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On Wednesday night I finished writing the dissertation, about two years behind the schedule laid out in my thesis proposal (which itself was about two years behind schedule). Don't bother with the congratulations; while I am relieved to be finished, I was not all that happy with the experience and I'm not all that proud of the result. It feels to me not so much like an achievement but more the end of a detention where I had to write on the chalkboard 100,000 times I will not choose a thesis topic that does not interest my advisor.
Now it's time to start adjusting to my newfound freedom. First off, I want to apologize to everyone I've been rude to, ignored, or perplexed during the past few years of perpetual stress. I can't promise that I'll make it up to you—I suspect some of my social skills have atrophied permanently, and they weren't that great to start with, but at least now I'll have one fewer external handicap.
I will probably start posting here more often (at least until I set up my own journal system on The Steak Place, one of many long-postponed projects). I'll try to keep it interesting and not too blabby.
Now it's time to start adjusting to my newfound freedom. First off, I want to apologize to everyone I've been rude to, ignored, or perplexed during the past few years of perpetual stress. I can't promise that I'll make it up to you—I suspect some of my social skills have atrophied permanently, and they weren't that great to start with, but at least now I'll have one fewer external handicap.
I will probably start posting here more often (at least until I set up my own journal system on The Steak Place, one of many long-postponed projects). I'll try to keep it interesting and not too blabby.
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(does the sekrit PhD handshake)
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Is it like you're currently blinded by the light of free time because you've been in the dissertation tunnel for too long?
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congrats despite yourself
It'll be nice to see you around again, neighbor.
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Uh
nevermind
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Huzzah!
Congratulations.
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(However, I do think it's incumbent on the advisor at least to warn you that he finds the topic thoroughly uninteresting. Of course, so did I by the time I was done with it.)
I'm just happy for you that it's over. You can now go on to something else in your life. Whatever it is, I hope it's something that still holds your interest in 5-10 years.
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I don't care if the things I do now will still hold my interest in 5-10 years; if they don't, I'm free to move on to something else. And it's not even that I lost interest, it's that I had to switch from research to writing before I felt like the research was done. Hopefully the next time I get involved in a research project that won't be an issue—there might still be the pressure to publish intermediate results, but it won't need to be 140 pages.
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PhD koans
I was in a similar place -- I had a topic, and couldn't find an advisor, and went ahead and did that topic anyway. Oy.
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amazing :)
now maybe... coffee someday?
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again, i'm so happy for you. :D
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Social skills
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