Uh, isn't citing papers that have nothing to do with your paper unethical or plagiarism and could be seen as padding your paper? I don't think citing sources that have nothing to do with your paper is a good idea...
Not really. Plagiarism means something else, and padding your paper or citing some random guy doesn't help you in any way. (A lot of work is done to shorten papers to get them under journals' page limit, and many have at least a full page of citations.) And he only did it once; if nothing else, he can plausibly say "I had these papers on my desk, had a deadline, and wanted to make sure I wasn't accidentally using their work without giving credit".
[I'm doing a PhD in crypto after my MSc in math, my girlfriend is doing her PhD in math, lots of friends are mathematicians.]
Richard Feynman was fond of giving the following advice on how to be a genius. You have to keep a dozen of your favorite problems constantly present in your mind, although by and large they will lay in a dormant state. Every time you hear or read a new trick or a new result, test it against each of your twelve problems to see whether it helps. Every once in a while there will be a hit, and people will say: "How did he do it? He must be a genius!"
In Brazil there is a saying, "água mole em pedra dura, tanto bate até que fura", which means something like "Soft water on hard rock will eventually poke holes in it", but it sounds way less folksy than the original.
A couple gems for life though, the bit about old age stuck out to me. I've learned that from my dad, who attests to having never thought about getting old and now spends lonely nights drinking himself to bed. Pretty depressing but very little anyone can do about it... Just know you're going to get old one day, you're going to die, and then get over it.
[+] [-] simon|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mturmon|14 years ago|reply
http://books.google.com/books?id=5waLQ06J9VwC&pg=PA1&...
and I see he has another called "Indiscrete Thoughts".
[+] [-] thefool|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jpdoctor|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zitterbewegung|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JoachimSchipper|14 years ago|reply
[I'm doing a PhD in crypto after my MSc in math, my girlfriend is doing her PhD in math, lots of friends are mathematicians.]
[+] [-] gnosis|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] michaelbuckbee|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dilanj|14 years ago|reply
Richard Feynman was fond of giving the following advice on how to be a genius. You have to keep a dozen of your favorite problems constantly present in your mind, although by and large they will lay in a dormant state. Every time you hear or read a new trick or a new result, test it against each of your twelve problems to see whether it helps. Every once in a while there will be a hit, and people will say: "How did he do it? He must be a genius!"
[+] [-] itaborai83|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] keypusher|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] PaulHoule|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Jage|14 years ago|reply
A couple gems for life though, the bit about old age stuck out to me. I've learned that from my dad, who attests to having never thought about getting old and now spends lonely nights drinking himself to bed. Pretty depressing but very little anyone can do about it... Just know you're going to get old one day, you're going to die, and then get over it.
[+] [-] hugh3|14 years ago|reply