Hacking Academia

🚨 New Hacking Academia video out on Matchmaking Problems and Solutions in research It's *that* time of year again - submissions for the main international robotics conference ICRA2027 close in just over a month. In today's video I cover: 💕 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐞. If the task you're developing solutions for is already near perfectly solved, it doesn't give you room for im...

I've caught up with a large number of senior research leaders recently, and have had a particularly interesting experience repeat itself a lot: I will congratulate them on some amazing achievements or successes that they, or their group / centre / cluster / institute have recently had, they will thank me, and then immediately launch into a discussion of one, or more, major, or even existentia...

𝐇𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐰𝐞𝐝 𝐮𝐩 𝐢𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐫? 💥 I have - and it can be a challenging situation to detect, navigate, repair, and learn from. That's the topic of today's #HackingAcademia video: screwing up in your professional career. I make a few key points: 👉 I'm talking about screw ups in the "middle" - between being late for a meeting and career ending screw up...

𝐑𝐮𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐄𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐌𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 👥👥 If you go into an academic or research career, chances are you'll spend a lot of your time in meetings. I am by no means an expert (and don't always do a great job of following my own advice), but over the years I have refined my general approach to trying to run *effective* meetings, which is the topic of today's #HackingAcademia video. Today's...

𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐈 𝐝𝐨 𝐚 𝐏𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐝𝐨𝐜? 🤔 𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲, 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨 𝐚 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐝𝐨𝐜? These are two of the questions that I get the most often, and also one of the most requested #HackingAcademia questions. As anyone who has seen my videos or talks knows, I'm all about individualization of advice to your circumstances. So I can't really answer the first question directly, especially in...

🛑 𝐇𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐀𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐞𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 🛑 One of the nuanced phenomena in academic and research careers occurs when individuals put great effort into developing themselves, persisting against all the obstacles and barriers thrown in their way, landing eventual career success and stability, and then implicitly assuming that they will continue to maintain that rate of career progression and improvement (if...

🤯 A somewhat less cheerful but oh-so-important topic to cover in #HackingAcademia : dealing with Difficult Situations! I'm always happy when I'm learning, and as I've stepped up in leadership responsibilities these last few years especially, a natural consequence has been having to deal with an increased number of challenging professional situations. It's been a tough learning...

A slight twist on my normal Hacking Academia video intended audience: today's "On Expertise" video is targeted more at the myriad industry, government and other sector workers who are interested in getting expert advice and wonder how to find and assess it. It's not a comprehensive guide but covers a few concepts that I've observed to be particularly important to consider...

Do You Ever Sleep??? 😴  I periodically get variants of this question: "When do you sleep?", "Do you ever sleep", and the more constructive, "how the heck do you manage your time?" In today's #HackingAcademia video, I cover some key concepts and my experiences with the whole, "how many hours do you work" topic.  Specifically: ⌛ the difficulty in accura...

I have a massive backlog of #HackingAcademia videos to shoot: right at the top of the pile, prompted by a heap of conversations in recent months, is this one: the art of: Separating PROCESS from OUTCOMES This is one of the most important but also most difficult skills to master in many professional careers. You can do everything right, and get a bunch of bad outcomes (the reverse also applies, but...

🍕 Free leftover food in the kitchen – first come, first served! As a PhD student, those emails were great - I’d drop everything and sprint to the tea room. Free food - what's not to love! Two decades later, I still have that instinctive reaction - despite the circumstances (and need for) free food being very different. It’s a somewhat frivolous example, but it captures something that happens...

🎓 Did you know there are (at least) four ways to combine supervisors and PhD students for your regular meetings — and that each serves a different purpose? That's the topic of today’s 𝐇𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐀𝐜𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐚 video – and meeting type number three is a doozy: super useful and rarely done. 👇 Here are the four types: 1) 🧑‍🏫👩‍🎓 𝐀𝐥𝐥 𝐒𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐬 + 𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 Your classic setup. Everyone's in the ro...

🎥 New #HackingAcademia episode just dropped – and it's a sensitive but hopefully somewhat cathartic one, perfect for a Friday afternoon: 𝐅𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬, 𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐅𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐬 🤯 “That guy sounds like a total fraud.” 😠 “I have no idea how they got that role – they're a disaster.” 🤔 “If they’re taking advice from her, they’re in real trouble.” We’ve probably all heard variations of these. Maybe e...

