←back to thread

996

(lucumr.pocoo.org)
1001 points genericlemon24 | 1 comments | 06 Sep 25 13:20 UTC | HN request time: 0.249s | source
Show context
j_bum ◴[06 Sep 25 14:15 UTC] No.45149434[source]▶
When I was getting my Ph.D., my advisor jokingly told me that his lab has three 8 hour shifts per day, and I could pick two to work.

This was never literally practiced.

But excessive hours were the norm. And I loved it. It helped me launch into a successful career.

But it hurt my relationship with my partner (now wife), and it burned me out.

I miss those days, but I don’t miss what they did to my health.

replies(4): >>45149843 #>>45149855 #>>45150039 #>>45150260 #
1. ddavis ◴[06 Sep 25 14:59 UTC] No.45149843[source]▶
I have a similar experience. I was a devoted PhD student working long hours taking on a lot of responsibility. It burned me out, hurting my productivity. I have mixed feelings about it; I love the friends I made and the things I learned, but I don’t think I should have had to suffer what I suffered. Simultaneously I’m somewhat glad I experienced it then, because now I work in tech and I’ll _never_ work outside of business hours (I’ll hack on personal projects I consider fun if I feel like it). And I’m more productive than my colleagues that do. There’s something mysterious about the contemporary PhD, not all good and not all bad.