and the draft comes back

Any readers who have been paying attention for a while know that I have yet to actually publish the results from my PhD research. My first attempt at a paper draft, written during the first month or two after starting my first post-doc position got a "this reads too much like a thesis, you are putting in too much information" reply from my advisor. Somewhat discouraged I set that project aside and didn't make much more progress on it during the 1.5 years of that post-doc position—only really managing to take it out once in a while, dust it off, work on it for an hour or three, and set it back aside.

However, when I was back in Australia this July (applying for my visa to settle in Scandinavia with my partner), I met with my advisor. Together we determined what I needed to do with the paper, and I managed to leave him what felt to me like a very good draft before boarding the plane to return to the northlands. Today, at long last, he has returned that draft to me with comments. Not surprisingly, his main point now is that the paper has become too short—while culling stuff from the too long version I got over-enthusiastic. Fortunately, this time he has concrete suggestions as to what should go back in, and why. Therefore I now have a goal: try to get a new, improved, draft back to him before my job interview next week (since, if I get the job I will want to focus my energies on learning the new position, rather than finishing up overdue projects). With luck I will not only accomplish that goal, but it will land on his desk at a time when he is actually able to reply promptly, rather than having a month or more slip by before he can even look at it. Perhaps one day in the not too distant future I can change the status of that paper from "in progress" to "submitted"…

how to get a PhD when you aren't a goal-oriented person

This afternoon I found myself in a conversation where, once again, I described myself as not terribly goal-oriented. Nearly every time this comes up people express surprise—how can I not be goal oriented and yet have a PhD—isn't that achievement only possible if one is driven to achieve a fairly major goal? The answer is that, no, that is not the only way to get that degree. Certainly many who have one are goal oriented and used that goal as the driving force for all of the work that is required, but not me.

In my case I went to University because I loved learning and had so much fun in high school that I wanted it to continue. For me there was never a question of "what kind of job will this degree get you later?", but only the question of "what cool things do I wish to study now?". The beauty of my approach is that one gets to ask that question over and over again, each time one registers for a new term, and each time the answers will be slightly different. What got me to move on from undergraduate classes to graduate school was the discovery that someone would pay me to be a student. This sounded much better than paying to spend my time learning things, so I completed my Bachelor's degree and enrolled first as a Master's student, and later as a PhD student. Once I enrolled in graduate school I did work towards completing the degree, but not because I was driven by the goal of obtaining the degree, but because when someone else is paying for my education it comes with a certain obligation of actually doing well in my classes (with the Masters) and the research (both Master's and PhD). Besides, both programs came with a limited-time offer on their funding—the rules of the game were clear—your funding runs out after a certain number of years and you have a choice—get the degree by then, or go without. I may not be goal oriented, but I do have a fairly strongly developed sense of responsibility, and if my part of the bargain for the "free" education is to complete the degree, well, yes, I do have what it takes to do it.