This has been a week of triumph and re-positioning. The project is coming along and it’s going to a place where it’s now beginning to be validated by data. In this Summer I’ve learned one important thing about why data is so expensive because it takes an eternity to collect. Even when one makes surgical and intuitive decisions about the acquisition processes sometimes there’s no way to get around it. Over the course of my time collecting both metadata and network data I’ve experienced numerous setbacks followed by efficiency spikes. For instance, there was a day where I spent over 5 hours going through the google play store downloading around 80 apps on my phone. Excruciating can’t even fully encapsulate how repetitive, exhausting and lethargic that day was in my  brief existence. Making steady realizations as I went along I gradually sped up the download process, thing like don’t use the google play mobile app version to download these apps go on a laptop/desktop and use the website come to mind. Then once I completed the installation of all those apps I realized, why didn’t I just write a program to push the download button 80 times whilst I did something else? The heightened perspective here for me is that patience is a huge factor when collecting data because I was trying to rush I didn’t stop to think until way late into the process is there a smarter way to do this task. I succeeded in completing the task I set for that day but I failed because I could have been utilizing my time more productively.

Adding to my failure list, for some reason, it didn’t quite register in my mathematical brain exactly how long it would take to manually collect network data on 252 apps. Scraping them from google play, no problem, 2-3 days with no prior knowledge of what scraping was and the methods/tools involved in scrapping them. Getting the scraper to gather a more detailed breakdown from the google play store , 1 week accounting for failure. Taking this metadata rich data-set and dividing it amongst two people, who will then use all 252 apps manually on every android phone/tablet at their disposal; endless. This lesson builds on my earlier remark that sometimes there is no way to find an efficient solution in collecting data and time is the only gatekeeper in distinguishing progress from the expense.

I might not be finished collecting network data but that hasn’t stopped me from getting results. For all those interested in our current findings I’ll differ to my paper.

Here are my 5 lessons I wish I knew going into the Pro-health experience:

1. You’re going to have an incredible amount of fun more so than your perhaps realized.
2. Your work ethic will experience a healthy level of development.
3. It’s never too early to network with both peers and faculty.
4. The number of skills you bring to a project is important but not more so than your ability to learn new skills and adjust to situations as it comes.
5. You’re never too busy to enjoy yourself.

These 5 lessons for success I would recommend from my experience for both the faculty and students involved in subsequent iterations of this program are as follows:

1) Plan how you’re going to conduct your research project then proceeds pivot and detour from that plan as you progress. Plans are our minds abstractions for conditions that have yet to happen and events that sometimes cannot be predicted nor avoided. As such treat them that way.

2) Be ready to fail. You’re going to consistently and regularly fail. You’ll come with plans that won’t be fully realized, timelines that move at glacial acceleration, discover documentation that either doesn’t exist for certain scientific and technical reasons or is just doesn’t aid you. Accept this and move on.

3) Listen to your mentors and speak regularly with your mentors. That graduate degree (whether masters or doctorate) or industry experience is more than just a pretty paperweight.

4)  40 hrs != 40 hrs. You will work 40 hours and walk away asking yourself what exactly did I do during those 40? Your time here is precious and you have ten weeks to realize that 8 hrs of research a day may not produce quality data with publishable results written in eloquent prose. The more accurate symbolic representation is 40 hrs = n +40 hrs where n < 10 included in R as the limit approaches infinity.

5) Play well with others unless your superman please exit the fortress of solitude. Only Clark Kent can do anything except for something he hasn’t already tried.

link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdlBVWHWtMA