Graduate School

The phrase "no man is an island" - coined by English poet John Donne in 1624 - expresses the idea that human beings do badly when isolated from others and need to be part of a community in order to thrive [1]. John Donne has ingeniously summed up his observation of people in a few words, long before the "invention" of social psychology, and colloquial language picked up his … [Read more...] about No Grad Student is an Island

(Do NOT) Give up too quickly Grad school can be a series of failures, which is OK. How do you expect to come up with something extraordinary, if you never ran into a dead end (or two)? You should not give up just because you failed once or twice. Just make sure you summarise what you've learned from each failure, so you don't commit the same mistakes again and you are able … [Read more...] about What NOT to do in grad school

As Simon Sinek put it: Start with WHY. Find your own "Why", for yourself: Why exactly you do what you do in life? Is grad school the right place for you to be? If so, why? If you think it isn't, why not? Why did you go to grad school in the first place? What was that original piece of motivation that might have gotten lost along the way? Locate it and think about it. Don't … [Read more...] about How to Stay Motivated in Grad School?