Эпизоды

  • It's been quite the month. Jason was pulled over in the Tinny (again), Inger had a mole taken off her foot. We skipped the mailbag in favour of a deep nerd chat about Obsidian starting at 32:51. The discussion gets waylaid part way through by a mutual existential freakout about Claude Opus. It's... a lot. Enjoy!

    Things we mentioned:
    Kangaroo time - Winner of the Dance Your PhD competition
    Be visible or vanish - the book Inger wrote with her colleague Simon Clews
    PostAc (on Inger's research page)
    Quit by Annie Duke
    Mac Sparky Field Guides
    Building a second brain and PARA from Tiago Forte (and his post on Tags)
    Markdown explainer
    An article Inger wrote about Claude
    One useful thing blog from Ethan Mollick
    Inger's sample 'coffee Vault' (down these files from Dropbox and point Obsidian at it to open)
    Marie Kondo's life changing magic of tidying up
    YAML explainer
    Marked2 (markdown text convertor)
    Scrivener
    Elicit
    Connected Papers
    literature review matrix explainer
    Zotero

    Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).

    Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com.

    If you want to support our work, you can sponsor Thesis Whisperer for $1 a month on Patreon, buy Inger a coffee on Ko-Fi or grab a copy of our ‘Text Expander for academics’ book off Thesiswhisperer.com

  • Jason had pneumonia when he recorded this very long pod with Inger.

    It's a testament to his brainy-ness (and Inger's sound engineering skills) that it turned out as well as it did, given he coughed and sweated his way through it.

    Warning: in the chat section at the top there's a lot of talk about TEQSA. If you're confused, here's their webpage. Jason was too sick to do mailbag, but please keep sending in your letters and speak pipes!

    At we switch to our work problems section (26:04) Large Language Models (LLMs) - we recommend you have a look at our Discussion Guide as we talk, or after you get back from your walk/gardening/gym/cooking or what every you are doing. You can read the briefing note that Inger wrote for her boss here.

    We skip the reading section and coast out with some two minute tips (1:38:22) for planning large complex tasks and reading all the instructions before you start doing a thing.

    The good news is that Jason did not die of his pneumonia and is back on his feet again - phew!

    Things we mentioned:

    On the Reg discussion guide for this episode (free to share)
    The briefing paper Inger wrote for her boss on how researchers are using ChattieG
    Timothy Snyder On Tyranny Book
    Manchester Phrase Bank
    Randy Olsen 'and but therefore' writing tip is in 'Houston, We have a Narrative'
    Team Human podcast


    Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).

    Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com.

    If you want to support our work, you can sponsor Thesis Whisperer for $1 a month on Patreon, buy Inger a coffee on Ko-Fi or grab a copy of our ‘Text Expander for academics’ book off Thesiswhisperer.com

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  • Inger and Jason are at the end of the holidays. For Jason this meant going to a hash den in Thailand (it's a long story) and for Inger it meant organising all her rococo style porcelain figurines (yes, really).

    The mailbag (18:53) is full of interesting letters and provokes only one moment of feminist rage from Inger. Ok, maybe two.

    In the Work Problems segment (56:35) Jason gives us an alternative way to think about the year ahead with the VRIO model from Jay Barney and there's quite a lot of talk about late stage capitalism.

    Reading time (1:24) Inger's been reading romance books about audio p*rn stars (you read that right), while Jason has been reading about how to be younger. In the Two minute tips (1:38) Inger shares her library thing project and Jason talks about his State Of Mind.

    Then the first episode of season 5 was in the can- can you believe it?!

    Stuff we mentioned

    Thesiswhisperer on Instagram
    Why so slow, on the advancement of women
    Invisible women: exposing data bias in a world designed for men
    Tiago Forte's PARA book
    McSparky's new productivity field guide
    Plain English Podcast episode with Oliver Burkeman that enraged Inger
    Counter Productive by Mel Gregg
    Mind the gap in the literature blog post on Thesis Whisperer
    Fated Mates podcast
    Can I tell you something? (romance novel)
    The productivity Project by Chris Bailey
    The man who invented Hitler
    Younger next year
    Library Thing

    Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).

    Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com.

