At the risk of being a bit repititious, I still think that this sort of thing comes about from being overwhelmed by looking at too much to do. In other words, it is very paralyzing to contemplate the whole of a PhD, or even a major slice of it. It becomes impossible to get a handle on how to do anything, because the enormity of the task IS overwhelming when set out like that.

It is a principle that is used in animal training by so called dog and horse whisperers, that you keep breaking a task down until it is in a small enough bite that the animal can "get it" without being overwhelmed and stressed.

If you present the animal with a learning objective in training that they cannot achieve, they shut down, they become frustrated and passive and stop engaging.

Have you set yourself specific tasks to do? Do you have a work plan that is monthly, weekly and daily? ( or something along those lines?) And then do you carry through and do the things on that list one by one? I think that is the best way to operate. It gives you a concrete list of what needs to be done, and you can mark progress even in small ways by checking things off. Do you keep a list of what you need to review with your supervisor when you meet?

In paid employment you would not expect your boss to hover around and keep motivating you...so why is a PhD different in the sense of motivating yourself as a very bottom line requirement? Try making a list of 5 things to do today--even small things, like read and summarize one article, outline a chapter, write one paragraph...and then just start to carry through it.

http://scienceblogs.com/sciencewoman/2007/11/my_eponym.php

I think that this is the one you are asking about, Smilodon! ScienceWoman's Law, having to do with the number of children you have, their ages, the number of classes you are teaching/taking, the number of times you have taught it before, and the number of ideas you have for blog posts!

Hmmm..should I rate your statement on the Rowan's Sarchasm Index??!

The Polcz Shift (?)

? = ? × ? ? ?
ttp://scienceblogs.com/worldsfair/2007/11/another_worlds_fair_meme_give.php#comment-638880

Read down in the comments for this gem...is it describing PhD work?!!!


"The Polcz Shift (?) occureth when apathy (?) is multiplied by infinity (?), from which one discovers a resultant fractured personal concept of time, in terms of continuity and perhaps even the order in which events seem to take place (?)."

http://scienceblogs.com/deepseanews/2007/11/gortons_law_1.php


Ah, yes!!!!!!!! Someone has come up with a scientific measure for my favourite trout recipes--well, two measures, actually, with one looking at the frequency with which the question of it going with lemon and butter is asked.

http://www.scq.ubc.ca/a-collection-of-worthy-scientific-eponyms-arranged-alphabetically/


This is a very important mathmatical or scientific equation of some sort that explains sarcasm, and measures the extent to which someone is sarcastic and/or ironic in their social exchanges.

http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2007/11/the_rowan_sarchasmic_index.php

A more complete explanation--which allows you to scientifically gauge whether someone can engage in sarcastic or ironic conversation with you. A subelement of the equation is "British residence time"

If the real concern was the environment, things besides patio heaters would be considered in part of this ban.

On the other hand, anything that reduces global warming will help increase the number of pirates--and as it says in an email on venganza.org, pirates are just people like us, only with better clothes and worse tempers.

I have done some reading that indicates that plasma TV gives off more emissions that contribute to global warming than out door patio heaters. So why is there no EU movement to ban plasma TV? Methinks that rather than global warming, the assault on patio heaters is about smoking, since smokers can no longer smoke inside, they move outside to the heated patios to smoke, and certain segments are frustrated that smokers are still smoking...hence the movement to get rid of patio heaters.

Check out a publication called Science Creative Quarterly. It is from a university in Canada-Toronto perhaps? I am sorry, but I don't remember exactly. Perhaps the academic folks that are behind that have some publications/articles/professional information on career tracks--they do have a fun and unique approach to science. Just a thought. They did, for instance, run a writing contest to scientifically "prove" the existence of the Flying Spaghetti Monster...

I have read one chapter and 4 articles on the same rather narrow topic, many of them relying heavily upon one book that is a seminal work...only one of the articles is comprehensible, the book chapter was very difficult to get through, and this is NOT because I am unfamiliar with the subject area...I have read the seminal book, and IT is very understandable. Its just an example, I think, that somehow bizarre dense jargon is substituted for a clear analysis and good writing.

I do not long to find my geospatial liminality---if what you write cannot be understood, what is the point, after all?

Wherefore I propose the hegemony of heremenuetical iconoclasty, located within the liminal geospacial realms of the ivory tower.

Now I am reading some article where the author has randomly made up Latin phrases that are not translated to describe concepts that are basic to other disciplines real accepted names, and do not require made up Latin.

aiming swift iconoclastic kick at Ivory Tower Latin

Thanks, Shani.

Are those sentences good academic writing, or just mushed up gobbedlygook? Myself, I think it refects a lack of good clear writing skills--good academic writing does not have to be incomprehensible--in fact it should be comprehensible! That does not mean dumbing stuff down, but the use of so much trendy jargon is a bit...

I don't know--I thought that at first too...but the advert kept showng up...surely that interest rate would not be legal??!!!