Some thoughts on the progression

Recently I have been thinking about one theory side research question and was stuck on it for a while. I found some useful tips for making progress on research questions.

Here are some of the tips or quotes that I found useful:

• “It’s hard to do a really good job on anything you don’t think about in the shower.” - Paul Graham
• Don’t worry too much about initial results seeming slow. The best-case scenario for makeing progress is to have a system with exponentially growing returns, and exponential functions are supposed to look flat near $t=0$. So if you can somehow ensure your growth curve maintains exponential shape, then all that remains is to be patient. - Evan Chen
• Apart from hoping for an exponential growth, it is also important to have a linear system that I can work on and see improvement and feedback consistently. This is important for me to keep motivated. Solution for me now is to read books Optimization for Data Analysis from Professor Stephen Wright, and have a question related paper list and keep track of the progress. Learning can never harm.