    If you want to support our work, you can sponsor Thesis Whisperer for $1 a month on Patreon, buy Inger a coffee on Ko-Fi or grab a copy of our ‘Text Expander for academics’ book off Thesiswhisperer.com

  • Inger and Jason recorded an episode at 9pm at night on the 15th of November, before Inger took off for the UK. Inger was meant to edit and post this sometime in December, while travelling in the UK, but due to the vagaries of wifi and Christmas shopping, she ended up doing it at Heathrow airport on Christmas eve.

    So look, it's a little bit ... unplugged?

    But at least it's short (well, for us) and there's some good stuff in here - including a surprisingly long digression on KanBan boards. We figure there's got to be some dishwashing or gardening to do over the Christmas break when you can enjoy this nerd out. Happy Christmas to all who celebrate (and we hope the rest of you get a well earned break too).

    We'll be back sometime in January :-)

    Things we mentioned

    Article Kevin sent us about leaders and managers
    Personal Kanban: mapping work, navigating life
    Mind the gap in the literature
    Capacities app
    Obsidian Field guide by mcsparky



    Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).

    Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com.

    If you want to support our work, you can sponsor Thesis Whisperer for $1 a month on Patreon, buy Inger a coffee on Ko-Fi or grab a copy of our ‘Text Expander for academics’ book off Thesiswhisperer.com

  • This one has been in the can for a while - but it was recorded only a week after the previous one about the Meat Grinder. You'd think that would make the banter session shorter, but ...not really. Jason has largely avoided having his face squished at Brazilian Jujitsu and Inger has been writing whiny emails to her boss.

    The team finish up the Cambridge hiatus mailbag (13:32), including one from Janet Davey that was lost at the bottom (sorry about that Janet!). This prompts a lengthly discussion about Teams and autocorrect, so the usual nerdy stuff.

    In the Work Problems session (49:38) Jason confesses to Inger that he doesn't know how to gossip well, but Inger proves to him that he has got his academic gossip skills Just Right. Along the way Foucault is not mentioned, but he might as well have been given how much the word 'power' popped up.

    Inger's read her friend Stan Emmerson's new book 'What is the It' (1:28:44) and gives a completely biased review. Jason features a couple of 50 cent app shop bargains. Finally

    In two minute tips (1:37:10) Inger reports back on taking her own advice and Jason shares the rather tragic news that his email address is now on the Dark Web, which seems appropriate for a Halloween episode!

    Mentioned:
    We work to earn the right to work video
    Inger's blog post on Hot Academic Gossip
    Inger's academic paper 'Assembling the PhD candidate: troubles talk'
    Stan's book on editing 'What is the 'it'? A Handbook for proofing court judgements
    Austin Kleon Steal like an Artist
    Clip at the end is The Fine Print: outer worlds song by Stupendium

    Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).

    Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com.

    If you want to support our work, you can sponsor Thesis Whisperer for $1 a month on Patreon, buy Inger a coffee on Ko-Fi or grab a copy of our ‘Text Expander for academics’ book off Thesiswhisperer.com

  • Inger and Jason are back, a bit later than anticipated because the audio the first time this episode was recorded was borked (that's a technical term). We promise the re-record is much better, and also, much longer.

    There's some unscripted banter at the start, which Inger had to cut as it went on a bit long. Jason can tell you about his new bike another time and you really don't need to hear all about Inger's struggle to find supplies of Ozempic. We dig into the mailbag (18:22), but not all the way to the bottom, then we get side tracked with a rave about MacSparkey's new Obsidian Field guide.

    In the work problems section (52:49), Jason drops all the knowledge about teaching large classes, drawn from his experience of teaching 1000 students a year in the same subject, over three countries and time zones. Yes you read that right, Inger is amazed - - and also horrified.

    Inger read some books (1:33:38). They include a cook book, which Jason was interested in, and a romance novel, which he was not. The two minute tip section (1:42:48) actually takes around 17 minutes and includes at least four tips, so it's a bonus episode! Enjoy.

    Things we mentioned:
    Mac Sparky Obsidian field guide
    Download Obsidian for Mac or PC (it's free!)
    Clean text (Mac app)
    Scrivener
    Mathpix
    Overleaf
    Zotero
    Timing
    Things app
    Marked 2
    Teaching for quality learning at university by Jamie Biggs
    Style, 10 lessons in clarity and grace
    Workflowy
    PARA - Tiago Forte
    Extra focus: a quick start guide to adult ADHD
    My kitchen year: 137 recipes that saved my life
    The stand in by Lily Chu
    Info click (mail.app search tool)

    Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).

    Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com.

