It is all about mentality

Li-Yi Wei 魏立一

Course prerequisiteNo explicit background is needed. Though, our guess is that only these who have experienced a

"reject" of a submitted paper have the potential to fully

enjoy the course.

I got plenty “prerequisites” (rumored) MSR record holder for rejections in 1 year1st (reject), 2nd (reject), 3rd (score 2.7 & got in)

Talent vs. Mentality

You don’t need to be very talented for researchI don’t think I am (so you will be fine)Too late anyway

Mentality is more importantTrainable

BASICS

Do what you love

All other factors are ephemeralTrend, popularity, hotness, …

More likely to be productive and successfulYou will spend a lot of time on your stuff

Less likely regret in the worst case (e.g. reject)At least you have fun

Start your own stuffIt is like investing; followers are already late

Life is too short

Do the best

Graphics → SIGGRAPHVision → CVPR, ICCV…

Hard work anyway; so go for the jugular Happier if succeed, less sad if failLife is too short

ALGORITHMS

Randomness

Humans prefer certaintyLife is random

start

end

start

end

fiction reality

Randomness in accept/reject

deterministic quality bar

accept

reject

stochastic quality zone

clear reject

clear accept

borderline

fiction reality

Monte Carlo Sampling

Life long intrinsic acceptance rate r = x%r seems 0 if the first paper got rejectedr seems 1 if the first paper got acceptedNeed more samples!(be patient, and try more.)

Objectivity

Humans are biasedOptimistic → selfPessimistic → others

Get feedbacksEarly & frequent

Self criticismPaper by you Paper by others

Score by you Score by others

Don’t get mad

(a few) nasty reviewers might existUseless to get upsetGet even!

Assume reviewers are going to kill your paper

Discipline

Humans like to procrastinate

Start earlyManage projects by

Paper draftSchedule

Practice

Humans are lazyResearch is a craft; learn through practice

read

write

code talk

createexperi-ment

Practice what?

A chain is only as strong as its weakest linkPractice the weakest link

Cause of rejection

APPLICATIONS

SIGGRAPH

What SIGGRAPH wants

Right problemNovel ideaSolid algorithmsGood apps & results Clear writingEngaging talk

What we have

Do what you loveDo the bestRandomnessObjectivityDisciplinePractice

Be happy

Long term productivity depends on happinessLive healthy and happy

Sleep, exercise, eat, social life, …

Creativity depends on happinessI got all my ideas outside office

Be nice and positive to othersEspecially in conferences & reviews