{"id":457,"date":"2014-01-22T16:27:52","date_gmt":"2014-01-22T21:27:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/homepages.uc.edu\/~yaozo\/wordpress\/?p=457"},"modified":"2014-01-22T16:27:52","modified_gmt":"2014-01-22T21:27:52","slug":"the-illustrated-guide-to-a-ph-d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zhuoyao.net\/index.php\/2014\/01\/22\/the-illustrated-guide-to-a-ph-d\/","title":{"rendered":"The illustrated guide to a Ph.D."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Imagine a circle that contains all of human knowledge:<\/p>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/matt.might.net\/articles\/phd-school-in-pictures\/images\/PhDKnowledge.001.jpg\" width=\"440\" \/><\/div>\n<p>By the time you finish elementary school, you know a little:<\/p>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/matt.might.net\/articles\/phd-school-in-pictures\/images\/PhDKnowledge.002.jpg\" width=\"440\" \/><\/div>\n<p>By the time you finish high school, you know a bit more:<\/p>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/matt.might.net\/articles\/phd-school-in-pictures\/images\/PhDKnowledge.003.jpg\" width=\"440\" \/><\/div>\n<p>With a bachelor&#8217;s degree, you gain a specialty:<\/p>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/matt.might.net\/articles\/phd-school-in-pictures\/images\/PhDKnowledge.004.jpg\" width=\"440\" \/><\/div>\n<p>A master&#8217;s degree deepens that specialty:<\/p>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/matt.might.net\/articles\/phd-school-in-pictures\/images\/PhDKnowledge.005.jpg\" width=\"440\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Reading research papers takes you to the edge of human knowledge:<\/p>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/matt.might.net\/articles\/phd-school-in-pictures\/images\/PhDKnowledge.006.jpg\" width=\"440\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Once you&#8217;re at the boundary, you focus:<\/p>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/matt.might.net\/articles\/phd-school-in-pictures\/images\/PhDKnowledge.007.jpg\" width=\"440\" \/><\/div>\n<p>You push at the boundary for a few years:<\/p>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/matt.might.net\/articles\/phd-school-in-pictures\/images\/PhDKnowledge.008.jpg\" width=\"440\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Until one day, the boundary gives way:<\/p>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/matt.might.net\/articles\/phd-school-in-pictures\/images\/PhDKnowledge.009.jpg\" width=\"440\" \/><\/div>\n<p>And, that dent you&#8217;ve made is called a Ph.D.:<\/p>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/matt.might.net\/articles\/phd-school-in-pictures\/images\/PhDKnowledge.010.jpg\" width=\"440\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Of course, the world looks different to you now:<\/p>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/matt.might.net\/articles\/phd-school-in-pictures\/images\/PhDKnowledge.011.jpg\" width=\"440\" \/><\/div>\n<p>So, don&#8217;t forget the bigger picture:<\/p>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/matt.might.net\/articles\/phd-school-in-pictures\/images\/PhDKnowledge.012.jpg\" width=\"440\" \/><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Keep pushing.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Related posts<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/matt.might.net\/articles\/books-papers-materials-for-graduate-students\/\">Recommended reading for grad students<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/matt.might.net\/articles\/what-cs-majors-should-know\/\">What every CS major should know<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/matt.might.net\/articles\/how-to-apply-and-get-in-to-graduate-school-in-science-mathematics-engineering-or-computer-science\/\">How to get into grad school<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/matt.might.net\/articles\/advice-for-phd-thesis-proposals\/\">Advice for thesis proposals<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/matt.might.net\/articles\/productivity-tips-hints-hacks-tricks-for-grad-students-academics\/\">Productivity tips for academics<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/matt.might.net\/articles\/advice-for-academic-job-hunt\/\">Academic job hunt advice<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/matt.might.net\/articles\/successful-phd-students\/\">Successful Ph.D. students: Perseverance, tenacity and cogency<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/matt.might.net\/articles\/crapl\/\">The CRAPL: An open source license for academics<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/matt.might.net\/articles\/problem-shapes\/\">The shape of your problem<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you like these posts, then I recommend the book\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0465022227\/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=ucmbread-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=217145&amp;creative=399349&amp;creativeASIN=0465022227\">A PhD Is Not Enough<\/a>:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Imagine a circle that contains all of human knowledge: By the time you finish elementary school, you know a little: By the time you finish&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-phddissertation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zhuoyao.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zhuoyao.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zhuoyao.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zhuoyao.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zhuoyao.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/zhuoyao.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zhuoyao.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zhuoyao.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zhuoyao.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}