My starting point is theoretical framework. Until you know what you believe, how you think etc, how can you frame your research. This give a lens through which to see your research questions.

(up):-)

It's not just the academic world, it's just some people everywhere. It can happen wherever and whatever you do.

Personally, I focus on what I can control, I don't engage with these kind of things as it feeds them, I just make sure I am as good a person as I can be (back to point 1), I don't try and second guess what people are thinking or the reasons for things I don't know - you may well guess wrong. It's not just you that sees these things - if people are mean other people see that, and sure they may get along with them as it is easier, but it doesn't mean everyone thinks the same. If someone is seen as two-faced, do you think other people trust them? - that must make their life not so good. What do you think people think of a supervisor who makes fun of their student? That's not something I would imagine most people see as a good trait. Also, people have a tendency to catastrophise - you see something happen, try and work out why, and before you know it the conclusion is the worst possible thing it could be. I don't know the full situation you are in, so I can't possibly say why things have happened to you, but the conclusion you reach in your second para is not the only one.

You can't control what other people do or everything that happens to your in life, but you can control how you interpret it, feel about it and react to it. You can choose that.

Is it just me that finds it a little scary that the people who own this forum will use it to advertise themselves, but not allow people to post the names of their competitors? Especially considering the subject content relates to academia, where you would hope the ethics of freedom of speech would be a little more important than commercial interest. Certainly if I went into every thread and wrote jobs.ac.uk even if it didn't relate to the subject then this would be fair enough, but in response to someone's question. Is that not a little over the top?

I'm sure someone will be able to point to the rules of the forum, but I'm talking principles. (And I'm opening a book on how long this post will last before deleted
;-)

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Why is it that my post ---Removed, advertising-- was advertising but find a phd posted by an admin isn't?

Do you mean by searching some words on an electronic search device thing you have 1.5k odd references? Surely they're not all relevant so you're not going to read them all?

When I do a search, I have words which mean different things in different contexts to I get masses of hits. One of my keywords can even be a name so I get all those often too. But I quickly scroll through till I find ones that are relevant, which will be a tiny minority.

But you don't know what's relevant till you're further down the road and do I recall you are early days? So read what's interesting and then follow it from there. Keywords searches are of limited use. These days I follow up references in interesting papers instead, and then their references, and then their references etc till it isn't relevant. And I also do it the other way - I forget what it's called but you can search for papers that reference papers that are of interest to you.

Maybe you need to be a little less systematic and more messy. I can understand the temptation to do a key word search and then sit down to read them all, but it doesn't really work like that. That sounds too linear, it is more like a web.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding you and so totally off track, but I can't imagine a subject narrow enough for a PhD that has 1.5k people writing about it, where you can then make a unique contribution...

I'd tell them that no their taxes went on the Iraq war and building roads. Your taxes went on this grant. Have they not checked the personal tax register? ;-)
There are times when you aren't going to change people's minds, and taking the wind out of their sails is alot more fun, and imo more productive.

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Removed - advertising.

I'm not sure if you look for messiness directly it will come up. I came to it through post-structuralism and interpretive policy analysis, so maybe it's something that's used in different approaches, rather than approach itself which will then attract groups/writing. Not sure, but that is my hunch.

I spent an afternoon getting to grips with LaTex. I quite like things like that and found after an afternoon I could have produced my document I think. I wouldn't have understood all the ins and outs but wouldn't need to. I also got the impression that had I got stuck there was a whole community who would love to help.

Word on the other hand has bugs relating to tables, headings and contents page stuff. In my experience if you speak to someone who knows all there is to know about Word to try and fix these problems, they will roll their eyes and say 'yes it's a known bug'.

I am yet to need to make a decision on what to use, but I think LaTex at the moment as I have had too many bad experiences with Word.

No but you reminded me that I need to read this book :-)

Just to add to that, it isn't then that you get no nerves at all. Some are needed to help you deal with the situation. But they don't affect you in the same way.

I used to be really nervous before presentations, and now, as a rule I am not.

Pre-PhD I worked. I once had to present something to a bunch of people with alot of power and millions of £s riding on it. It was an awful experience, but it went fine. It was only after I went through that, and was then presenting something a few months later, that someone commented on how unnervous I was at presenting that I realised I had forgotten to be nervous. In order to cope with the awful thing I had had to really work on my mindset to get through it. Luckily, I don't think you need the traumatic experience to get there though...

I think often people try to do things to cope with the nerves, but the nerves are still there. They are just covering the nerves. If you are a confident person normally then you are halfway there. What I did was to just imagine I was feeling confident. If I started shaking, or slouching, or fretting or whatever I do when I'm nervous, I'd stop myself and think this isn't how a confident person stands, sits, speaks, looks etc. Basically I'd just act confident. I wouldn't entertain doing unconfident things. And the thing is, if you do that it is really hard to feel nervous. Try slouching and being nervous - pretty easy. Then stand up straight, in a confident way, look people in the eye and speak in a confident tone. Then it's really hard to sustain being nervous. And then eventually your default is to be like that straight away in that situation. Worked for me.

Firstly CONGRATULATIONS! It's tricky, I'd try and tell her assertively and in a way that doesn't give her space to be mean. And if she does be mean act like you can't even understand that she is being mean. I find if you act like, how on earth could you interpret her as being mean as surely noone would be that mean, then she would have to backtrack to make herself seem mean again. Does that make any sense at all?! And if she is mean and can't share the excitement, then she is truely unpleasant. Bear in mind that it would be illegal for her to be unsupportive if you were an employee. But lastly CONGRATULATIONS again!