Looks are not overrated, unless of course you're a thesis editor.
They say that graduate school is all about becoming a world expert. What does it mean then when ones tenure as a masters student is over and all that can be shown for those two years is some code that doesn't work and an incomplete literature review?
Some poor grad student is in a lot of trouble. Denial is the best remedy for such a scenario.
Sadly, few people are strong enough to remain in denial indefinitely. The monster must eventually be faced head on leaving the creator with only two choices:
1) Try to reform its character into something people will respect
2) Make it look pretty and hope no one actually reads it.
Note that option 2 is acceptable for a masters degree. When out of time, intelligent people go with option 2, cutting their losses and making due with what they have. While I normally try to belong to the "intelligent" crowd, it seems I simply can't join them when it comes to projects that are exclusively my own. I must either do them well or not all.
Even when a thesis that is only 10 % complete two weeks before it is due, "practical" does not exist in my vocabulary. "Stop eating and stay up until 4:00am every night in hopes of figuring out why my code sucks," on the other hand, does. Such action is risky because a full week can vanish, leaving only extra failed attempts behind. Death by starvation is probably in the cards too.
The thought of a single unexplored possibility wracks me infinitely more than 20 unnecessary failures and a thesis possessing the eloquence of a Kevin Federline rap. Sometimes, I'm quite good at being illogical.
I defended the result of this strategy last Friday. My thesis was complete but crudely edited. My presentation misspelled complex words such as "the," and my animations didn't work. I was, however, happy with science therein.
It passed with minor revisions. My work was good and my conclusion worthy of further research and maybe publication.
They say that sometimes it's best to give up, write whatever you've got, and move on. I say those people should have more faith in my abilities.
I am now officially a world expert.
Some poor grad student is in a lot of trouble. Denial is the best remedy for such a scenario.
Sadly, few people are strong enough to remain in denial indefinitely. The monster must eventually be faced head on leaving the creator with only two choices:
1) Try to reform its character into something people will respect
2) Make it look pretty and hope no one actually reads it.
Note that option 2 is acceptable for a masters degree. When out of time, intelligent people go with option 2, cutting their losses and making due with what they have. While I normally try to belong to the "intelligent" crowd, it seems I simply can't join them when it comes to projects that are exclusively my own. I must either do them well or not all.Even when a thesis that is only 10 % complete two weeks before it is due, "practical" does not exist in my vocabulary. "Stop eating and stay up until 4:00am every night in hopes of figuring out why my code sucks," on the other hand, does. Such action is risky because a full week can vanish, leaving only extra failed attempts behind. Death by starvation is probably in the cards too.
The thought of a single unexplored possibility wracks me infinitely more than 20 unnecessary failures and a thesis possessing the eloquence of a Kevin Federline rap. Sometimes, I'm quite good at being illogical.
I defended the result of this strategy last Friday. My thesis was complete but crudely edited. My presentation misspelled complex words such as "the," and my animations didn't work. I was, however, happy with science therein.
It passed with minor revisions. My work was good and my conclusion worthy of further research and maybe publication.
They say that sometimes it's best to give up, write whatever you've got, and move on. I say those people should have more faith in my abilities.
I am now officially a world expert.
posted by Saule Cogneur at 8:02 AM
3 Comments:
Kevin Federline rap? Your thesis must have REALLY sucked. Glad you were able to do a work-around to avoid such a disaster as K-Fed's anti-genius.
I type "teh" all the teim. See, you still saw what I meant, right? (Actually the "teim" wasn't on prupose.) (Neither was that.) Now you're done and can move on. I would think that that woudl feel nice.
Congratulations!
(Also, if you find yourself in need of a scholarly editor, I happen to know someone who has edited scads of theses/dissertations and would be happy to help.)
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