Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Gutierrez:
How do you know you're solving the right problem?
Jonas:
It really depends on what you're going to call the “right problem.” For
me there are two parts to that question: “Is the problem right in some sort of
global sense?” And “Is the problem going to be one that I'm going to be willing
to see through?” That latter question is just as challenging as the former. So a
big part of it is: “Am I intrinsically interested in the answer here, and do I think
other people are going to be interested in it as well?” Then I can ask, “Am I
having fun, and is this the best use of my talents?” I have a clock that shows the
estimated number of days until I'm 80, which is a reasonable life expectancy. It
helps to remind me that each day actually really matters.
So on the neuro side, I talk to my neuroscience friends to try really hard to
make sure I'm not just doing math-wanking. Sometimes I still veer in that
direction because math is fun and solving technical problems is fun. Sometimes
you veer in that direction and end up finding another path back. However,
science is hard, most stuff doesn't work, and you have to be willing to stare at
shitty, ambiguous results and be like, “I'm going to keep doing this for another
8 hours today, anyway.”
Some of the research projects I've started lately, I've worked halfway through
them and realized that I'm not that into them, so I stop. People are very
understanding about that sort of thing. Everyone likes to talk about how if
you're not failing some fraction of the time, you're not trying hard enough, so
at the very least, I console myself by thinking, “Well, I tried this thing and it
didn't work, and that's okay.” Megan McArdle has a new book out about the
role of failure and success, and she makes the same argument that, in some
sense, it's figuring out how to both fail and recover is really crucial to all of this
innovation stuff that we do.
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Specifically to the question of “How do I know I'm currently solving the right
kinds of problem right now?” is the good response for our workshop, which is
a good indicator that people give a damn. Private and public funding agencies
are getting really excited about funding this type of work, which also suggests
I'm on the right track. On the other hand, the universe is very fad-driven. In
2008, I might have thought hacking on Hadoop was going to be this really big
thing, and now I'm like, “Well, honestly, what's the real value there when most
people probably could have done their data analytics on top of PostgreSQL?”
You don't really know if what you're working on is the right problem to be
solving sometimes until years out, but you hope you're on the right track.
Gutierrez:
When you're thinking and solving problems, do you approach it
modeling first or do you approach it data first?
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Megan McArdle,
The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well Is the Key to Success
(Viking, 2014).
