Read on Twitter
I wanted to share some „technical“ insights/recommendations for skills and tools which I (sometimes painfully) acquired during my PhD studies... (in Econ/energy system analysis) Any additions are welcome as my Postdoc is looming :)
First of all, I learned Python and use it for data analysis, simulation, plotting, web crawling, machine learning,... Capabilities are endless. R is next on the list.
If you work with computation-heavy stuff (long simulations, CNN training, etc.), use a computing cluster. This frees up your local machine to work on other stuff, you can submit multiple jobs in parallel, and it doesn‘t freeze. Would have saved me a lot of time in the beginning.
I always backed up my work on two external HDs/github/Overleaf. The worst I heard was that someone lost her nearly-ready dissertation because sb broke into her car (she could recover large parts of it but still). You don‘t want to be in this situation.
Sth which improved my editing tremendeously&lifted my spirits when reading through text for the >100th time was my tablet and an app like GoodNotes for free-hand notes, mark ups, etc. Gets you off the desk to a more comfy place and lets you see your work as a near-final version.
For writing, I used Overleaf. No messy dealing with a package manager, everything pre-installed, and the document is always backed up in the cloud. You can use git to pull your files on your local machine and push changes back to the repo if you need to work locally.
However, I am not convinced yet for collaborations with equally contributing authors. For shorter pieces with only few formulae, I‘d use MS Word. Too bad, the great editing mode does not work in the online version (as far as I know).
For presentations, I use PowerPoint. I never understood economists‘ passion with LateX slides (maybe sb wants to explain it). I extensively use animations&graphical tools to explain&visualize my research approach&results and have the impression that the audience appreciates that.
Finally, I couldn‘t live with some non-digital tools, in particular my paperback calendar and notebook where I chronologically take meeting notes. I gave up on a more sophisticated system like different categories (too many). Calendar+meeting notes help me find anything I need.
I am still not happy with my Mendeley/Bibtex solution (sync failing, papers lost, no tablet option; but it works somehow) and unsure about iOS/Windows for my next machine. Recommendations are welcome!
