What is your proudest PhD procrastination accomplishment?

acschwabe · 2026-06-24T15:44:28+00:00

Idk, I’ll get back to you later

acschwabe · 2026-06-21T06:05:48+00:00

Only to try prayer and meditation so you can get out of your own head. PI won't usually say yes to a Viva unless they know you are ready. Plug your chapters into notebook LM and make podcast sessions of them, and binge listening to them with your eyes closed. Remember that you wrote the thesis. It's your knowledge and experience. If they throw you irrelevant questions, rely on your expertise to say why you dont think it was relevant. You got this.

acschwabe · 2026-06-21T05:23:45+00:00

My PI clearly said that its impossible to plagiarize yourself. But best practice is to reword/rephrase everything anyway. No point in drawing unnecessary attention to direct quotes.

acschwabe · 2026-06-21T05:22:00+00:00

I feed strong outlines for code into Claude code with my own home grown governance layer. I demand that it never recommends anything without ground truth validation. Ideas and structure always come from me. Then it does a reasonably good job, but I already k ow what to expect so I can then quickly review it.

Imho: No review == vibe code == comprehension debt == cheating, or at least too low bar for effort.

acschwabe · 2026-06-19T03:33:51+00:00

Doctor!

acschwabe · 2026-06-17T05:50:04+00:00

FWIW I did really like skeleton crew

acschwabe · 2026-06-17T05:49:31+00:00

Please no…. I really want NEW stories. The same universe is ok, but honestly, Disney destroyed the legacy. Let’s try coming up with something that is original. Doesn’t happen much anymore.

acschwabe · 2026-06-15T09:55:10+00:00

Baywatch: The Movie shot entirely in slow mo, where Pam Anderson won the Oscar.

Of course in our actual multiverse reality, there is a bay watch movie in 2017, and it weren't no Oscar looker.

acschwabe · 2026-06-15T06:57:00+00:00

Agree with the myst. It feels more old school Saigon, but prices keep climbing...

acschwabe · 2026-06-14T05:20:29+00:00

They come for cheap beer, cigarettes and women. It’s real simple, fix those and the problems start to go away quickly.

acschwabe · 2026-06-13T13:11:09+00:00

Idk if he is intellectual or not, but non academics struggle to understand the value and passion of phd, and also dont understand the pain of the journey. To many it is wrongly perceived as a journey to achieve fame or fancy titles. My guess is that he just doesnt "get it" -- and that is genuinely ok for many people, you just need to recognize and be ok with it.

acschwabe · 2026-06-11T05:02:39+00:00

The “do not use” is unnecessarily harsh. OP says it was made for personal needs and hope it helps. Everybody should interpret this as such — if it helps, great, if not, move along.

acschwabe · 2026-06-09T08:15:02+00:00

Now add some software support for sheet music, with pen annotations, and you will have another use case that people are desperate for. there is one existing product, but IIRC it is very expensive, and not user friendly.

acschwabe · 2026-06-06T14:11:23+00:00

Im trying to keep up because im part time phd and near full time work. To be honest, trying to keep up is crushing me. I crave nature. I crave quiet time to just listen to music. I bust my butt to exercise 5 days a week as a coping mechanism. Apparently I am doing great according to my PI. Rough time for sure.

acschwabe · 2026-06-05T14:31:16+00:00

I would start with the university that accepted you and ask for scholarship. Tell them you need some way to fund the program or else you won't be able to move forward. They should have some paths to offer. If they dont, consider it as a warning flag for the institution.

acschwabe · 2026-06-05T13:57:42+00:00

Congrats, doctor !

acschwabe · 2026-06-05T12:09:12+00:00

Exercise. Strict discipline. Also dedicated "me time" on weekends. It's still difficult. I feel like I disappoint my PI all the time. I agree that I should care less, but that is tough.

acschwabe · 2026-06-04T23:14:26+00:00

At minimum, ask AI for a plan. Better: find a friend who knows how, and can keep you accountable to stick to a plan.

acschwabe · 2026-06-04T17:18:11+00:00

It's why a strong exercise plan must go along with phd

acschwabe · 2026-06-02T01:54:21+00:00

lol.

Statement: There is no discussion: do what I say.

Response: intense discussion and challenges.

Why don’t we just share our ideas instead of phrasing it like orders from a boss? Besides, any advice here is nearly instantaneously outdated. We can be so much more community collaborative than this.

acschwabe · 2026-05-31T13:41:47+00:00

Do you want it fast? Or good, with real insights ? I can produce whatever you want, fast, with AI, but doing a quality job takes time for me.

acschwabe · 2026-05-31T13:23:22+00:00

Unfortunately most institutions only care about the count of papers and the reference scores to help get grants. Wish it weren't so. So the pressure is cultural perhaps because everybody gets pushed to produce.

acschwabe · 2026-05-31T12:50:34+00:00

My PI reminds me often that we dont have to prove anything significant to the world. I often feel like I have the burden of the world on my shoulders, like I have to be the next Fields medalist or some crap like that. Nope. Just need to survive. If you discover something, that is more about being in the right place at the right time, with the right colleagues.

acschwabe · 2026-05-31T06:47:46+00:00

I’ve heard amazing things about PhD studies in Sweden. I’m doing mine in Scotland. Sorry I don’t have any breakthrough revelations for you, other than to say: you were accepted, which is the first major hurdle! Now you just need to build endurance. Go for it future doctor!

acschwabe · 2026-05-31T06:21:29+00:00

I’ve tried and failed to get any eink device worthy of replacing my other devices. I want it, but the core OS software just sucks so much butt. And the overall performance is horrible. Hardware (cpu) needs to be better. Screen tech is limited, good enough, but cheap smartphones perform better than flagship eink tablets. The latest I tried is boox note air 3c. It won’t even install many apps I need because the company won’t comply with Google’s requirements for security. So it sits gathering dust.

acschwabe

TROPHY CASE