https://catherinepope.com/tags/phd-progress/ Recent content in PhD Progress on Catherine Pope Hugo -- 0.148.2 en Wed, 16 Sep 2026 16:59:06 +0100 https://catherinepope.com/posts/assessing-ideas-with-sequential-elimination/ Wed, 16 Sep 2026 16:36:35 +0100 https://catherinepope.com/posts/assessing-ideas-with-sequential-elimination/ <p>As someone who has around 500 ideas a day, I needed a way of assessing those ideas more systematically. Most of them <em>seem</em> exciting, but pursing dozens of projects is a shortcut to burnout. How on earth do I choose one? Well, the answer turned out to be &ldquo;sequential elimination&rdquo;.</p> <p>Best known as a voting system, the sequential elimination method works by repeatedly eliminating the losing candidate until a single winner remains. Instead of asking myself, &ldquo;Am I excited by this idea?&rdquo; I subject the potential project to rigorous questioning, rating my responses on a scale of 1-10.</p>