{"id":2897,"date":"2018-01-03T20:04:41","date_gmt":"2018-01-03T20:04:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/?p=2897"},"modified":"2018-01-03T20:04:41","modified_gmt":"2018-01-03T20:04:41","slug":"when-phd-resembles-break-ups-a-bit-too-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/2018\/01\/03\/when-phd-resembles-break-ups-a-bit-too-much\/","title":{"rendered":"When PhD resembles break-ups a bit too much…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s face it: doing a PhD isn\u2019t always rainbows and unicorns. The process can be painful and annoying, and at some point you\u2019re probably going to get completely stuck. If you\u2019ve ever done any research, you definitely know what I\u2019m talking about.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s something you need to do, usually some task that was supposed to be easy \u2013 a toy example, an almost standard code, a \u201cquick\u201d experiment to check your hypothesis. And here you are, spending long hours, days, weeks, even months, not even closer to solving your problem. You\u2019ve tried everything, used all possible sources you could find, but this devil isn\u2019t giving up.<\/p>\n

Hm, you guessed, it\u2019s happening to me right now. To give you an idea of how it feels, let\u2019s take a look at some stages of stuckness as described by psychologists. Well, not quite, these are the stages of grieving after a breakup<\/a>, but it actually works. Let me walk you through the stages of being stuck in research. If you happen to be going through this process, some cuteness won’t hurt, so enjoy the pictures.<\/p>\n

1. Desperate for Answers.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
In the beginning you’re looking for answers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the beginning you just want to know \u2013 how to solve the equation, why your experiments give such results etc. You work hard trying different methods.<\/p>\n

2. Denial.<\/strong><\/p>\n

You can\u2019t believe that you haven\u2019t solved this \u201ceasy problem\u201d yet. I mean, it can\u2019t be that complicated, right? You\u2019re sure the answer is so close, just waiting there for you.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Denial: “A problem? There’s no problem!”.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

3. Bargaining.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hm, maybe you don\u2019t really have to do that? There are many directions in which your research could go, why can\u2019t you just pretend that this issue doesn\u2019t exist and move on? Or even try to swipe the problem under the carpet, nobody will notice, right?<\/p>\n

4. Relapse.<\/strong><\/p>\n

You might actually persuade yourself (and your supervisor) that the problem isn\u2019t worth pursuing. However, the issue will come back soon, I promise. A very similar problem will appear in another example you\u2019ll try to tackle.<\/p>\n

5. Anger.<\/strong><\/p>\n

AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH, bloody gamma functions, why are you doing this to me, whyyyyyyy?!?!?!?! (I think I\u2019m going through this stage right now).<\/p>\n

\"\"
Being stuck might make you angry and that’s ok.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

6. Initial Acceptance.<\/strong><\/p>\n

You accept that the problem needs to be solved, but it might be too difficult to tackle alone. You start reaching out for help and admitting: \u201cI have no idea\u201d.<\/p>\n

7. Redirected Hope.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hey, maybe you won\u2019t be able to solve the problem alone, but there\u2019s somebody somewhere in the world working on something similar who would be interested in joining forces? Or maybe you could tackle an even smaller subproblem? Maybe there is some light in the end of this tunnel?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure all PhD students have had similar feelings, just not everybody talks about it. Remember: no pain, no gain. You can do that!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s face it: doing a PhD isn\u2019t always rainbows and unicorns. The process can be painful and annoying, and at some point you\u2019re probably going to get completely stuck. If you\u2019ve ever done any research, you definitely know what I\u2019m talking about. There\u2019s something you need to do, usually some task that was supposed to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1026,"featured_media":2898,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[268,191443,138,625,163723,127784,3203,270137,612,12094,92291,127029],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","category-life-advice","category-mathematics","category-phd","category-potentially-actually-useful-stuff","category-practical-advice","category-science","category-staying-healthy","category-study","category-tips","category-uni-life","category-university-stress"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1026"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2897"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2902,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2897\/revisions\/2902"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}