I'm not sure that I agree that actually writing the paper/talk first develops the best output, but I definitely agree that conceiving the idea first is a great route to take.
I've always had a moderate fear of public speaking--I've heard that many do--but in the last six months, I've put myself "out there" because I had interesting ideas that I wanted to share. I went from having given one talk ever in my career to doing six in the last six months. It was scary at first, but I'm getting better... and my ideas have been well received.
The most important point I'd like to underscore here (the same one that the PDF mentions) is that your idea doesn't need to be perfect and infallible to be worthwhile. It just needs to be interesting enough (to you, or to others) to spark a conversation. Always remember that journals and conferences won't accept your material if they don't think it's any good!
Comments
I'm not sure that I agree that actually writing the paper/talk first develops the best output, but I definitely agree that conceiving the idea first is a great route to take.
I've always had a moderate fear of public speaking--I've heard that many do--but in the last six months, I've put myself "out there" because I had interesting ideas that I wanted to share. I went from having given one talk ever in my career to doing six in the last six months. It was scary at first, but I'm getting better... and my ideas have been well received.
The most important point I'd like to underscore here (the same one that the PDF mentions) is that your idea doesn't need to be perfect and infallible to be worthwhile. It just needs to be interesting enough (to you, or to others) to spark a conversation. Always remember that journals and conferences won't accept your material if they don't think it's any good!