Over the years I have heard many opinions from graduate students about going to talks not related to their research interests. My impression is that more and more students feel that they should skip such talks because:
- The talk is in an area that they are not familiar with. (”This talk will be way over my head.”)
- They have more important things to do. (”My adviser will not go to such talks either.”)
- Many talks are usually difficult to follow. (”It’s easier to directly read the paper.”)
As some of you may know, recently Avi Wigderson gave a talk in STOC 2004 about why we should listen to talks in other areas. He really seems to have some convincing arguments about why knowing other areas can help your own research. I won’t repeat them here.
And even though the opinion of a small potato like me doesn’t carry any weight, let me add to his list from a less utilitarian perspective (I do not claim Avi’s talk was utilitarian but the motivation he gave in his talk was certainly targeted to convince you of the benefits):
- Manuel Blum once told me that “a PhD should be someone who knows everything about something and something about everything” and I believe him.
- I feel that even very productive graduate students should have more time than their advisers.
- As a community (if it ever existed), we should show up to community events, even just to show our support and appreciation to the speaker and the community itself. (I know this is mostly a culture thing. I am a Chinese and we treasure fellowship.)
What do you think?
P.S. I am spending the last 25 minutes to write this post because today one of our weekly “community event” scheduled at this time has been canceled due to various reasons. I don’t blame anyone for this. We all have our priorities and I respect that. (I lament only solely because there is a lack of free food. You believe me, right? :P)
