Do Less, Do Better, Don’t Have a Hard Schedule
Summary:
Ta-Nehisi Coontz: Graduate school is a holding pattern. Do not make unusually large or exaggeratedly difficult schedules. If you do one extra cricular, do it in a way that’s notable. But have seven. And quality trumps anity when you are leaving the academic world and going into the world of work. Go listen to the habit tune up minny episodes from thursday....
Transcript:
Speaker 2
talked about this in depth in the habit tuneup minny
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episode from last thursday, where
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i said i had
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a philosophy that i used to tour the country giving talks about at college campuses, where i basically was imploring students at various levels of education, including the graduate level, to do less, to not have a lot of extra cricular activities. They keep that very much under control, and they keep their class work as reasonable as possible. Do not make unusually large or exaggeratedly difficult schedules. This idea that, hay, i had a really hard schedule, is going to make me more impressive to the world is not true. This idea that i’m doing tons ofex criculars is going to make me more impressive to the job market, it’s really not true. They
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want to know, in an m b a,
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in the context of an m b a programm, where did you go to school? How good was it? Did you get good grades? All
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right, that’s about it. They’re
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not going to por to your transcript and say, hum, that wasn an unusually hard schedule that rohet had. Or the’re not really going to get into, huh, he did a lot of extra criculars. He must be really good because he can do a lot of extra criculars at the same time. They’re not going to look at that. So the solution is to cut back as much as possible. It used to be the slogan of my study haks web sit was, do less, do better. No why? But the first part of that slogan was, due less and then do what you do much better. So be fantastic in the courses you take, but don’t have a hard load. If you do one extra cricular, do it in a way that’s notable. But have seven. So if you’re doing all of that roheat. Then you can throw time management into the prospecta, into the scene here. You need to be doing the type of things i talk about for professionals, the sort of capture can figure control, so everything you need to do gets captured. You can figure your tasks. You understand their status and where they are and everything on your plate. Then you control your time at different scales. A planning toma, sure that you’re making the most of what you have. When do i have to start working if i’m goig to hit this dead line? What type of academic responsibilities does this couruse give me? When shuld i do the work for this course? Andm is toud do it at the same time every week? Anyways, i’ve talked about that in depth in the professional context. Go listen to the habit tune up minny episodes from thursday. And i talk more in depth about what this means in the student contect, in particular, how to leverage this to avoid burning. But that would be my big picture idea, is, if you’re a student, you should not be overloaded. It can be unavoidable in some professional circumstances. Now, and that’s his whole other problem. But if you’re a student. There’s no reason for you to be overloaded. Cut back till you’re not. No one on the outside will know the difference. But it means you’re not only going to be happier, but you can be able to do the things that you do better. And quality trumps anity when you are leaving the academic world and going into the world of work. And so you will be better off if
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that is your strategy. Right?
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Let’s roll with thi theme of student questions for just one more query. This one comes from zachary. Here’s what he asks,
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should i drop out
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from grad school if i don’t want an academic career? I’m a ph d. Candidate in the learn sciences with a background in computer science. I started my ph d in the beginning of the year. My reasoning for going to grad school was that i wanted an applied research career in industry. However, as i have since learned, it does not seem that such a job requires a ph d. There are softor engineers in similar positions that do not have ph d. Degrees.
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Should i drop out?
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Well, zachory, not knowing any of the other details of your situation, so just based on the limited information i have right there in that paragraph. I would say, ye, probably you should drop out. Long time listeners of this pod cast know my theory on graduate school. Graduate school is not a holding pattern. Graduate school is not a time to just expose yourself to interesting ideas and tools that might be useful at some point in the future. Grad school is not a grab bag resehantis. Will probably be interesting opportunities that this opens, i just will have to wait till i’m done with grad school to find out. Tais not how in most circumstances you should use grad school. Grad school should be applied in most circumstances to unlock a specific thing you want to do in your career, for which you have clear evidence that ing the degree of the type you’re getting, at the caliber school you can geti at will unlock that opportunity. I want to do this, i have to get this type of degree to do it. And i’ve an opportunity to get that degree from a good enough place that it will unlock this thing that i want to do. If you want to be a professor, you need to get a ph (Time 0:15:02)