Getting help

Need help? Here is some guidance on that.

Administrative issues

If you have an administrative issue, here is the sequence of steps you should follow. The sequence of steps is generally designed to go in the order of (1) self-help, (2) division and lab support staff, (3) colleagues, and (4) supervisor.

First, is it the issue related to: foreign travel, something that is known to require supervisor approval, or is sensitive in nature? If so, schedule a time to talk to Anubhav about it (or HR for sensitive issues you do not want to disclose to your supervisor).

Otherwise, you should generally follow the sequence of steps below.

• Check for the answer in this handbook

• Check for the answer in LBL's A-Z index.

• Is it a human resources issue? If so, you can contact our area's HR team at [e-mail] . If you are a GSRA and this is a campus issue, you can contact the campus human resources.

• Is it an LBNL or division procedure issue? If so, contact our division team at [e-mail].

• Is it something that your colleagues might know the answer to (e.g., more senior graduate students or postdocs)? If so, ask them or post the question on the Slack group. Note that sometimes, procedures can be different for various divisions.

• .If you really are unable to solve the problem after all that, email Anubhav for help.

Code and computing issues

If you have issues with a particular software library or computing system:

• Check the software documentation for how support is handled, for example much of our software stack provides support through the Matsci.org Discuss Forum.

• For computing resources, there is usually a dedicated section on how to get help. This usually involves some combination of documentation, a help desk via ticketing system / support email, and perhaps some live help options.

• You can also email the berkeleytheory Slack group for help on various computing issues; there is even a dedicated #nersc channel for the NERSC computing center.

• And of course, ask colleagues if you can

• If you really cannot solve a code/computing problem after the above, email Anubhav for help.

Scientific issues

If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions. -- Albert Einstein

Note: Anubhav does not respond to direct messages on Slack - help is through email or meetings only.

From time to time, you will encounter problems, require suggestions, or otherwise need assistance from your advisor. This is normal, and asking for help is encouraged so long as you have done your best to solve the problem yourself. Sadly, it is all too easy these days to send e-mails without first investigating a problem yourself, and it is important to remember that your advisor gets many dozens of emails per day. Thus, if the question is truly important and difficult, you should take the time to address the following four questions[1] in your email:

• What is the problem? Clearly describe the problem, starting from the beginning.

• What is the CAUSE of the problem? For example, your immediate problem may be that you need more computing time. But the cause of your problem is perhaps that you want to determine the best ordering of a disordered compound and that you anticipate that this will require running many calculations. So make sure you include the cause in the email, because sometimes it makes more sense to solve or remove the upstream problem and not worry about the downstream problems. If you are unsure how to answer this question, ask yourself “why” this problem needs to be solved (some companies such as Toyota employ the “5 Whys” principle - i.e., asking “why” 5 consecutive times to get to the root of the problem rather than fix surface issues).

• What are all the possible solutions to the problem? You might think this means list a couple of possible solutions. That’s not what this means. This means list all possible solutions - every single way the problem could be solved. This includes unconventional options, options that you may not know how to implement or think might not work. If you don’t have any solution ideas, list all the avenues you tried (e.g., Google search terms) to find one. If you already tried some solutions but they failed, summarize that information here.

• What solution do you suggest? Provide your reason for suggesting this solution. More often than not, taking the time to answer these questions leads to you solving your own problem. In the cases where that is not true, these responses will make brainstorming solutions to your problem more effective and will also allow Anubhav to provide feedback into your process of generating all possible solutions.

[1] These guidelines are adapted from Dale Carnegie.

Pitching independent projects

“You’ll learn infinitely better and easier and more completely by picking a problem for yourself that you find interesting to fiddle around with, some kind of thing that you heard that you don’t understand, or you want to analyze further, or want to do some kind of trick with - that’s the best way to learn something”.

-- Richard Feynman

“...it is certainly all right and potentially very productive just to mess around. Quick uncontrolled experiments are very productive. They are performed just to see if you can make something interesting happen”.

-- E.O. Wilson

You may have ideas for research that deviate somewhat from the scope of your official work. If you are interested in conducting an independent project or trying a new idea, talk to Anubhav! If it is in the group interest, we can try to make it happen.

The main metric for a successful pitch is having a plan to prototype and test an idea (e.g., by gathering data) in a rapid fashion.