No one knows what the next few years will bring. Our whole way of life may change, but who knows what shape and form it will take? The last such cataclysmic event was World War 2 and it ushered in an era of sweeping change. The end of colonialism, the rise of the welfare state and the Cold War, Those of us who concerns ourselves with the affairs of the world can't help feel a mix of fear for our own well-being as well as intellectual curiosity. This post is about the former.
Different people respond to uncertainty in different ways. Some people fret, some people strategize, some people are quite zen about it. To keep myself from fretting, I am trying to strategize for an unknown future. Should I delay submitting my PhD to hide from an abysmal job market and work on some papers in the meantime to garnish my CV, should I look towards post-docs in Europe as universities there are likely to be less affected? I am trying not to get carried away with strategizing and trying to focus on the present. Keeping myself in good health and spirits an continuing to work on my Phd because it brings occupation an fulfillment. I can time when I finish my PhD because I can't switch my work on and off. So, I am just going to carry on, trying to make the best of difficult situation an rather than prepare myself based on my hypothesis for the future. Because there is no better preparation for the future than a stable and balanced present.
Different people respond to uncertainty in different ways. Some people fret, some people strategize, some people are quite zen about it. To keep myself from fretting, I am trying to strategize for an unknown future. Should I delay submitting my PhD to hide from an abysmal job market and work on some papers in the meantime to garnish my CV, should I look towards post-docs in Europe as universities there are likely to be less affected? I am trying not to get carried away with strategizing and trying to focus on the present. Keeping myself in good health and spirits an continuing to work on my Phd because it brings occupation an fulfillment. I can time when I finish my PhD because I can't switch my work on and off. So, I am just going to carry on, trying to make the best of difficult situation an rather than prepare myself based on my hypothesis for the future. Because there is no better preparation for the future than a stable and balanced present.
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