Comments on: Testing the general model of productivity http://www.academicproductivity.com/2009/testing-the-general-model-of-productivity/ A survival guide for the 21st century researcher Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:37:35 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Academic Productivity » A general model of productivity? http://www.academicproductivity.com/2009/testing-the-general-model-of-productivity/comment-page-1/#comment-82980 Academic Productivity » A general model of productivity? Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:31:36 +0000 http://www.academicproductivity.com/?p=1136#comment-82980 [...] There’s a follow-up post available with data testing this model. [...] [...] There’s a follow-up post available with data testing this model. [...]

]]> By: Benjamin Deschamps http://www.academicproductivity.com/2009/testing-the-general-model-of-productivity/comment-page-1/#comment-82784 Benjamin Deschamps Tue, 08 Sep 2009 02:52:21 +0000 http://www.academicproductivity.com/?p=1136#comment-82784 This might be useful for your data collection... http://flowingdata.com/2009/07/15/collect-data-about-yourself-with-twitter-your-flowingdata-is-live/ This might be useful for your data collection…

http://flowingdata.com/2009/07/15/collect-data-about-yourself-with-twitter-your-flowingdata-is-live/

]]> By: sample graduate school essay http://www.academicproductivity.com/2009/testing-the-general-model-of-productivity/comment-page-1/#comment-82354 sample graduate school essay Sat, 05 Sep 2009 08:10:59 +0000 http://www.academicproductivity.com/?p=1136#comment-82354 You exclude travelling from the equation, but doesn’t that have a lot to do with prestige too? In most cases, only the most trusted or respected get chosen to travel to conventions, summits, etc. which are relevant to their fields. Doesn’t being invited to speak as a guest speaker count as one factor for prestige? You exclude travelling from the equation, but doesn’t that have a lot to do with prestige too? In most cases, only the most trusted or respected get chosen to travel to conventions, summits, etc. which are relevant to their fields. Doesn’t being invited to speak as a guest speaker count as one factor for prestige?

]]> By: Jose http://www.academicproductivity.com/2009/testing-the-general-model-of-productivity/comment-page-1/#comment-77623 Jose Tue, 11 Aug 2009 09:07:59 +0000 http://www.academicproductivity.com/?p=1136#comment-77623 Interesting, this is what I got: categories <- c("paper-writing","coding-an-experiment","collaborator-meeting", "business-meeting", "analyze-data ", "drafting", "grant-paperwork", "meet-with-students") ahp <- AHP(categories) res = data.frame(categories=categories, weight=ahp$weight) (res = res[order(res$weight, decreasing=T),]) categories weight 6 drafting 0.324 7 grant-paperwork 0.187 8 meet-with-students 0.160 5 analyze-data 0.139 1 paper-writing 0.055 2 coding-an-experiment 0.055 3 collaborator-meeting 0.053 4 business-meeting 0.028 I guess drafting for me is the hard, intellectual part and paper-writing is all the pain that it is surrounded (ref hunting, formatting, integrating collaborator comments, reviewer comments, etc). Business meeting is the kind of dreaded meeting that split your day and contributes little to anything. :) Interesting, this is what I got:
categories <- c("paper-writing","coding-an-experiment","collaborator-meeting", "business-meeting", "analyze-data ", "drafting", "grant-paperwork", "meet-with-students")

ahp <- AHP(categories)
res = data.frame(categories=categories, weight=ahp$weight)
(res = res[order(res$weight, decreasing=T),])

categories weight
6 drafting 0.324
7 grant-paperwork 0.187
8 meet-with-students 0.160
5 analyze-data 0.139
1 paper-writing 0.055
2 coding-an-experiment 0.055
3 collaborator-meeting 0.053
4 business-meeting 0.028

I guess drafting for me is the hard, intellectual part and paper-writing is all the pain that it is surrounded (ref hunting, formatting, integrating collaborator comments, reviewer comments, etc).

Business meeting is the kind of dreaded meeting that split your day and contributes little to anything. :)

]]> By: Benjamin Deschamps http://www.academicproductivity.com/2009/testing-the-general-model-of-productivity/comment-page-1/#comment-77366 Benjamin Deschamps Mon, 10 Aug 2009 04:14:19 +0000 http://www.academicproductivity.com/?p=1136#comment-77366 I really like your use of pairwise comparisons / AHP, good way of getting objective values. The main thing I notice is that the formula is that it is difficult to establish which is more productive between low presige, low effort tasks and high prestige, high effort tasks (compare external writing with meetings, for example). Meetings do not gain you much prestige, but come out as being productive because they require little effort... Take the two following tasks: Task 1: Prestige = 0.1, Effort = 0.1 for 1 hour Task 2: Prestige = 0.9, Effort = 0.9 for 1 hour Both would yield the same productivity score according to the formula, if I interpret it correctly; however, task 2 is much more productive. I guess it all comes down to your philosophy: are you aiming to have the most prestige for the least effort, or simply the highest productivity (quality output, research, writing, etc, regardless of effort)? A final thought is that I find it much easier to conceptualize the meaning of scores and to compare productivity values if they are not decimals (because of how they divide/multiply). Might be easier if you went on a scale of 0-100 instead? I really like your use of pairwise comparisons / AHP, good way of getting objective values.

The main thing I notice is that the formula is that it is difficult to establish which is more productive between low presige, low effort tasks and high prestige, high effort tasks (compare external writing with meetings, for example). Meetings do not gain you much prestige, but come out as being productive because they require little effort…

Take the two following tasks:

Task 1: Prestige = 0.1, Effort = 0.1 for 1 hour
Task 2: Prestige = 0.9, Effort = 0.9 for 1 hour

Both would yield the same productivity score according to the formula, if I interpret it correctly; however, task 2 is much more productive.

I guess it all comes down to your philosophy: are you aiming to have the most prestige for the least effort, or simply the highest productivity (quality output, research, writing, etc, regardless of effort)?

A final thought is that I find it much easier to conceptualize the meaning of scores and to compare productivity values if they are not decimals (because of how they divide/multiply). Might be easier if you went on a scale of 0-100 instead?

]]> By: Ioana http://www.academicproductivity.com/2009/testing-the-general-model-of-productivity/comment-page-1/#comment-76623 Ioana Thu, 06 Aug 2009 18:29:59 +0000 http://www.academicproductivity.com/?p=1136#comment-76623 Nice job. I couldn't spend the time recording all this... But there is a nifty free online program that does (most of) this for you: rescuetime.com. It allows you to log all your time on the computer and to give productivity ratings to the various activities (e.g. email, Word, Matlab, whatever). Nice job. I couldn’t spend the time recording all this… But there is a nifty free online program that does (most of) this for you: rescuetime.com. It allows you to log all your time on the computer and to give productivity ratings to the various activities (e.g. email, Word, Matlab, whatever).

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