    If you want to support our work, you can sponsor Thesis Whisperer for $1 a month on Patreon, buy Inger a coffee on Ko-Fi or grab a copy of our ‘Text Expander for academics’ book off Thesiswhisperer.com

  • The Downs household has suffered a loss, while one member of the Mewburn household has discovered hither to unknown talents. Somehow the team still end up crapping about Obsidian a lot in the banter section.

    This is our second sabbatical mailbag episode (starting 20:44), which prompts a series of incredibly nerdy conversations about Microsoft Teams, Omnifocus, Text Expander, Obsidian, Bullet Journal etc - Even Nvivo and MaxQDA. In other words: the greatest hits.

    (A comment from listener Aaron has us wondering why most people's eyes glaze over when we start talking about this stuff, prompting Inger to wonder out loud if being interested in productivity is a bit like being a vegan. You decide!)

    Jason is reading Hunter S Thompson (starts 1:12:17) to avoid Inger giving him yet another romance novel. Oh, and Inger read the new Tiago Forte book so you don't have to - you're welcome. Lastly: Two Minute Tips (1:33:13) lasts heaps longer than two minutes, fair warning.

    Stuff we mentioned:

    The Cat protection society
    David Sparks Obsidian Field Guide
    Our first Obsidian Episode (mysteriously popular with listeners - warning. Super Nerdy)
    Danah Byrd Context Collapse

    Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).

    Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com.

    If you want to support our work, you can sponsor Thesis Whisperer for $1 a month on Patreon, buy Inger a coffee on Ko-Fi or grab a copy of our ‘Text Expander for academics’ book off Thesiswhisperer.com

  • WE'RE BACK BABY!

    Inger sums up her whole Cambridge University experience in one anecdote about dinner. Jason has gone up a notch in Brazilian Ju Jitsu, which puts him in a position to comment on Mark Zuckerberg's training routine. In other words, it's a normal catch up, but twice as long!

    This episode is all a mailbag, starting with a speak pipe from Jonathan O'Donnell challenging the team to regular lunches and a content warning at 30 minutes about weight talk. If you don't want to hear a discussion about losing weight, skip ahead to 40 :46.

    We follow with a letter from Alessa Teunisse about Bullet Journalling with all kinds of #bujo spreads to share. At 58:40 we get to a speak pipe from Ben Archer, who is asking about old technology and what to with it At 1 hour 17 minutes with a letter from Marcel Cardinali with all kinds of cool automations in Obsidian.

    In the reading segment at 1 hour 27 minutes, the team tease their new book project. Finally, two minute tips happens at 1 hour 32, In the sign off, we explain that @thesiswhisperer on Twitter will shortly be shut down. If you're one of the 52,000 odd followers to that account, have a look below for other options.

    Oh - and the first two episodes of the Academics talk about Severance pod have finally dropped! Listen and subscribe here.

    Things we mentioned:
    Google document with the images from Alessa and Marcel
    Focussed pod and yearly wall calendar
    Sadie James art from Ningaloo reef
    E-waste donation in Canberra
    Automater app Jason used to create his Fantasia File Problem
    David Kadavy: Mind Management not Time Management
    Inger's video about Obsidian plug ins for Zotero
    Joplin app for transferring Evernote data
    The enshittification of academic social media and Inger on ABC radio talking about it

    Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).

    Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com.

    If you want to support our work, you can sponsor Thesis Whisperer for $1 a month on Patreon, buy Inger a coffee on Ko-Fi or grab a copy of our ‘Text Expander for academics’ book off Thesiswhisperer.com

  • Inger and Jason pop in for a brief, 2 minute-ish pod. The quickest episode in OTR pod history!

    It's not really an episode, just a reminder that we will be back next month.

    Thanks for all the amazing emails and speak pipes so far - we're enjoying them all and planning a big mailbag episode when we get back!

    Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).

    Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com.

    If you want to support our work, you can sponsor Thesis Whisperer for $1 a month on Patreon, buy Inger a coffee on Ko-Fi or grab a copy of our ‘Text Expander for academics’ book off Thesiswhisperer.com

  • On The Reg is officially on hiatus until Inger returns from her sabbatical in August.

    Listen to our quick explainer so you know what is happening until then. We're asking you send in all your questions and thoughts so we can put together a reader mailbag episode when we come back.

