You're never going to complete
if you don't believe in what you're studying.

That's what I tell my PhD students, anyway. And I give them a good long time to work out what the "thing" that inspires them is.

Although there's a new breed of PhD student emerging who lack the imagination to discover a topic for themselves and, instead, expect to be told to "study X" for the next few years. How someone can reasonably expect to become impassioned about a subject that's been handed to them on a plate is beyond me. Let alone the implications for their future career (if they choose to make it an academic one...)
(dxg, Sat 26 Jun 2010, 16:24, 2 replies)

Which is why
I'm on my 2nd postdoc and still don't know what I want to do...
(xanthine, Sun 27 Jun 2010, 7:14, closed)

I suggest ...
... that you do another few postdocs, and then decide. :-)
(haberman is singing in the changes, Sun 27 Jun 2010, 14:24, closed)

two is fine.
Three and then WE OWN YOUR LIFE, BITCH.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Mon 28 Jun 2010, 11:39, closed)

I sort of agree
but as I said below, being handed something on a plate is (at least in some areas) enforced from above rather than at the request of the student. I wish I had the freedom to actually go in directions I found interesting as I have found a few and been strictly banned from following them.

However, the resulting generation of PhD students who don't give a shit about their subject is sad. I went into academia believing it to be something I'd enjoy, most people didn't even start with good expectations.
(GothicTechie, Mon 28 Jun 2010, 16:54, closed)