Timeline for How do I deal with the overwhelming ambiguity of my project?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
19 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jun 23, 2017 at 22:09 | comment | added | Captain Emacs | You went from a quite theoretical field to a much "softer" field with much less defined criteria, notions, goals - this is a difficult transition to make. Maybe the topic isn't for you, if it does not inspire you. Half a year is not too long a time to cut your losses. But make sure you identify what you'd rather do. | |
| Jun 23, 2017 at 21:05 | comment | added | Marko Karbevski | "my unsupportive family" Could you please elaborate, if you find don't mind? I believe this to be a very important point. | |
| Jun 23, 2017 at 20:57 | comment | added | Faheem Mitha | To start with, are you interested your research area? Or are you just frustrated because you don't know what to do? Would you prefer another research area? What drew you to this area from applied mathematics, anyway? What do you expect from your supervisors? | |
| Jun 23, 2017 at 20:56 | comment | added | Faheem Mitha | It's not completely clear from your question, but if you are not interested in the specific research topic you are doing, that isn't good. And communication with your supervisors is very important. I'm very familiar with the "talk about my project and direction at a very high-level" issue. To some extent this is unavoidable - your advisers cannot go into every detail with you. But they should also be willing to discuss specifics. I think this is one of those things where it's difficult to say anything even potentially useful without more details. | |
| May 14, 2017 at 19:40 | comment | added | sgf | @skymningen I certainly don't think it's the kind of research that should earn you a phd or a patent, I was just questoning CoderInNetwork's overly restrictive notion of what does and doesn't constitute research. | |
| May 12, 2017 at 18:40 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/StackAcademia/status/863101474645192704 | ||
| May 12, 2017 at 16:04 | vote | accept | CommunityBot | ||
| May 12, 2017 at 16:01 | history | edited | user73405 |
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| May 12, 2017 at 14:21 | comment | added | Ben Voigt | @sgf: "Grunt work is an integral part of scientific research"... yes, generally, although the amount depends on the field. "it constitutes research by itself"... most people would not agree, and what is certain is that it conveys no ownership of research. The rules for patents and the rules for publications agree, authorship and ownership of research goes to the parties who have a hand in directing it. | |
| May 12, 2017 at 12:55 | comment | added | skymningen | @sgf: Now you need to ask the Dictionary what a PhD is and how to get one. No idea what it says about that really, but there should be some modifier to research that has at least a relationship to "independent". In short: You are not supposed to have to be told how to do your research in detail any more. | |
| May 12, 2017 at 9:37 | comment | added | sgf | @BenVoigt Let's aks the Oxford Dictionary, shall we? "Research: The systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions." Doesn't say anything about creativity or novel solutions. And by your definition, the moment I've written myself a detailed path to establish some facts, I've stopped doing research? Grunt work is an integral part of scientific research, and to me at least it constitutes research by itself. | |
| May 12, 2017 at 0:57 | comment | added | Ben Voigt | @sgf: If there are no decisions to make, you are not doing research. What you described is being a technician performing grunt work for someone else's research. | |
| May 12, 2017 at 0:33 | comment | added | sgf | @CoderInNetwork How is "Add one drop from one of those colourful liquids to the bacteria stew every day and protocol every slight bit of change" not research? | |
| May 12, 2017 at 0:07 | answer | added | user23658 | timeline score: 6 | |
| May 11, 2017 at 22:52 | comment | added | Nate Eldredge | Have you told your supervisors, explicitly, that you are uncertain how to proceed and you feel you need more more detailed advice in order to make progress? | |
| May 11, 2017 at 22:49 | comment | added | Nate Eldredge | Why is this tagged health-issues? | |
| May 11, 2017 at 22:01 | comment | added | user35129 | "My supervisors talk about my project and direction at a very high-level, so the details of what I should be doing or how I should be doing them are unclear.". If you had a clear problem with a detailed path to the solution then this would not be the research. Embrace the ambiguity to show off your creativity. | |
| May 11, 2017 at 21:07 | review | First posts | |||
| May 12, 2017 at 2:12 | |||||
| May 11, 2017 at 21:06 | history | asked | user73405 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |