“Was not their mistake once more bred of the life of slavery that they had been living?—a life which was always looking upon everything, except mankind, animate and inanimate—‘nature,’ as people used to call it—as one thing, and mankind as another, it was natural to people thinking in this way, that they should try to make ‘nature’ their slave, since they thought ‘nature’ was something outside them” — William Morris


Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Ph.D. conversations

I'm having some conversations this week with my emerging Ph.D. students. In each case I've transitioned from “obnoxious assassin” to “micromanaging bastard” (see my previous on my advising arc). This is largely because as I've come to appreciate these students' way of thinking, I've learned to trust what they do.

These are both students about whom I have no worries. Why? Along with being very very smart, they are also very devoted to their subject. If you love what you do, that's about 85% of a Ph.D. right there.

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