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Today I defended by Bachelor's thesis and I did well. The thesis is handed in. However the process of developing it was a real nightmare, I had many panic attacks, etc. and it was just awful. But now I realized that I have mentioned in my thesis that there is room for more research in this field when there barely is any and if someone decides to continue my research with my results they are going to have a really bad time. I just really don't want anyone to suffer the way I did or even more.

Should I be stressed about it and is there any action I can take?

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    I am sorry you had a bad time and Congrats on your BSc. However, is there any reason for you to think that anyone doing the same type of work would suffer the same that you did? The next person may enjoy doing it incredibly, or just be plainly OK with doing it. In any case, do not worry, its in the past for you. Get well and keep on.
    – Ander Biguri
    Commented Jun 4, 2018 at 14:32
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    Extremely confusing results is the day to day of Academia, quite a lot of people just work and life for this. People are just different. Just relax, its not on you anymore, and that is the only thing that you should focus on.
    – Ander Biguri
    Commented Jun 4, 2018 at 15:21
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    "hat there is room for more research in this field" It's a pretty standard thing to say that more research towards this will be/needs to be done in the future. From my experience that's code for "we stop this here and we aren't interested in looking into this any more"
    – user64845
    Commented Jun 4, 2018 at 23:08
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    @DSVA: 'From my experience that's code for "we stop this here and we aren't interested in looking into this any more"' - while that is one possible interpretation, two other extremely common ones seem to be "This extension is really obvious, but we were too busy/lazy/unintrigued to do it before finishing this document." and "We very much want to move into this direction, but we can't do it alone and are looking for support now, is anyone interested in collaborating?"
    – O. R. Mapper
    Commented Jun 5, 2018 at 5:10
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    @O.R.Mapper Another common one is “This extension is pretty obvious, but as usual, we have to do three people’s work each, so we have neither the time, the energy, nor the money to do it ourselves, but we’d be happy if someone else did”.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Jun 5, 2018 at 9:28

4 Answers 4

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Congratulations on the successful defence of your thesis. If at all possible, take some time to relax.

I understand your concern, but you have no real reason to worry. In general, there is always room for more research on any given topic. Now, anyone who wishes to advance your work will either be more senior than yourself or working for someone more senior than yourself. It will be their responsibility to decide if they want to invest their time and energy in the project.

If you are ever contacted about your thesis, then you can explain why you are less optimistic today, than you were in the past. It is very likely that the other person has some fresh ideas and together you may move forward.

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    Thanks for the calming comment. It's just that today the reviewer seemed quite happy about my work and mentioned something about possibility to continue the research. I keep wondering if I have to tell him that the thesis isn't really that great and if continued little results with great effort are to be expected.
    – GeForce RTX 4090
    Commented Jun 4, 2018 at 15:48
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    @gfels Considering that a lot of research yields no meaningful results at the cost of great effort, I wouldn't be so concerned about that...
    – undercat
    Commented Jun 4, 2018 at 16:08
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    @gfels, At the risk of making a cliche recommendation: consider reading up on impostor syndrome. When you are still early in your career, you are not yet capable of accurately judging your own competency. If more experienced people who you trust are telling you that the work is good, consider that they might actually be correct and your own perception of it lacking could merely be an artifact of your own (relative) inexperience.
    – Dan Bryant
    Commented Jun 5, 2018 at 19:21
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Should I be stressed about it?

Well, like everyone else is probably telling you, no; but try to think about it this way: Suppose you find some book in the library about some subject; and you notice that book indicates further research could be possible. Would you blame the author if it turned out the experience of doing that research was not pleasant? Of course not.

Also, people's experience doing research is much more the result of their personality, their life situation, and the kind of environment they're in; it's almost not at all the result of the subject itself inducing stress.

and is there any action I can take?

Well, I suppose. You could talk to your thesis advisor(s), and let them know how you felt. You can indicate that the subject is "treacherously alluring" and caution them that future students might find it harder and perhaps more stressful than it may appear on first sight.

Of course you can't know for sure that future work will go through the same advisor; nor that s/he will take your advice seriously, but it's something, right?

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Congratulations on getting through your thesis defence. Since it is only a bachelor-level thesis, you will find that professional researchers will be more than capable of making their own assessment of the topic and its potential for future research. Extending your thesis might be a cruel and unusual punishment for some, but it is the kind of masochism that academic researchers sign up for. Relax and enjoy being pulled off the torture-rack.

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Don't worry about it. Most of the work in academia is fakework for grants and dead-end prestige games. The unlucky sap continuing your work will not be in a worse situation than if you were able to prevent your work from being used.

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    To test the relevance of academic work, go to your local university library. Find out where they keep BSc theses. Pick one at random, open it to a random page, slip in a $20 bill, and put it back where you found it. Revisit the thesis periodically. If anyone else picks it up, they will pocket the money.
    – emory
    Commented Jun 4, 2018 at 20:40
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    @emory, up here, they stopped having even printed master's thesis a couple of years back, so you may need to just go the website the thesis are archived on, and check the download/view counts from there.
    – ilkkachu
    Commented Jun 5, 2018 at 12:26
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    @emory yes, basically no one will look into bachelor thesis but that doesn't mean it's not relevant. We often publish results from bachelor thesis in peer reviewed journal articles that get quite a lot of attention.
    – user64845
    Commented Jun 6, 2018 at 14:33

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