Motivation
Where does your drive come from? What pushes you on to complete your goals? I’m not asking because your examiners necessarily will want to know, but because I think it’s good for you to bring it front and centre for...
Daily viva help for PhDs
Where does your drive come from? What pushes you on to complete your goals? I’m not asking because your examiners necessarily will want to know, but because I think it’s good for you to bring it front and centre for...
A common fear: what if your mind goes blank in the viva? You could erm your way through a response: “Erm, well, I think, erm, hmm, that’s… Hmm, erm, if…” You could waffle your way to freedom: “…in conclusion, as...
“I don’t know” is not the end of the viva. It’s not a stain against your name. It doesn’t mean that you automatically lose. It means you didn’t know something. If you don’t have information, what do you have? I...
You can’t know everything. Your examiners don’t know everything. Omniscience isn’t a pre-requisite for the PhD or the viva.
If the perfect thesis exists, it’s not yours. No corrections is not a reasonable goal. If you’re not asked to do any corrections that doesn’t mean your thesis was perfect. It doesn’t mean that there’s anything “wrong” either. Do some...
The PhD versus the Viva: if you can get it done* for 1000+ other days, why would this day be any different**? *show up, learn, develop, grow, make, read, think, synthesise, propose, share, write, play, do and keep on doing…...
In most institutions PhD candidates can talk to their supervisors and discuss possible examiners. There may be hundreds of names that could fill the roles. What makes for a good choice? Who do you pick? How do you pick? I...
It will be like this. It will be like that. You need to do it this way. I did it that way. Check this book. Listen to that podcast. My friend said this. A friend of a friend had a...
I don’t know that it’s universal, but the lightbulb is a powerful symbol for making a connection. One second you don’t know something important, the next you do. I remember being sat on a train in early 2005, less than...
I like to read entrepreneurial books. A lot of the same stories and ideas come up, but sometimes it’s more the way that someone phrases something that hooks you than the idea. An idea isn’t just a thing: it needs...