    The claim here that Severance Pod has dropped are false, but honestly, it will be here really soon. Follow on Thesiswhisperer pod

    The claims about blog posts about writing with ChattieG etc are entirely true and can be fact checked on the Thesiswhisperer blog. Have a look at the latest one here, which is all about using ConnectedPapers.

    If you're in the UK, you can meet Inger at a couple of public talks in Cambridge:

    A lecture at Wolfson College, Cambridge on Tuesday 6 June at 5:30pm, which touches on themes from hernew book with Simon Clews ‘Be visible or Vanish’. There’s an in-person option if you can get to Cambridge, and an online version if you can’t: you can book here.

    She's also giving a lecture about the PhD in uncertain times where she will talk about the latest data on the UK market for research skills, at Kings College, Cambridge on Monday 10 July, 5:30 – 7:30pm: you can book here

    We'll be back.... Until August friends!

    Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).

    Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com.

    If you want to support our work, you can sponsor Thesis Whisperer for $1 a month on Patreon, buy Inger a coffee on Ko-Fi or grab a copy of our ‘Text Expander for academics’ book off Thesiswhisperer.com

  • Inger's dusty in this episode, after an epic David Lodge style dinner party the night before, but her blood pressure is the best her doctor has seen in years. By the time you listen to this she'll be in Cambridge, punting or something.

    Jason didn't win the annual hot cross bun off, but did invite Inger into the WhatsApp group so she could share the fun this year. There is also an unexpectedly long digression about workplace exploitation, so - a normal catch up.

    There was nothing in the mailbag! [28:53] (although we did get a bunch of letters the day after we recorded this, so some of you still love us- thank you).

    In the work problems segment [30:47] we talk about the new book from Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner called 'How big things get done', which Inger partially distilled into a Discussion Guide. It's an excellent book and Inger sees a lot of cross overs between how high speed rail projects fail and the length of time most people take to get a PhD. Enough crossovers at least to get on her ranty high horse, like - a lot. Jason listens patiently while she has All The Feelings about the PhD. Again.

    Moving on. Jason's been reading The Upside of irrationality, while Inger's been reading Navy SEALS romances (again) [1:14:06].

    The real surprise is left for the end of this episode: the 2 minute tips section [1:17:37] which turns into an epic, agonised conversation about just how much of our jobs to delegate to ChattieG and the future of the university. It's heavy.

    You may need a drink or four, just like Inger did the night before.

    Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).

    Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com.

    If you want to support our work, you can sponsor Thesis Whisperer for $1 a month on Patreon, buy Inger a coffee on Ko-Fi or grab a copy of our ‘Text Expander for academics’ book off Thesiswhisperer.com

  • Jason has been doing BJJ, the gym, eat sleep and repeat - with an occasional visit to country Victoria. Inger has been doing ALL the event organising and somehow managing to make a podcast with her sister about the Apple TV show Severance at the same time. You'll have to subscribe to the Thesiswhisperer podcast channel to get the episodes when they drop.

    In other words, it's been busy.

    Which means we didn't have time to prepare for this episode, other than to book an actual studio to record in, as we happened to be in the same space time continuum for once. Hear what we sound like when someone else does the levels - it's pretty amazing.

    After our catch up there's a very full mail bag [12:54] before we get to our work problems segment [37:15]. This time we are doing a Frequently Asked Questions episode where we report back on two of our most asked about work problems: getting to inbox zero and how to write 'on top of everything else'. We talk about our systems and processes. There's a discussion guide for you to follow along.

    Finally, the two minute tips [1:39:35} segment is all about Microsoft Teams - but interesting, we promise!

    Links to things we mentioned:
    Discussion guide for this episode
    PotPlant Productions (where we recorded this ep)
    If you want to listen to Academics talk about Severance, you'll need to subscribe to the Thesiswhisperer podcast channel
    Inger's Nature article about time tracking (yes, you read that right)
    The Syrian Underground library story
    When McKinsley comes to Town

    Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).

    Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com.

    If you want to support our work, you can sponsor Thesis Whisperer for $1 a month on Patreon, buy Inger a coffee on Ko-Fi or grab a copy of our ‘Text Expander for academics’ book off Thesiswhisperer.com

  • Inger's happy her Apple Watch has declared her 'fit' while Jason surprised his team with actually putting on an interesting strategy day. Inger finally bought a ticket to the UK for her sabbatical in Cambridge, so Jason is on notice that the pod will be his while she is away. He's got Plans.

