I found this link very accidently, it is quite interesting:
Things I learnt during, and about, my PhD
I think you can have two different feeling about it, disappointing and motivating. At first glance it sounds disappointing because it talks about the bad side of being a PhD student. But if you think more deeply about it you will find out pretty motivating, especially if you are a person like me. When you find out there are other students who have similar problems like you then you fell better. You will have a feeling that you are not the only one who struggle with distractions like internet, the only one who think is mathematically-illiterate, and the only one has boring,useless meetings with their supervisors.
So the only way to encourage people in something is not to tell them the good aspects of it, you can also tell them it’s bad aspects. By this you will make (some of) them to think they are not the only one with those problems.
August 5, 2008 at 5:07 pm |
Glad you found the article useful. I agree that when you’re in the thick of the PhD it’s good too know that you’re not the only one having these problems. As other people have pointed out on other forums, it’s good to talk: friends, colleagues, even councillors. I had a great professor who wasn’t involved with my PhD but was very encouraging (although in my case that wasn’t enough. If I had my time again, he’d make a much better advisor though.