PN — The MIT ‘How to Do Research’ method (complete)
A structured approach to research adapted from the MIT AI Lab working note “How to do Research at the AI Lab”. It frames research practice around three recurring questions applied to every source and every experiment: (1) what are they trying to do? (the goal), (2) how are they doing it? (the method), and (3) does it actually work / what are the limits? (the evaluation). Combined with active, question-driven reading and an atomic note system, it turns passive consumption into compounding understanding.
In PUMA this method governs the literature review: each source is read in passes (skim → method → critique), each claim is verified at primary source before it enters the knowledge base, and every read produces an atomic permanent note linked into the wider graph. It pairs directly with the three-pass reading method and the verification protocol.
Source: PUMA project documentation · Traceability: graph-repair (resolves 16 inbound links) · Confidence: repo-backed