Series Introduction - Paper Pursuit

Kicking off the series with an introductory post

Hello again, folks!

This week is going to be introductions. I sent out the pilot issue for About Computing Systems this Monday sharing my idea about the newsletter and its structure. In this issue, I’ll introduce the first series — Paper Pursuit.

I recently picked up the practice of reading research in computer science. This was partially motivated by the fact that I fail to complete longer pieces of content like books, and how research papers are packed with so much structured learning. One of the greatest drivers of interest for me was the Future of Coding podcast currently run by Jimmy Miller and Ivan Reese.

In Paper Pursuit, I’ll be reading and summarising research papers related to computing systems, the web, and programming languages.

Why read computer science research papers?

A StackOverflow blog post nicely summarises an answer — to understand the history behind the current state of things and to know about cutting-edge work in specific fields. It interviews the creators of the Papers We Love community, a prominent group that has chapters all over the world that meet regularly to read and discuss papers.

I believe reading research gives us a perspective into how technologies evolved in the past and how they are rapidly developing in the present. History is always a fun ride, it’s always surprising to see the turnout of events that eventually landed us where we are today with computers.

What to look out for in the series?

First, if you see the yellow paper plane image/GIF, it is a Paper Pursuit post! The paper plane denotes the summarised research paper flying into your inbox every Tuesday (cute, isn’t it?). Secondly, check your inbox for the summaries! And third, to give you a sneak peek, the next three issues are already drafted and they cover some very interesting topics in CS.

The first issue will be sent out the next Tuesday, and then all the further issues come in every Tuesday. The summaries will be more like a discussion, with additional comments about how the research relates to real-life scenarios in systems around us. I hope you enjoy reading them!

Okay then, I see you Tuesday next week.

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All issues of Paper Pursuit live here.