I will generally agree with the above, except the following:

  • “Don’t worry if you come up with a shitty answer”: You don’t get a Ph.D. to come up with any solution. You get one because you have demonstrated that you can compare and weight multiple possible solutions and invest in the one that has the least drawbacks for the problem at hand.
  • “Any complex problem can be approached like an optimization problem”: While this works most of the times, some times you have to take a step back and try a different approach. Today’s technology is based on a balance of evolution and revolution.
  • “If you come up with something too complicated, it will take too long to implement”: Not necessarily. It may be just the right thing to do to come up with a complex, all encompassing solution that you only partly implement to cover your immediate problem. Think of it as an MVP.

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