    The Mailbag [21:14] has a speak pipe and a letter about Inger and Jason's current objects of obsession: ChattieG and ADHD. For once they don't talk about Obsidian the whole time... in the Work Problems segment [33:54] the duo move on to talking about Influence, specifically Robert Caildini's 1984 book 'Influence: the psychology of persuasion', which Inger read in an attempt to better understand the addictive stickiness of social media.

    There's a discussion guide which you can use to follow along with the conversation, which is (as usual) pretty wide ranging. After you have learned the Weapons of Influence you will not be able to unsee them in everyday life.

    The conversation is so long, in fact, that Jason makes the executive decision to cut the reading part and only just lets Inger do a 2 minute tip [1:32:48] because it's a good one. But you'll have to listen all the way to the end!

    What we talked about:
    Influence: the psychology of persuasion
    discussion guide
    That paper Inger sent Luke about programmers writing worse code with AI assistants
    Adam Kendon, gesture research guru

    Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).

    Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com.

    If you want to support our work, you can sponsor Thesis Whisperer for $1 a month on Patreon, buy Inger a coffee on Ko-Fi or grab a copy of our ‘Text Expander for academics’ book off Thesiswhisperer.com

  • Inger was late to the microphone but Jason is in the lead this time, so the show actually happened!

    Jason didn't win at the first annual 'Meat Off' competition, but it was a tough field. At work it's all Chat GPT all the time, or, as Inger's sister Anitra calls it 'ChattieG'.
    Inger's been on the road again, this time at Monash Uni where she ran a session on Bullet Journalling. She also wrote 5000 words of her new book without even noticing, using Obsidian.

    The mailbag (19:15) also has a bit of an Obsidian theme, with some thanks and a question, which gets Jason going on the ChattieG again and inger complaining about the over 700 pages she has managed to put on the ANU website without even noticing.

    In the Work Problems section (32:10), Jason takes Inger at length through a strategic thinking exercise, using her research team's 'PostAc' product (more information on PostAc here). You can access Jason's discussion guide slides here.

    Inger finds this way of thinking fascinating and the team wonders all over the place touching on how universities will cope with Zoomers and dead birds being turned into Zombie robot drones. Yes. It's a lot.

    The What Have You Been Reading section (1:29) is fairly short this time before we head into 2 Minute Tips (1:44) where Jason drops the knowledge on pen holders and Inger has suggestions for a Digital Colonic - yes you heard that right.

    We mentioned:
    Quit by Annie Duke
    Discussion guide


    Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).

    Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com.

    If you want to support our work, you can sponsor Thesis Whisperer for $1 a month on Patreon, buy Inger a coffee on Ko-Fi or grab a copy of our ‘Text Expander for academics’ book off Thesiswhisperer.com

  • Inger and Jason have been on holidays, so there's a lot to catch up on. Jason was off the grid, finding boxes of romance novels in country opp shops while Inger borked all the authenticator apps on her phone and was locked out of ANU email. There's a brief foray into Power Ballads and the Australian 80s band Noiseworks.

    There's a rather large mail bag to get through (13:53), which also prompts a bit of a discussion about AI (again) before the duo get to their work problems segment at 30:52. This time David Allen's classic 'Getting things done' gets a bit of an airing, along with some reflection on tools and techniques that the pair think will carry on into 2023. There''s a slide deck you can follow with the episode if you want more detail. For once, Inger does not have a feminist critique and wonders if Allen got a sensitivity editor.

    Jason has read three books (starting at 1:18:39) - Inger guesses correctly they are all Navy Seal related so he feels both judged and seen. Inger has been reading a romance set in a Strictly Ballroom reality TV show world as well as a couple of useful things on managing events, thinking about ADHD and the Digital Zettlecasten.

    In the Two minutes tips (1:35:52) Inger publicly commits Jason to the next On The Reg book project - listen to the end to find out!

    Mentioned in this episode
    Video of Noiseworks 'Take me back'- for those unfamiliar, Noiseworks was THE premier 80's Australian power ballad band (16 year old. Inger had a crush on the lead singer and 52 year old Inger stands by her judgement)
    The second edition of Getting Things Done (2016)
    Can't Hurt Me by David Groggin
    No Easy Day by Mark Owen
    Desert Fire by Phil Campion (not as recommended reading, just to validate Inger's comments on the forearms)
    Getting Things Done as an Audio book (what Inger listened to at the gym)
    Getting things done workbook (Inger uses this in teaching)
    Event managers bible D.G. Conway
    ADHD 2.0 by Hallowell and Ratey
    Digital Zettelcasten: principles, methods and examples by

    Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).

    Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com.

    If you want to support our work, you can sponsor Thesis Whisperer for $1 a month on Patreon, buy Inger a coffee on Ko-Fi or grab a copy of our ‘Text Expander for academics’ book off Thesiswhisperer.com

  • You might have noticed this episode is rather... long. But it's your last episode before February, 2023. so we figure you can digest this omnibus episodes in parts!

    Look, there's a lot of Spider Talk in our catch up, so you might want to skip it if you're an arachnophobe. There's some very interesting questions from listeners in the Mailbag section [22:54], which gives us the chance to drop the knowledge on difficult publishing problems and how to tell someone they look nice at work.

    In our Work Problems segment [46:35] we talk about the new wave of Generative AI tools about to 'disrupt' higher ed (or are they?). You can follow along in the discussion guide we made for this episode.

    The reading section (1:44:00) has more podcasts than actual reading and the two minute tip section (1:52:00) returns to the problem of spiders via Obsidian back ups. Happy Holidays everyone!

    Stuff we mentioned:
    Inger's mosquito death bio-chamber thingy
    Huntsman Spider info (CW: spiders!)
    Pre-order Inger and Simon's new book Be Visible or Vanish at a cheapish price.
    Thesiswhisperer pod cast channel
    Secrets to winning at office politics
    Chat GPT3 from OpenAI
    Discussion Guide for this episode on Google Docs
    Chokepoint Capitalism
    Hard Fork
    Posting Through it
    Oddly influenced
    Cautionary Tales

    Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).

    Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com.

    If you want to support our work, you can sponsor Thesis Whisperer for $1 a month on Patreon, buy Inger a coffee on Ko-Fi or grab a copy of our ‘Text Expander for academics’ book off Thesiswhisperer.com

  • Inger's had Covid Bingo, where she scored almost every symptom in the book. Meanwhile Jason has been been out there, having a life, which involves a story about the physics of gumboots. It makes sense in context, we promise.

    Inger snippety doodah-ded our catch up a bit, but it's still kind of long, so if you want to skip it, go straight to (24:02) when we open Mailbag. We have our first message from Mastodon and Jason got recognised in the street. Thanks to @[email protected], who wrote a nice pocket review of our Text Expander book.

    There's a discussion guide for for this week's topic: transitions (which starts at 30:15:09). We talk about the pain points of starting or starting again (which ended up being a topic suggested by PETA the pirate, who left a review - thanks Peta!). We go to many places in this discussion, from Monkey cortex sizes to Obsidian MOCs, university branded sweat shirts and horrible colleagues. Inger also reveals why you never use an apostrophe 's' when you write about The Australian National University (yes, it's really in the style guide).

    In our reading session (1:28:26) we talk about some books we've read and a little bit about generative AI, but decided to hold over a fuller discussion to next time. In our two minute tips section (1:37:34), Jason reminds us about the value of starting projects with 'Who, What, Where, Why and How' and Inger needs Jason's help with making check lists to deal with Covid brain fog...

    Things we mentioned on the show:
    Academic Assholes and the circle of niceness
    What not to wear: the academic edition
    The Curated closet
    Why so slow: the advancement of women
    Secrets to winning at office politics
    Object Secure by Nick Lavery
    Bulldozed by Nikki Sava
    AnyList app
    Checkvist app
    Mastodon app 'Toot!'
    Max QDA
    Obsidian

    Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).

    Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com.

    If you want to support our work, you can sponsor Thesis Whisperer for $1 a month on Patreon, buy Inger a coffee on Ko-Fi or grab a copy of our ‘Text Expander for academics’ book off Thesiswhisperer.com

  • Buckle up folks, this is a long one! It's been a big couple of weeks since Jason and Inger caught up.

    Inger went to Tassie and experienced crossing bass strait in gale force winds on the way back while Jason got rained on while camping and discovered 'Truckie Twitter' on the UHF band radio during an unexpected 2.5 hour journey home from work.... Oh, and Thesiswhisperer Jnr is now being paid to play with puppies at a pet store, which Inger and Jason agree is a great career choice and maybe one they should consider.

    There's a very full mailbag (17:23), with lots of nice feedback on our Obsidian episode and a speak pipe by friend of the Pod, Shainal - who is going to be car pooling with Jase now he's working at Latrobe too.

