Advice from Hal Varian’s monograph, How to Build an Economic Model in Your Spare Time [pdf], most of which applies to things not related to economics:
- Look for ideas in the world, not in the journals.
- First make your model as simple as possible, then generalize it.
- Look at the literature later, not sooner.
- Model your paper after your seminar.
- Stop when youÄôve made your point.
Mark Larson 