Writing a Literature Review Without Losing Your Soul

If there is a hell, it's just a room where you have to write a Literature Review for eternity. "Smith (2019) argued X, but Jones (2020) countered with Y, while Johnson (2021) found Z..."

It's tedious. It's repetitive. And it makes me want to quit academia and become a goat farmer.

But since I can't afford a goat farm, I found a better way. I use Eyesme Extension to do the heavy lifting.

The "Lit Review" Grind

You have 20 tabs open. You're trying to remember who said what. You're copy-pasting into a Word doc that looks like a ransom note. It's a mess.

How I Automate It

Step 1: The "Abstract Harvest"

I don't read the whole paper yet. I just need to know if it's relevant. The Move: Screenshot the abstract. "Is this paper relevant to my topic of 'AI in Healthcare'? If yes, summarize the main finding." The Result: I filter out 80% of the papers in 10 minutes.

Step 2: The "Synthesis Engine"

Now I have 5 good papers. I need to connect them. The Move: I feed the summaries of all 5 papers to Eyesme. "Write a paragraph synthesizing these findings. Highlight the disagreements." The Result: It writes the "Smith vs. Jones" part for me. I just polish the prose.

Step 3: The "Methodology Check"

I need to critique their methods. The Move: Screenshot the "Methods" section. "What are the potential biases in this study design?" The Result: "Sample size was too small." "They only surveyed college students." Boom. Critical analysis done.

The Verdict

You still have to write the paper. You still have to think. But you don't have to be a librarian.

Let Eyesme handle the data management. You handle the ideas. Get Eyesme and finish that thesis.