Grad school sucks. Thanks to Unfogged for pointing me to this depressing post.
I downloaded the Cool Hunting iPad app. Love. Check out this video of a Spanish lighting designer. Not only is she talented, but she's an example of a beautiful woman without botox and crazy hair jobs.
The unemployment rate drops. (four more years! four more years!)
The Naked Anthropologist hates Nicholas Kristof.
Apt. 11d 
I feel like academic life might not be the right path for the writer of the first item. Even if he gets the dissertation written, he’s just going to have to keep writing long papers for the rest of his life. (It’s very different from some professional schools, where you might have to write something long to graduate, but then you can move into a job where you never do that sort of thing at all.) I think he should quit now.
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“I feel like academic life might not be the right path for the writer of the first item.”
Yeah. That’s supposed to be “the good part.”
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I’d agree that the writer in #1 probably should look for another path, but it seems misleading to me to put that as “grad school sucks”. That this person has a very hard time doing what he or she would need to do to be successful in a field doesn’t say anything at all interesting about grad school.
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It is hard (and foolhardy) to diagnose from writing without an MD, but it sounds like depression a bit for writer #1. Plus, in academics, you have impostor syndrome, lack of sign-posts and feedback, which wouldn’t help mitigate any of it.
Not saying writer #1 should stick with grad school, but it doesn’t necessarily seem hopeless to me. I think the referenced personal problems are more significant part of the issue than the grad school. But I’m not sure that an office job would, necessarily, have this person feel better.
I can see how the lack of interpersonal connection and support at dissertation stage (plus not reaching out, which seems to have been a problem) might aggravate things. But working as a programmer in a small company is almost exactly the same culture. (And as far as non-academic jobs, that’s what I know.)
But, yes. I’m not really sure it says more than “grad school sucks (for this person).”
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It’s interesting to consider what kinds of job environments might be better for people with the characteristics described in that article. I do think that person is clinically depressed (as much as one can diagnose a blog, and without a medical degree, which is enough to use as a springboard for discussion about a concept but not for actual discussion about an individual person or their treatment).
I think one of the issues with depression is that people gravitate towards situations that are aggravating their depression, but that they can’t do anything about it. They isolate themselves, don’t get work done, don’t reach out, don’t take advantage of communication. All these things aggravate the depression that caused them to isolate themselves in the first place.
So, there might be environments that avoid such isolation, but they might also be the environments that people with depression actively avoid (i.e. working in retail, or teaching with lots of student contact hours, or other activities where there are lots of immediate demands + interaction with people).
I know that one of the aspects of a treatment plan for depression (gleaned from blogs and boards and not special knowledge) is to get depressed individuals to commit to a plan of action in therapy (tomorrow you will go to starbucks at 10 AM and buy a latte) and then have feedback on the action in therapy. I’m guessing its kind of like watching people eat when they are anorexic. It doesn’t always work, of course, but it seems to be one part of one method of treatment.
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“I think one of the issues with depression is that people gravitate towards situations that are aggravating their depression, but that they can’t do anything about it. They isolate themselves, don’t get work done, don’t reach out, don’t take advantage of communication. All these things aggravate the depression that caused them to isolate themselves in the first place.”
That sounds right–there’s a sort of vicious circle of depression.
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I am beginning to wonder what is wrong with me, but I know i’m not alone! I keep using coupons and gathering supplies {jim, if you are reading for some STRANGE reason, turn off the ipad} not that I have attempted to actually produce a tag or two, but when the feeling strikes, I need to have the supplies. I think I should get into a 12 step program for this illness. Who is coming with me?
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