    Our work problem segment (26.37) is the big story of the week: The Big Twitter Meltdown. Inger and Jason dig in for more than an hour on the topic of tweeting/tooting while academic and it goes to a surprisingly reflective place. There's a discussion guide that will be helpful we think and talk of algorithmically shaped behaviours, soft power, vitality and server architectures constructing realists - even Erving Goffman gets a mention.

    Even if you don't Tweet or Toot, there's stuff to think about in here because online life is still real life and this Twitter ruckus has real world consequences, but if you are looking to make the jump of Twitter, Inger has lots of Thoughts and a few suggestions for getting started.

    Inger has been doing nothing but attending to the Great Twitter Migration, so Jason is left to do the honours with the reading section (1:52:06) and the 2 minute tip section, which features a bit of 'is this book bullshit' talk and the problem of too much WIP.

    Look, this is a long one, so get down to some cleaning and gardening or a long walk!

    Things we mentioned:
    The discussion guide for this episode (which has links to all the services and articles mentioned).
    Book: coach to coach
    Atul Gawande

    Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).

    Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com.

    If you want to support our work, you can sponsor Thesis Whisperer for $1 a month on Patreon, buy Inger a coffee on Ko-Fi or grab a copy of our ‘Text Expander for academics’ book off Thesiswhisperer.com

  • Inger and Jason catch up to get their nerd on HARD in this episode - you have been warned.

    After the usual catch up - with only a little bit of old person health problems - Inger reads out some nice feedback (17:50). People loved our last episode on 'Building a second brain for writing' where we talked about Tiago Forte's book. Because of this conversation, Jason had an epiphany and started using Obsidian - a database program which Inger describes as 'your own personal Wikipedia'.

    Because Jason had such a conversion moment about Obsidian, Inger had to hear all about it. Basically Inger's career success is built on copying everything Jason does so she needs him to talk her through it. Which he does. For over an hour.

    Two things for listeners to note about this conversation:

    1) It's nerdy. Like, really, really nerdy. Not only about Obsidian, but about TEQSA and accrediting universities and stuff like that. We don't blame you if it's too much. We'll be back to a more audience friendly format next time.

    2) It is not necessarily good pod fodder because it relies a bit on seeing what Jason is doing when he talks. So Inger has made a quick, edited video of what Jason is showing her. We highly recommend having a look at this video before, or while, you are listening.

    We are so exhausted by this conversation, but all we can talk about in the rest of the episode is shopping and watching TV.

    Things we mentioned:
    Obsidian - download it here.
    The video that Inger made of what Jason was showing her
    Karst desk planner


    Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).

    Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com.

    If you want to support our work, you can sponsor Thesis Whisperer for $1 a month on Patreon, buy Inger a coffee on Ko-Fi or grab a copy of our ‘Text Expander for academics’ book off Thesiswhisperer.com

  • There's a lot of sweary words in this one, headphones in!

    Inger brought a sword to work and Jason is back on the mats at Brazillian Ju Jitsu (BJJ) so it's business as usual at On The Reg. Big shout out to Jason's wife Cath, who has nearly finished her course, which somehow leads to a long discussion of Jason's first experience of removing unwanted body hair.

    In other words, the usual catch up, but if you want to skip it, go straight to 24:32, where Siobhan calls in on Speakpipe to ask Inger if she's read 'How to take smart notes' by Sonke Ahrens.

    Siobhan's call is a great segue into Inger and Jason's discussion, starting at 28:58, about 'Building a Second Brain: a proven method to organise your digital life and unlock your creative potential' by Tiago Forte of Forte Labs. Inger LOVED this book and spends an hour telling Jason all about it, which caused Jason to spend yet more money on books and software.

    There's a lot of talk about the relative merits of (and how to integrate) Pocket, Evernote, Obsidian, Roam Research, Notion and the

    Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. Email Inger, she's easy to find. You will not be able to find Jason's email (he likes it that way).

    Talk to us on BlueSky by following @thesiswhisperer and @drjd. Inger is sadly addicted to Threads, but cannot convince JD to join. You can find her there, and on all the Socials actually, as @thesiswhisperer. You can read her stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com.

    If you want to support our work, you can sponsor Thesis Whisperer for $1 a month on Patreon, buy Inger a coffee on Ko-Fi or grab a copy of our ‘Text Expander for academics’ book off Thesiswhisperer.com