Overfitting



Modern research is all about building on top of existing knowledge. Given that there's such a high pile of pre-existing knowledge, one really has to climb fast to get to the top of this pile, before one can start making original contributions. This could lead to one not learning some basic skills and knowledge: a super specialist in a narrow topic incapable of doing much else.
While there's a reason why things at large have turned out this way, one must keep oneself aware of this, and try being hands-on on a day-to-day basis.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wastage in Mess

Image
Seeing the plates of many in the mess after they finish their meals in mess brings up several serious questions: about their civic sense, about their bringing up, about their eligibility to be called responsible members of the society. There are people who waste more food than they can eat; often what can be seen wasted from one plate could have made a plentiful meal for someone. The evil there would have been partly ameliorated had there been so much food that noone went without food in spite of this wastage. However, it's an everyday affair that people arriving towards the end of the mess timing miss out on some or the other dish. Especially if the item is supposedly special (gulab jamun, fruit juice etc.), people horde like famished, never considering that people arriving later may have to go without it. Very sad! Quite amusingly, while, the cartoon was drawn with a specific message in mind, the interpretations drawn provided a precious lesson about viewer's role. One branch...
Read more

Blessings from the Heavens

Image
The experience of being hit with bird droppings on their way to and from anywhere in the campus is so common for IIScians that they often don't even flinch on that happening. Often, the more immaculately dressed up people the campus would take out their handkerchief and coolly wipe away the stain and are promptly on their way; while more Laapataa -like people wouldn't bother to do even that much, and would be seen wearing the same shirt days later with a dried up stain. Folklores abound about these blessings from the heavens. It's said that you are in for some good academic times if it happens with you. If you are hit right on your head, you have got a jackpot! Everything apart, somehow being hit by crow shit is implicitly considered an inherent part of the IISc experience. Not because it smells. But because it reminds us in another way, that we are a fortunate lot to be living in such a lush green campus.
Read more

Making of 'Why PhD'

Image
Each cartoon is drawn in several layers. Each layer builds on top of the previous. The result -- if achieved -- is all simplicity and elegance. Each subsequent layer hides away the details of its predecessor. In a sense, those who are interested in understanding the process that brings out a cartoon in all its glory stand to lose when the earlier layers sacrifice their life to hold up their successor layers. For the artistic minded, the beauty of a cartoon is not just in the final output, but also in the process that brings it out. I had always wanted to record my own process and progress during the making my cartoons. But something had always stopped me. The unwillingness to get distracted by the need to document was of course there. But more importantly, it was an unknown fear. Each cartoon is actually a shot in the dark -- as likely to miss its mark as to hit it. I would love to record (and show off) my success. But if it all ends in mud, I would rather want to forget it!...
Read more