GoKawiilManuel Blum's 2001 essay 'Advice to a Beginning Graduate Student' resurfaces online
Computer scientist Manuel Blum's essay outlines strategies for succeeding in graduate school, covering reading, studying, research and writing. He compares finite automata to Turing machines to illustrate how tools like paper and pencil can dramatically expand problem-solving power, and encourages students to read non-linearly and annotate texts as they learn difficult material.
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The essay has circulated for over two decades as informal mentorship for computer science and mathematics students facing the transition into independent research. Its continued resharing suggests the practical, personal guidance it offers on reading and thinking through hard problems remains relevant to newer generations of graduate students navigating similar academic challenges.
- Manuel Blum's essay dates to 2001 with an update in 2002.
- It advises treating books as random-access tools rather than reading linearly like a scroll.
- It uses the comparison of finite automata versus Turing machines to illustrate the power of external memory aids like paper and pencil in problem-solving.
Moleskine Classic Notebook — Manuel Blum's advice champions writing in the margins and jotting notes as you read and think through hard problems—habits that call for a reliable notebook always at hand. A sturdy Moleskine gives grad students a dedicated place to scribble half-formed ideas, research questions, and the messy thinking that eventually becomes a thesis. It's the kind of low-tech tool that pairs perfectly with the deep, patient reading and thinking Blum describes.
See Moleskine Classic Notebook on Amazon → Affiliate link — we may earn a commission on purchases, at no extra cost to you. Product picked by AI based on this article; it is not a tested recommendation.Source: cs.cmu.edu — Reading, 2026-09-25
Published there as: “Advice to a Beginning Graduate Student (2001)”
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