GlyphJul 28, 2025
does anybody do livestreams of research or nonfiction writing work? I kinda want to watch a pro's process here because my own strategy of just opening 3 search engines and tacking on increasingly frustrated terms to the end of every query, "$topic", "$topic research" "$topic research study" "$topic peer reviewed research study" "$topic meta analysis" "$topic meta analysis literature review -gladwell -freakonomics" doesn't seem like it's the … correct … method …
Show threadBenJul 29, 2025

@glyph

+1 on google scholar, if you are serious about your research. For me the challenge is often to find the right keywords to even start with. I don’t have a systemic process, but wikipedia can be a good starting point. When something feels kind-of-right, start reading a paper and following the citations back in time and the „cited by“ in scholar forward.

Show threadBenJul 29, 2025

@glyph

Often the key is to find the right scholars whose work you trust and whose approach aligns with yours. https://www.hyperdimensional.co/p/how-i-work is a good overview for policy work.

This is not easy even in fields you know well. But even trying to grasp different schools/research programs is helpful. This is often what keywords actually are about (ie, differentiating paradigms).

How I Work

Some introspection, and career advice of a sort

Hyperdimensional
Show threadBenJul 29, 2025

@glyph

And than of course the basic rabbit hole skills and dangers you certainly are aware of… not hyper focusing, not getting distracted, 80-20, …

I find creating a research note for anything but the most ephemeral research helps to keep track of my ideas, insights and to formulate clear questions so to not get lost or walk in circles.

Show threadBen

@glyph

To finally also answer the actual question (-ish) instead of doing the reply guy thing of giving unsolicited advice: I remember this video by Andy Matuschak as one of the few I have found. I’d be super happy to learn about more!

https://youtu.be/DGcs4tyey18

2020-05-04 Note-writing livestream

YouTube
Jul 29, 2025 at 1:47amWeb
Show threadBenJul 29, 2025

@glyph

Last but not least: Last gen LLMs are actually quite good to get you started - just as a way to map the parameter space of the relevant terms and how they are related in the scientific and general discourse. I use them after getting a head start via wikipedia that helps me understand the basic lay of the land to figure out what to search for in scholar. Often, asking for the seminal papers, reviews, and researchers is also a good start.

And youtube lectures can be surprisingly helpful.