Blast from the Research past

Recently I went through the files on my computer and was surprised to see a file called "Research Ideas.txt". From 2003! Yes 2003! As a fresh-faced and bushy-tailed Master's student (who had been in graduate school for a month!) I had figured out what research was and I was going to research ALL THE THINGS!

My favourite idea is

8) Online B2C Marketplaces powered by the Sims!: Using Avatars in B2C Marketplaces to increase purchasing and trust

So many things wrong. Exclamation points in a title? Over ten words in a title? The SIMS?! Oh you bet that's a paddlin'!

 But right near the end, almost as an afterthought, was the title.

Agents: Modeling Consumer Social Cognition

My notes on the subject also state that someone already did a paper on this and that there is nothing really interesting to write about. Nothing interesting to write about? Someone already worked on the same idea? Dead-end research topic, you say?

 Instead of making my own simulations though I realised that I could help other simulation designers. In the end, my Master's work was a system analysis tool that helps non-coders communicate their needs to the simulation designer. After the Master's though I was sure that I was onto something more useful. When working with the marketing expert I had noticed that the box and arrows that I drew helped to make the simulation better. The expert was able to use the models to understand what went wrong with the first version of the simulation and asked me to change the code accordingly. So my PhD focused on this aspect of my work.

Who knows, if I wasn't so stubborn I might have been writing about the Sims for ten years.