to use IMAGE search rather than text search. It engages a different part of my brain to be browsing through images. It becomes like a meditation, as i have to keep reminding myself what i'm looking for otherwise my mind will wander and forget what i'm supposed to be looking for.
Sometimes these distractions will be very welcomed, as some things i see can be not exactly what i'm looking for, but still relevant enough to inspire new angles to the idea i was originally researching.
Also it's surprising how much information you can sort through in this way. In Google for example, only 10 text results will fit on a page before i have to scroll. But in google image search a single page will have over 40 image results on it before needing to scroll. And because of how our visual cortex works, i find i can scroll through imagery VERY VERY fast without missing important information. So it speeds things up, gives my mind a break from reading text, and provides inspiration (again non-textual).
Recommend trying it out to anyone: at least occasionally, try to do your searches through the image part of your search engine.
So glad to see you again. Please continue to make more videos with a shorter gap between uploads 🙏🙈🙈🙈
Get ready! Post-grad-school uploads are coming at you soon!
Meditation and relaxation!
These are both also good! I gave meditation a shot for about a week, and I liked it but just didn't find myself coming back to it. I should give it another go!
The power of silence in one's life can't be overstated.
Indeed.
Far and away, my curiosity is stoked by travel. Seeing new things or how people approach similar aspects of life in completely different ways inspires creativity and curiosity.
Or maybe it’s because my alcohol consumption also increases when I travel...
Travel is definitely good too. I haven't had a ton of time for it in grad school, but I'm ready to scratch that itch again soon.
My brain space is gardening, cooking and brewing. Similar to what you do in that it removes me physically and mentally from what seemed to be at the time an intractable problem.
Oh yeah! Gardening is a great one that someone on twitter mentioned as well. And as for cooking... just stay tuned ;)
COOL video, we miss you!
Thanks, and don't worry! I defend and graduate next month, and that means lots of videos right on the horizon!!
Crazy to hear that you are "wrapping up your PhD". I started watching before you even started it. I admire your drive!
Thank you! It is crazy for me too, time has gone by so quickly!!
Generally I don't spend any time on things like social media or tv or scrolling on my phone. I quite enjoy reading various world mythologies, or just picking up an intro book to a field I'm not familiar with, it can be interesting to see what techniques are used to solve or categorise different kinds of problems.
Oh yeah! Learning about how other fields tackle problems is fascinating to me!!
Good idea to get out into nature and experience the world IRL, instead of through a screen. I do it with golf. It forces you to deal with the very real world, and takes your mind off your work problems, because you have $20 on the line for THIS PUTT! :)
Do you work in Yosemite?
I love exercising, but sometimes I have not time to do it. But I've seen that when I don't exercise I feel more tired, I can't focus and my body hurts, specially my back. It's curious, but when I work out, even if I end fatigated, I feel fresh, the ideas run easier through my mind and I can do the same things but without the things I descrived before. Also, even if I'm in finals, I never study or work 7 days a week, one of them, at least, has to be for me, to get out of my study and then relax, but also think from another perspective.
Same! Exercise is the first thing I cut out of my schedule when I'm busy, but I'm always worse off for it. I sleep better and feel better and think better when I exercise regularly, so getting rid of it is never a great option.
I can relate XD even I sometimes forget that exercising is more important that relaxing, or watching a video; but I'm trying to make it a habit :D
Just wanted to say hi :)
You might like the Book of Five Rings.
When I am stuck on a programming problem, taking the simple toilet break usually loosen up, pun intended, up my thoughs. :-P
So many problems have been solved on the porcelain throne.
Hah, well, that is one way to take a break I suppose!
One more thing. Do not multitask. Do only one thing at a time. Always.
You can run and listen to Music or a book, but you brain are only doing one of them.
TRUE FACT.