Three hours of sleep and an early morning train ride is a great recipe for catching up on reading assignments. Despite a very conflicted biological reaction to the trip — I desperately wanted and needed sleep, but I can’t sleep on a train for fear all of my stuff will get off the train before I do or I’ll wake up in Upper Michigan — I managed to finish the Peter’s book
As frightening as the next few years look financially, and as scary as being part of an untested, loosely defined program may be, I’m feeling pretty good at this moment about this degree. I’ve spent some time this summer picturing projects I could do and areas of research that interest me (), and I’ve received or scheduled meetings to receive good feedback on those ideas. I’m not thrilled about the timing of WikiSym 2006 and missing the bulk of the orientation week, but I’m going to be firing on all cylinders by the time the coursework begins the following week. Of course, I’m not sure yet what that coursework will be …
Getting What You Came For was a very helpful read. I can see picking up that book down the road, when I’m stuck or looking for a touchstone to keep me on track. Reflecting back, these seem to be the take-home points for me:
- Be the Tortoise — Do a little bit very often, rather than a lot once in a while.
- Eat, Sleep, Breathe, Write — Mostly the last one. Turn writing into a thing you do all the time, whether or not there is a computer or pad of paper in front of you. Write while showering. Write while walking to class. Write by reading. Writing is not about the words you are able to cobble together into paragraphs as much as it is about formulating cohesive ideas that can be communicated.
- Make Your Colleagues’ Experience Your Own — Study support groups, regular brown-bag lunches, Movie Night, Grocery Day … Find regular opportunities to socialize with those around you making this same grueling life choice. More than friends, teachers or even family, your fellow students will be in the best position to empathize and problem solve when things get toughest. Understand their work well enough to do an elevator pitch, and offer to read any draft of any paper at any time.
- Communicate with Advisors — Make regular meetings to involve your advising committee in your work. There is some fine line between making them feel like an important part of the process and demanding too much of their time. Each student-faculty relationship will discover the location of that line in a different place. Ultimately, if the committee is involved enough to know what you are doing and approve of where your work is taking you, then little things like thesis defenses are nothing more than your final group discussion on the subject of your research.
- Stay Focused — Find a mantra or some simple criteria to continually measure against your work, to keep it from sprawling like a suburban mall. If you decide to work at the Leftorium, understand left-handed widgets well and don’t try to paint people’s nails or sell them slushees.
- Understand Why You Are Here — The answer to why you are in grad school should be mostly answered before you get there. The wiggle room (such as, do I want to get an academic or industry job out of this) is something to discover along the way. The sooner the answer shows up, the sooner you can cater all of your work toward meeting that end. If you want to work for an NFL team solving design and information problems, then the courses and projects you choose should reflect that desire. The longer this remains an open-ended question, the more work you have to do to keep your options warm.
- Get Gone Quick — Take the preparatory steps in setting up a good work environment and routine, getting your primary research project underway, and clearing your schedule of obstacles to completion. Life as a student has lots of advantages, but good pay and carefree nights are not among them. Take as much time as is needed to do the job of getting a degree, and no more. It is better to use a degree than perfect one.
