If you have to ask yourself whether you want to do a PhD, the answer is no.
Can I ask why it is an outright 'no'? Is it not ok to ponder on something of this magnitude before diving in?
Ask HN: Is a phD a good way to focus & motivate you?
11–20 of 59 posts
Re: Ask HN: Is a phD a good way to focus & motivate you?
#12I'm sorry, I just LOLed the moment I read this headline.
I'm a PhD student hopefully 6 months away from finishing.
PhDs are like running a full marathon. You don't do it because you want to stay fit; or because you enjoy running -- marathons wear you out, cause injuries, and eventually are far worse for you than regular running. You only do it because
1) you want to learn how to run marathon-sized lengths (i.e. you want to be capable of wrapping your head around a multi year unbounded problem)
2) you want to have a sense of accomplishment
It seems you do want to use this as a way of learning structured thinking. But remember that:
1) Your life is going to be fucking depressing as hell.
2) It's many years of not knowing what the hell you're doing.
3) You're giving up your youth for a shot at something completely unquantifiable.
Bottomline: If your job doesn't require it, stay the hell away from it.
Re: Ask HN: Is a phD a good way to focus & motivate you?
#13If your objective is only to get focused and motivated, and not necessarily do research, a PhD might be too much of a time sink (I am a PhD student in CS). More so if you are thinking of taking it up part time, since most of your free time will be spent on it. Further, expect that the first couple years will not give you many positive returns to motivate you to go on: those are mainly spent building the foundation. H…
I enjoying learning and discovering new things. My main motivation is to produce an original piece of work - something that will define me, if you will. A magnus opus.
Is it a waste of time that after two years of part-time research you find that the phD is not the approach for you and you abandon it?
The finding it interesting bit, is another questions in the back of my mind. Will this be something I will find interesting enough to keep me going for the next few years.
Re: Ask HN: Is a phD a good way to focus & motivate you?
#14If you have to ask yourself whether you want to do a PhD, the answer is no.
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Re: Ask HN: Is a phD a good way to focus & motivate you?
#15If you have to ask yourself whether you want to do a PhD, the answer is no.
Can I ask why it is an outright 'no'? Is it not ok to ponder on something of this magnitude before diving in?
I think jerf means that for the vast majority of PhD students, the most motivation you're going to have is at the beginning. It only gets worse from there. So if you have serious doubts before diving in, you're almost certainly going to have real trouble during the PhD.
Re: Ask HN: Is a phD a good way to focus & motivate you?
#16Most good PhD programs won't take part-time students. It's all or nothing.
Re: Ask HN: Is a phD a good way to focus & motivate you?
#17I'm sorry, I just LOLed the moment I read this headline. I'm a PhD student hopefully 6 months away from finishing. PhDs are like running a full marathon. You don't do it because you want to stay fit; or because you enjoy running -- marathons wear you out, cause injuries, and eventually are far worse for you than regular running. You only do it because 1) you want to learn how to run marathon-sized lengths (i.e. you w…
I agree: A PhD is too painful to complete one for non-work reasons. I defended 12 months ago, but I really like teaching at the college level, so I stuck it out. If you don't need one, you almost certainly don't want one. They don't teach you how to focus, they instead get rid of the people who can't. It's a winnowing process at least as much as it is a learning process.
Re: Ask HN: Is a phD a good way to focus & motivate you?
#18I think you might have it a little bit backwards. You need a fair amount of focus and self-motivation to complete a PhD. If you already are having issues with this, starting a PhD would be like giving a crack addict access to a large, cheap supply of crack. A lot of it will also depend on your advisor. A more hands-off advisor will certainly mean trouble for you, as the required pressure to keep you focused will not…
My focus and motivation is something that I think about a lot. At work I am very focused and motivated. My work is project based and deadline oriented, and so I have no trouble focusing in that environment. My colleagues, and the fact that I work on "real" problems motivates me. I just can't transfer that easily to when I code in my spare time - crucially - on something that I see through to completion. for example o…
I think I need real people around me to make the problem appear much more real, and keep me motivated.
What about users/customers? Perfectionism aside, how about launching a version 0.1 of your webapp?
Re: Ask HN: Is a phD a good way to focus & motivate you?
#19If your objective is only to get focused and motivated, and not necessarily do research, a PhD might be too much of a time sink (I am a PhD student in CS). More so if you are thinking of taking it up part time, since most of your free time will be spent on it. Further, expect that the first couple years will not give you many positive returns to motivate you to go on: those are mainly spent building the foundation. H…
I enjoying learning and discovering new things. My main motivation is to produce an original piece of work - something that will define me, if you will. A magnus opus. Is it a waste of time that after two years of part-time research you find that the phD is not the approach for you and you abandon it? The finding it interesting bit, is another questions in the back of my mind. Will this be something I will find inter…
"My main motivation is to produce an original piece of work"
In that case, I suggest working on it right now, before a PhD. You can start doing a heavy literature review on a focused topic, and try to improve the state of the art by however small you can. The standards for publication are much lower than what many people outside academia believe.
You can do this and even get a publication without an advisor (may be not at a premier venue but a decent one nonetheless). That gives a great sense of accomplishment.
If you want to continue, the work will surely help you in your PhD (won't be wasted time). If you don't like it, you can move on to other things (and it won't feel like giving up on a long commitment).
The reason I say this: the beginning of a PhD is probably the hardest time to see results, and keep you motivated. So starting small would be helpful. Once you believe you need larger goals and are not satisfied by the small accomplishments, you can go for the long haul!
Re: Ask HN: Is a phD a good way to focus & motivate you?
#20I think you might have it a little bit backwards. You need a fair amount of focus and self-motivation to complete a PhD. If you already are having issues with this, starting a PhD would be like giving a crack addict access to a large, cheap supply of crack. A lot of it will also depend on your advisor. A more hands-off advisor will certainly mean trouble for you, as the required pressure to keep you focused will not…
My focus and motivation is something that I think about a lot. At work I am very focused and motivated. My work is project based and deadline oriented, and so I have no trouble focusing in that environment. My colleagues, and the fact that I work on "real" problems motivates me. I just can't transfer that easily to when I code in my spare time - crucially - on something that I see through to completion. for example o…
>> My colleagues, and the fact that I work on "real" problems motivates me
Unfortunately, both of these are hard to come by when working on a PhD. They are actually the two areas that I struggle with most in my PhD research. Getting a PhD is very isolating -- you are often the only one working on your problem, and it often seems like no one else cares. Also, I enjoy more real-world, applicable problems, yet most of what PhD students work on is theoretical or not market-ready by far.