A joke on the Internet: “Now that Elon Musk has bought Twitter and laid off half the staff, he’s planning on buying YouTube and Facebook and doing the same with them. To save even more money, he plans on merging the three companies into one . . . He’s going to call it YouTwitFace.”
Time-Boxing
Elon Musk’s daily schedule is incredibly demanding, but he ensures that everything gets done by scheduling everything in 5-minute time blocks. This technique is called time boxing. The first three minutes of this video are instructive. Don’t bother with the rest.
Fail a lot
“If you take on a lot, you can also fail a lot.” Mark Twain (1835-1910)
“First weigh, then wager.”
A German figure of speech: “Erst wiegs, dann wags.” Translation: First weigh, then wager.
40 – 80 pages
University of Houston – Jeremy Bailey Susan Scarrow writes:
A master’s thesis is generally 40-80 pages, not including the bibliography. However, the length will vary according to the topic and the method of analysis, so the appropriate length will be determined by you and your committee. Students who write a master’s thesis generally do so over two semesters.
A master’s thesis is a piece of original scholarship written under the direction of a faculty advisor. A master’s thesis is similar to a doctoral dissertation, but it is generally shorter and more narrowly focused.
As a rule of thumb, a master’s thesis should be publishable as a single article, though it might be longer than a typical article; a doctoral dissertation is generally equivalent to at least three articles.
Students who chose to write a master’s thesis rather than a bibliographic essay often do so because they are interested in pursuing further research, for instance in a doctoral program in political science or another discipline, or as a researcher in a public agency.
preparing to fail
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin
Franklin collected many aphorisms in his Old Farmer’s Almanac. Freeing a country from under the powerful arm of a great power is going to take some planning, which Franklin knew was the first step towards success.
STEM vs. non-STEM
Many factors should generally be considered when answering the question of how long is a PhD dissertation. However, students should limit their writing between 80,000 and 100,000 words. On average, this document should have around 204 pages. But, the average length of a PhD thesis also depends on the university and the specific subject.
Essentially, a university can set the requirements of a dissertation, including the length. Nevertheless, most institutions opt for around 100,000 words. Research has shown that STEM dissertations have a medium length of 159 pages. Non-STEM dissertations, on the other hand, have a medium length of about 223 pages. Thus, there is a significant difference in length between STEM and non-STEM dissertations.
60 to 120 pages
The exact administrative, content and formal requirements for writing a master’s thesis vary from university to university and result from the respective examination regulations. The topic of the thesis is usually chosen by the candidate for the Master’s degree and worked on in four to six months.
Common formal requirements are: a volume of 60-120 pages, A4 format, bound form, pagination, bibliography, table of contents and an affidavit stating that you have created the work yourself and that the quotations and sources used have been identified (i.e. has not submitted any plagiarism).
After the work has been assessed by two professors or lecturers, usually a written exam and always an oral exam, the author of the work is awarded the academic degree Magister Artium (MA for short). In Germany it is traditionally referred to by the family name, in Austria the degree Magister is awarded (short Mag.) in front of the family name.
American football explained
The time between individual plays is much longer than the time of the plays themselves. Add timeouts, breaks between quarters, and so-called tv-timeouts, and it becomes clear that planning (play-calling) in American football is extraordinarily short-term.
Definition of Plan
MerriamWebster online states four definitions for the term plan. Duden, the famous German dictionary, offers almost the exact same definitions. We’re interested in the second definition: “a detailed formulation of a program of action.”
1. A drawing or diagram drawn on a plane: such as a top or horizontal view of an object, a large-scale map of a small area.
2. A method for achieving an end, an often customary method of doing something, a detailed formulation of a program of action.
3. An orderly arrangement of parts of an overall design or objective.
4. A detailed program (as for payment or the provision of some service), i.e. pension plan.