Dear reader,

Most PhD students have trouble finding interesting results. A fate worth lamenting. My problem is on the other side of the spectrum, but no less real for it. In January 2017 I achieved some spectacular results in my research. Since then, I have been unable to get any meaningful results whatsoever.

I do not aim to explain my PhD research, nor the achieved results. I want you to know that my lack of follow-up is not due to a lack of threads to follow up on. Rather, it is the opposite again - Too many roads lie open before me, and I feel like I am expected to follow up on every single one. Between my daily supervisor, my professor or the company that financed the project, everyone seems certain my focus should be, especially, on everything.

I simply want to put the question out there; "Did this happen to anyone else?". Can any of you relate to the feeling of inadequacy that stems from getting lucky on finding results, but apparently lacking the scientific quality to follow up on them?

Thank you for reading my post. I appreciate any feedback.

Regards,
Callous

I had an instance where a piece of work opened up a whole spectrum of other research I could go into. I had a similar response from my supervisor where every time we met he would want to talk about progress in all the possible avenues.
In my opinion he was just getting a little carried away with excitement.
He absolutely wasn't aware he was pressuring me.
I had to tell him that I had decided to shut everything down and take one path at a time as the fastest route because multi-tasking is completely inefficient. He was very accepting of that.
In my rare update emails to him I always added the other items to the bottom of the list to reassure him that I had not forgotten about them. Against each of these items was written "to be done".
By the end of my PhD, I had done all but two of them.

Oh and yes, I felt inadequate for 3.5 years but I learned to accept that this was the cross to bear for undertaking something only a relative handful of people in the world are capable of understanding. I handled this by temporarily moving onto another item when I hit a dead end on one path. I like to let time do the heavy lifting on things I can't do fairly quickly.

Here are some things to know about and how to deal with.)

Things To Know About Melancholies:

- They require truth, request, unwavering quality, and steadfastness

- Require stable situations

- Can turn out to be exceptionally capable in new territories if since time is running short to learn it legitimately and not be pushed.

- They have low confidence

- They require alone (calm) time to regerate

- They require minimal physical fondness and can feel swarmed in the event that somebody moves into their space.

- Are exceptionally free and are self-persuaded.

- Melancholies are profound masterminds and have dynamic personalities.

Things You Should Do (and Not Do!) for Melancholies:

- Work hard at aiding at raise their confidence by strengthening the positive and down playing the negative inside nature.

- Demonstrate to them that they are cherished and acknowledged, showing just negligible measures of physical consideration

- Try not to meddle with their autonomy or what they are self-roused to do or fulfill

- Give them a home that is systematic and goes about as a haven far from whatever is left of the world.

Try not to compel them to go up against the sole obligation regarding another person.

Be watchful with cash and demonstrate that you are endeavoring to be moderate with cash.

- Try not to influence them to feel absurd, condemn them, or face them for their missteps.

- Discipline/rewards have little impact; the despairing is self-persuaded.

- Help the Melancholy concentrate their brains on positive things, thinking on things that are great rather than things that are negative. This will diminish their ill humor and sadness.

- Urge them to show or express their profound and delicate sentiments in ways that are agreeable to them and to those they adore.