Why I Have Exhaustively Documented My Research Process

Since August 2015, I have sought to exhaustively document my research process, from conceptualization to the eventual publication of scientific research. I have done so in a variety of locations, but my master documents page is the most prominent. Why?

1. As a way to force myself to do it. I faced a significant problem as a researcher when I began my studies. I had to really learn social science and computational modeling, and then apply it to strategy. There was no manual or template for how to do this, and for a while I ran away from the problem and tried to find a way to avoid dealing with the full problem by dealing with a tiny subset of it. Now, I have to deal with the full problem in order to deal with a tiny subset of it. I like writing in public, so it incentivizes me to work harder if I know I can have something to show others as opposed to toiling away without that promise.
2. As a way to force myself to simplify. I want to reach a point at which I can explain what I am doing in a couple of sentences, confidently and assuredly. To get to greater and greater levels of parsimony, I have had to write thousands and thousands of words and then cut down. This is a tedious and painful process that involves a cybernetics-like system of control, communication, and feedback as I make what I am doing more and more understandable. If I do not make it understandable to other people in my general area of interest, it is a sign that I myself do not properly understand what I am doing.
3. As a way of maintaining a kind of intellectual version control system. I like Github so much that I thought that I would try to replicate it as a storage system that shows various stages of a project. If some idea does not work out, I can always “roll back” to a previous iteration and start over. Lynn Rees of Zenpundit taught me to think about writing this way. Also, on the subject of computational metaphors for writing, I like to think of what I am doing as object-oriented in that it is structured around classes of reusable components.
4. As a way of working to a goal from small steps. Science needs to embrace the “working draft” spirit more. A dissertation or a good publication is the endpoint of a long and painful process. As several researchers in evolutionary computation recently argued, “greatness cannot be planned.” Objectives are very important but as a limited and imperfect student I can get the most out of working on my procedural rationality — the process. Without small steps and constant work on those steps, making something as complex as an eventual dissertation will be impossible.
5. As a way of painstakingly documenting my research process. Science needs to be more transparent. I am being more transparent by showing every step of that process that I have taken. It will make my work easier to understand and replicate. It will also help show future versions of me what a PhD program is like and what it means to study a difficult, multidisciplinary subject. If they are still interested and not scared away, hopefully what I do can help guide them. Finally, I am hoping that this acts as a signal to other people like me that I could collaborate with or work with.