They say you should see the forest for the trees 🌲🌳 - to understand the larger context rather than getting lost in the details without grasping this vital bigger picture 🧩 That’s what today’s hashtag#HackingAcademia video is all about 🎥: the types of context-setting questions you can ask in early-stage discussions with an industry or government organization that has approached you about a work...

There's a laundry list of phrases that trigger me in #academia and related professions: one of the most frequent ones is "I don't have time" / "They don't have time." The reason it triggers me so often isn't so much that the statement doesn't reflect a stark reality: today's academic and research world has arguably never been more of a pressure coo...

When is having a good awareness of the "big picture" in a PhD or general research not helpful? When you need to focus in on the "little picture", to preserve your sanity, lower your sky high stress levels, and make some concrete, tangible progress forwards. When things get tough in research, researchers, including PhD students, can have a (natural) tendency to try to focus on t...

This week I had coffee with a new colleague and the conversation got onto the realities and challenges of recruiting, and retaining, the talent you want to work with and need to fulfill all those exciting research, industry and government projects you've got going. Especially in topical fields with lots of competition for talent, and sky high salaries... 💲💲💲  So late on this Friday afterno...

This meeting is driving me INSANE 😡🤯 I regularly take requests for my #HackingAcademia series: today's request was one of many about how to deal with meetings where you're frustrated beyond belief, and want to tear your hair out. As someone who was driven nuts by this for much of my early career, but less often now, I have no easy solutions. I can however contribute a bunch of differen...

🤔 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐌𝐞? 🤷‍♂️ 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐌𝐞? In your career, you’ll regularly hit moments where your confidence doesn’t match everyone else’s. 🤔 “Why Me?”  Someone suggests nominating you for an award - and you think, “No way I’m worthy of that!” 🤷‍♂️ “Why Not Me?” You’re convinced you’re ready for a promotion - so you’re shocked when those involved say you’re not quite there. In today's #HackingAcademia v...

Time for an update on #ArtificialIntelligence, from my personal perspective in a professional context: my continued exploration of its intense usage in a day-to-day career (2 and a bit years and counting). Key concepts include: 🧠 Force Multiplying Experts More Than Beginners In my experience, these AI tools are helping experts more than anyone else. If three things come together: 🔹 an expert who...

😩 Are you regularly stressed out, feel like you're in over your head, and wondering how you ended up working at 2 am on a Monday morning to meet a project deadline? You're not alone: I, and much of academia and research, have regularly found ourselves in this position. It's usually not because of a lack of talent, capability or passion - but often because we don't practice goo...

🥣 𝐏𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐬𝐢𝐫, 𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 🥄 OR 💼 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐲! I thought a little bit about sending the wrong messaging with this image thumbnail (referencing Oliver Twist) about power dynamics, any possible symbolism about lack of funding in academia and all that... but given just as often I'm the one begging for funding as deciding it, and that I love Dickens, I&ap...

The Goldilocks Zone is the just-right distance from a star 🌞 where a planet can sustain liquid water 💧 - not too hot, not too cold, but ideal conditions for the possibility of life to exist 🌱. The Goldilocks zone is also one of three "confidence zones" that I use to describe confidence levels, which are ever so important for so many things in your personal and professional lives, incl...

What would I tell my younger self at the point I was starting my leadership journey? 🤔👣 That's the topic of today's Hacking Academia video 🎥 – I like to do the more philosophical ones on a Friday afternoon! 🧘‍♂️🌤️ I, like most people, am a "leader in learning" 📚 – it never stops. That said, it's been a pretty packed 15 years of learnings, mistakes, insights and tips f...

🎲 𝐑𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐅𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐏𝐢𝐩𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬 🎲 I've been wanting to do this video for a while now, and thanks to Maceon Knopke's lovely 3D printed dice, here it is! This is also my 50th 🎂 Hacking Academia video 🎉🎉🎉 !!! A lot of academic research career coaching I do revolves around basic concepts of probability and variance in an academic career: for awareness, and for how your s...