End point

“I think the people most subject to the problem of not finding the end point of their thesis, of overdoing, are those who think that the thesis is their life’s work, that it must be perfect. They tend to be the most committed, intelligent students. The key then is to recognize that this is not your life’s work. This is a particular project, a particular goal. You don’t need to give your whole life over to it. You need to work on it, but to keep it within the boundaries of the bigger picture. That is made much simpler by focusing in on what you’re trying to actually accomplish with your project.

In my own PhD program, I witnessed a student who was probably the brightest person in the group. He never finished. His book got thicker and thicker and thicker and thicker and thicker, but he did not give up. He was convinced that he hadn’t made a contribution and that he had to keep pushing. He drove himself and everybody else crazy. Including his chair.”

(Steven Floyd)