Article succeeded by presentation

Many scientists work in the following order: first, they write an abstract for a conference. Second, they make slides for the conference. Third, they memorize the manuscript for the conference. And finally, they write the article for a journal. If they start with the easiest thing (the abstract) first, they will suffer at every step. If they write the article first, the rest will be a piece of cake.

Writing an article first and performing the experiment later is possibly a good way of doing research. By writing the article first, you can study the works of references better, make the hypotheses better, and set up the experiment plans better. Moreover, you can reduce the risk of making mistakes and increase the possibilities of getting the important results when you conduct the experiment. Also, if the result is different than expected, you can revise the article promptly.

Women and men are often different when watching TV. Women prefer theory-related programs (e.g., soap opera), while men prefer fact-related ones (e.g., news, documentaries, and sports). As shown in the cartoons, women tend to enjoy fantasies without a fact, while men tend to enjoy chaos without a theory.

Let’s ask a movie director the following question: how many people have watched your movies? The director will not be able to conceal his/her inability for gaining the popularity. Similarly, ask a scientist the similar question. How many papers in the science citation index journals did you publish as the first or corresponding author? The scientist cannot hide his/her incompetence for accumulating the reseach achievements. This is a scary world.

I used to think that asking questions in an academic meeting could be harassing for the presenting scientists. And I even considered it rude. However, I became to realize that questions would not make the presenters feel offended. Without questions, the presenters would possibly think that the talk does not interest audience at all. Therefore, even simplest questions are better than no question.