50 Things We Need To Teach PhDs More

Written by David Maslach in phd

  1. How to smile.
  2. Personal finances.
  3. Persistence.
  4. That you are good enough no matter what.
  5. You don’t need to screw over others to get ahead.
  6. Your health and family mean more than a stupid paper.
  7. Two minutes of glory don’t make up for lost decades.
  8. Walking is a wonder drug.
  9. You don’t need to. You can say “No.”
  10. Competition is healthy as long as you are competing against yourself.
  11. No one will really care. You need to do it for yourself.
  12. Having student loans are a bad idea.
  13. Get a dog.
  14. You are allowed to take weekends off.
  15. You don’t get there by working hard one day. You get there by consistently working.
  16. Work colleagues are not the same as friends, and friends are not the same as family.
  17. Getting “more” of something will not solve your problems.
  18. It is in your head.
  19. Once you complete that project, you will not feel any different.
  20. Don’t go to jail.
  21. What you work on matters. Just not today.
  22. Delaying gratification almost always provides a return.
  23. Your likely better than them, but you don’t have to say it.
  24. Assholes may win the battle. Nice people win the war.
  25. Vacations and holidays help you.
  26. You are not your work.
  27. No one will read your work, but that is not the point anyway.
  28. You are in the game of thinking AND doing.
  29. Be weird. You are probably right anyway.
  30. Invest 15% of everything you make.
  31. It is just a damn tool. People always make it work.
  32. People always make it not work.
  33. You don’t need much to survive.
  34. They won’t like you not matter how perfect you try to be.
  35. No one will understand what you do, unless they do it themselves.
  36. You will always be discounted.
  37. It is not high school anymore.
  38. Who cares if you loose your job. It is just a damn job.
  39. Academia is not the world.
  40. You can quit.
  41. You have power.
  42. Cooking your own food is almost always better than eating out.
  43. Eating someone’s home-cooked food is almost always better than your cooking.
  44. Work even when you don’t want to.
  45. When you feel sluggish, take a break.
  46. Students will not be impressed.
  47. Your teaching ratings do not matter. Education is what matters.
  48. Karma is real.
  49. Exercise.
  50. Your smart. You don’t have to prove it.

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