Meaning of PhD Life.

My recent interview with Christian made me think, made me think a lot about the purpose of the academic life. Christian is currently running his sociological study at Murdoch University about the perception we PhD student hold regarding the future academic career we aim at. You should participate in his research - to learn how click here. You will learn a lot about yourself too.

I feel versus I think

There is this immense internal battle inside of everyone. Should we rely more on what we feel or should we think more. It is interesting how this battle shapes our life. Depending on whether you are more of thinker or feeler one can guess what course of studies you will choose at the University. Today I have learnt that people who start a sentence from “I feel” tend to end up in art sciences versus “I think” people who go for more reason-based hard-core science. Who are you?

I am definitely a type who suppresses feelings because they are so chaotic and unpredictable.  Everything makes sense in a  man-made world once you apply reason to it. It works according to the predictable plan just like everything in stereotypic  country of order = Germany. But predictable is so boring. I am afraid that out of this boredom Germans do crazy things just like the suicidal pilot of GermanWings recently, not to mention WWI or WWII. On the other hand there are happy people who thrive on chaos because it frees the spirit of creativity, they dance, sing and drink just like in Brazil - everythings is falling apart but i doubt there is a more happy nation on Earth :)

And there is country of ACADEMIA - is it more of  a Germany-like or Brazil-like?I think we need to stop for a moment and try to meditate on this matter:

1. If you carry-out your research, write your papers and publish new knowledge as fast as you can, You spend all your life in front of computer crunching numbers just like a robot? It can impact your mental health rather negatively.
2. If you socialize with your research-fellows all the time, drink beer, dance & have good time,You end up not having an impressive track record. It will impact your career in academia rather negatively.

There must be a balance. At the moment Australia seems to be a country of good balance between order & chaos for me: I am happy to have fun with family, friends & MUPSA as well but  producing a good quality research with Terrestrial Ecology Research Lab :) too. . . I wonder when I will get bored and get tempted to visit Brazil.