A planning reference for the five essay series on skhgroup.net. The goal: keep every series distinct, so the same topic can appear in more than one series deliberately, from a different angle — never by accident.
Each series is separated by who speaks, to whom, from when — not by topic. That is what keeps them from blurring.
| Series | Mode / voice | Signature device | |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Through the Thinkers | A thinker’s lens on research (philosophy) | Open “What X might say”; close “Every morning, a researcher should ask…” |
| B | Beyond Metrics | First person, present — self & the system | Open with a common belief, then complicate it; close on a reframe (no daily-question) |
| C | Lessons from Science | A lab phenomenon → a life truth (metaphor) | Open with the concrete science; cross to life; close holding both in parallel |
| D | Letters to My Younger Self | Present self → past self (retrospective) | “Dear Soorathep, 20XX —”; close with one line from the present |
| E | The Craft of Research | Practical how-to for the reader (evergreen) | Open with the failure mode / why it matters; close with a short checklist or principle |
Rows are recurring themes. Each cell is the angle that series would take (— = weak fit, skip).
| Theme | A · Thinkers | B · Beyond Metrics | C · Lessons from Science | D · Letters | E · Craft |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rejection & peer review | Popper/Feynman: being shown wrong is the method | Why Good Papers Get Rejected — what it reveals about the system | Rejection as annealing: heat before the lattice reorders | On Rejection — my first one | How to respond to reviewers |
| Originality | Kuhn: questioning assumptions | The Loneliness of Original Ideas — the emotional cost | Original ideas as metastable states — need stabilising | Trust the odd idea | Telling novelty from noise |
| Impact & recognition | Confucius (legacy), Frankl (meaning) | The Invisible Impact · Beyond H-index · Next Stage | Catalysis: you enable reactions without being consumed | Recognition comes late, if at all | Writing a broader-impact statement |
| Failure & error | Popper: advances by finding where we’re wrong | Reframing failure in a metrics culture | The Value of Failure in the Laboratory | The experiments that failed taught me most | Designing experiments that fail informatively |
| Time & pace | Seneca (time), Marcus (control) | The Slow Science Advantage | Equilibrium Is Not Always Progress — kinetics vs thermodynamics | You have more time than you think | Planning long experiments |
| Curiosity & motivation | Socrates: the expanding unknown | Why Curiosity Ages Better Than Ambition | Activation energy: curiosity lowers the barrier | Protect your curiosity | Keeping a question alive |
| Collaboration & competition | Confucius: growing others | Reflection on competition culture | Every Interface Changes Both Sides | On Collaboration · On Competition | Authorship & credit norms |
| Integrity & honesty | Feynman: don’t fool yourself | Integrity under pressure | Calibration: honesty as staying calibrated | Guard your name | Publication ethics in practice |
| Identity & becoming | Jung: the academic shadow | What kind of scholar am I becoming | Phase transitions: identity changes state | Before You Become a Professor | — |
| AI in research | — | AI and the meaning of authorship | Information & entropy | The tools will change; the questions won’t | Using AI responsibly in writing & review |
| Writing & figures | — | — | A figure is a compression of a truth | Learn to write early | How to structure a paper; designing figures |
A · Through the Thinkers — complete (10 + capstone) Jung · Marcus Aurelius · Buddha · Popper · Feynman · Kuhn · Socrates · Frankl · Seneca · Confucius → Becoming a Better Researcher
B · Beyond Metrics — 2 live, queue: Beyond H-index ✓ · The Next Stage of Academic Growth ✓ · The Invisible Impact · Why Good Papers Get Rejected · The Loneliness of Original Ideas · The Slow Science Advantage · When Reviewers Are Right · Why Curiosity Ages Better Than Ambition
C · Lessons from Science — signature series, queue: What Batteries Taught Me About Life · Entropy and Human Decisions · The Value of Failure in the Laboratory · Equilibrium Is Not Always Progress · Every Interface Changes Both Sides (candidates to extend: Activation Energy · Calibration · Phase Transitions · Catalysis · Signal and Noise · Hysteresis)
D · Letters to My Younger Self — queue (as dated letters): Before You Chase Your First Paper · Before You Become a Professor · On Rejection · On Collaboration · On Competition · On Mentoring
E · The Craft of Research — evergreen, queue: The Hypothesis · Originality · Peer Review · Being a Reviewer · Scientific Writing · Figures · Reproducibility · AI in Publishing · Research Integrity (candidates to extend: The Literature Review · Revision · Preprints · Data Management)