In my opinion, the PhD changes the personality over time. Not everybodys', but it certainly has an impact. If you are a cheerful, friendly, open person now, expect to be an entirely different person once you get out of this. What I currently don't know is if the damage is only temporarily or not. If I look at older academics around me I expect the worst, to be honest.

Not trying to find excuses, though. Before I started the Ph.D, perhaps I wouldn't have considered the OPs' question as silly, but now I do. So, I have changed, not the question.

Not all of them. Certainly not in the beginning. In very broad terms, I would outline the phases like this:

1. Excitment

2. Confusion

3. Hope

4. Frustration

5. Despair

6. Being exhausted

7. Cynical sarcasm

8. Completion

That particular order may not apply to everyone, but what is for sure, the PhD will change you over time.

Besides, most people who ask questions of this type can not be bothered to do a proper search for themselves first. Fair enough if no information can be found but lazyness inevitably results in silly questions.

You're right. That sounds all nice, logical and plausible. But once you've been hanging around this forum for years, your tolerance for silly question decreases at the same pace as your annoyance tolerance for pretty much anything decreases. In other words, start your PhD for yourself and then, three years down the line, you might do similar things.

MorganDeo, your advice should not be taken seriously. The links you provided are not serious universities and appear like diploma mills.

Why not? I'm a nice guy! Just don't like silly questions..

http://www.google.co.in/

Good luck with the feedback.

just watched Meet the parents and meet the fockers on DVD. May watch two more movies tonight to switch off from research.

Cloverfield I didn't like much because of the shaking camera perspective.

It will definitely pay dividends career wise. If you don't make the big mistake to subsequently embark on PhD research!

A Gantt Chart would perhaps do. Proposed timetable for research in the vertical column, including the elements Lit Review, Research Methods, Data Collection, Data Analysis, Writing Up, Conclusions and in the horizontal column the activites in months, e.g. Oct-March 2008/2009, Apr - Sep 2009 etc.

In every PhD there is probably a point where not much more can be drawn from data or their comparison with existing theories. How do you know when to stop? How is it possible not to go crazy between submission and defense, if you suddenly find all these new papers which would have added to your own research? What are your experiences? Is there something like a checklist which can help to make the decision to pack it up nicely and say goodbye to the writing up process?

Bhutan is a beautiful country. I hope it will be able to conserve its uniqueness for future generations and not be destroyed by too many tourists.

I have sympathy.
No one has a clue out there and they don't seem to care. The only question usually is: "when are you going to finish?".

On the other hand, I'm not sure if we are always clued in on our relatives' work lives. For example, I've never asked my father in the last 26 years: "what exactly did you do today in the office?"

Please reply fast