Ahh…another productive day. Thank You Jesus 😀
Today I would like to talk about humor. So there is a misconception that PhDs are not funny and are super serious. Well, we are often serious but not always.
It is sad that media and students think that we are people sucked out of emotions and laughter (those do exist though).
In contrast, many PhD students are funny and quite quirky. We are an idiosyncratic bunch. So do come talk to us and hang out with us, we do often have some wisdom and can help you with your homework.
Now, how important is humor in research?
EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!
I would put right next to discipline. Humor rocks!
Without humor, you will be so depressed. Research is never ending. Is doing the same stuff over and over again with some tweaks. It is coming up with theories that do not predict or confirm to anything. It is trying to see why the statistical significance is not there. It is trying to write a very beautiful paper when often you are not sure what is going on and how it relates to the literature.
Now this is stressful! Even those who enjoy research (MEEE) often get stressed when things do not go as expected (almost always).
In such dark times, you need to have a good laugh and cheer up. That is when humor comes in. I makes jokes about research. I make jokes about certain areas of research. I have a good laugh with my peers. We laugh and then get restored and get back to work.
Without humor, things are hard. If you can’t laugh at yourself, your work, and your discipline then everything is way too serious and when you hit the wall, it is literally the wall. With humor, you just laugh it off. Silly me~ And turn around and move away from the wall.
So enjoy life and have a good laugh. After all research is much more fun when you can laugh about it 😀
For those who want a good laugh see phdcomics.com. Also, check out the standup economist :p
Pureum's Perspective 