«He had a plan. Maybe you just didn’t see it ’til it hit you between the eyes. But, it started to make sense … in a Tyler sort of way. No fear. No distractions. The ability to let that which does not matter truly slide.» Narrator in «Fight Club» (1999) While research is often seen as “I go from point A to point B” (e.g., something does not exist, I make it exist, or we don’t know something, I find out something), in reality, it’s often an anything but linear process (I recommend Alon, 2009, here). Things are not linear. You might start off with a topic, e.g., to develop a tool or solve a problem, but when working with the topic — reading about it, attending conference, advising bachelor and master theses, or student projects, doing research and writing up your findings — the topic morphs. In many cases, exploring the topic, esp. when advising students, isn’t bad. On the contrary. It’s only bad if the day to day work prevents you from engaging with your PhD topic. But exploring the area around the topic you’re working on, that’s a boon. The problem starts, however, when you want to [...]
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