The Blog

   SC's PhD FAQ of Love and Justice...

Q: Why does it take 4 years to write one computer program?
A: Because it's hard.
(I get this one a lot more often than I would like. I could waffle on about ODEs and why they make your life difficult but the simple truth of the matter is I'm not done yet because this stuff is fucking hard.)

Q: You can just buy it with your scholarship, right?
A: No, I don't have a scholarship. It's why we can't find my desk under all the marking I have to do.
Q: But if you don't have a scholarship, how can you afford to live in Sydney?
A: I'm one of those pathetic adults who still lives with their parents because they can't afford to live in Sydney. At least I'm not in the basement.
Q: But, seriously, how do you pay your bills?
A: I'm hasty and a crybaby, but to tell the truth I'm one of the highest paid call girls in Sydney. No, really, stop asking about money, dad.
(This was an actual conversation with my father, but enough variations on it have occurred that it goes in the FAQ.)

Q: So what, exactly, is it that you do all day?
A: I sit in front of a computer, twiddling boundary conditions and running my code over and over again. Sometimes I write to my thesis while I wait for it to run, sometimes I write angry blog posts.
Q: But any monkey could do that!
A: And we're all glad they chose this one, aren't we?

Q: Should *I* do a PhD?
A: No. Seriously, no.

Any other questions?

Labels: faq, phd, rant, stupid people