9

I am a computer science Ph.D. student. I have written a couple of research papers and some of them are under review. I have started becoming fearless from some time as my past experience has told me that with time and with hard work every research problem is solvable to some extent (make something publishable out of it). I have tried to now pick the research which is less related to my previous research works. I am doing this thing on purposefully as I don't want to narrow my research domain. My belief so far is that pick something read few papers for some months and purpose a question take more months and then write it.

Question: I am wondering what are the other things which I can try to be more fearless or what are the things students should practice in order to become more and more fearless? I used to a person with lots of fear but now I have become confident. I know fear some time push me but after failing some projects I have become a fearless person.

Some meaning of the fear is to take the courage to pick a research problem and solve it and make it publishable.

FuzzyLeapfrog
  • 4,850
  • 1
  • 20
  • 44
  • 1
    What do you mean by fearless? (I appreciate that you give a brief definition, but can you elaborate.) Presumably you consider it a positive attribute, why? – user2768 Feb 15 '19 at 08:32
  • @ user2768 fearless means, now I know that there will many times when my researcher paper will be rejected and I again need to correct them then submit again etc –  Feb 15 '19 at 09:03
  • That doesn't seem to help, your question becomes: How to be a PhD student that know[s] there will [be] many times when my researcher paper will be rejected and I again need to correct them then submit again? – user2768 Feb 15 '19 at 09:23
  • 3
    I think confident is a more suitable expression in this context than fearless. – henning Feb 15 '19 at 11:13
  • 1
    Good luck, staff! –  Feb 16 '19 at 12:40
  • with time and with hard work every research problem is solvable to some extent — Maybe for you; I haven't been so lucky. – JeffE Feb 16 '19 at 20:30
  • @JeffE I mean to say that not the exactly same problem which I took intially but some variant of it ( easier version of it). –  Feb 17 '19 at 05:52
  • 1
    @staff I understood exactly what you meant. I repeat: I haven't been so lucky. – JeffE Feb 17 '19 at 14:40
  • Strongly related: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/2219/how-should-i-deal-with-discouragement-as-a-graduate-student – henning Feb 26 '19 at 18:10
  • use the power of the force! Slowly, i have the impression computer "scientist" think inproving incrementally some algorithms is doing science, while most math/physics PhD students need at least 4-6 years, would explain the flood of type of such questions and getting surreal upvotes... – user48953094 Feb 26 '19 at 19:29
  • If it was easy to be particularly fearless as a phd student then a larger percentage would be. But this is not the case. For good or bad :) – mathreadler Feb 27 '19 at 02:22

3 Answers3

1

I'd say that you must learn not to take things too close to your heart. "Fear" appears when something hurts our self-esteem. The key is to realize that in most cases it should not. Say, a reviewer rejects your paper, providing very harsh comments. You feel like jumping between a cold shower and a frying pan, but you should't. Reviewers don't know you personally, they are only doing a job of bashing your paper if it's not good enough. If you paper is not good enough, it doesn't mean that you aren't good enough, so your self-esteem shouldn't suffer. (And it especially shouldn't suffer if a reviewer is wrong.) Accept criticism and continue.

If you fail, often it means that you aim high, so it is normal to fail. We aren't in school where all problems have ready answers. Many directions are dead ends, and we must realize that it's OK to hit a dead end from time to time.

In a sense, it is equally important to practice humility. A huge number of talented people establish start-ups, record songs, write novels and draw comic strips. Most of them fail, this is just the way it is, and we shouldn't think of ourselves as exceptions. Accept that failures are as inevitable as gravity (so, once again, don't take it too close to heart). It is also useful to understand your limits. We all have stronger sides and weaker sides, and even our stronger sides in most cases won't get us a Nobel prize next year. Aim high, but stay realistic with your goals.

In short, be passionate about your topic, but try to keep your inner self "protected". It should not suffer when you are hurt as a professional (due to failures or criticism). It is hard, but doable to some extent.

rg_software
  • 2,926
  • 12
  • 22
0

I have to admit that I was a little nosey and checked out your profile. I noticed that Academia was your only community.

I would suggest becoming more active on other communities. If answering questions doesn't interest you, then simply browse the unanswered, or even answered, questions. Sometimes you are just so focused on your particular area of study that you don't realize how much you truly don't know (no offense). This has helped me in the past. And, if nothing else, it is a way to learn about new topics and witness interesting conversations about them.

-- Start with checking out these questions: https://math.stackexchange.com/

Good luck!

Tori
  • 72
  • 3
0

I'm not a PhD student, so please take my advice with a grain of salt.

Fear is not always bad. After all, courage is doing things despite being fearful.

I have found that people have much more courage when there is a higher purpose to what they are doing. Please don't take this the wrong way, as I doubt a journal would publish research if it had little purpose. But inevitably some research will end up being more useful. Perhaps the fear is not your paper being rejected, but rather feeling that you haven't contributed to science. Make sure to properly identify what it is you fear.

If you are struggling to find purpose in your research, keep in mind that your knowledge of computer science could be extremely useful in other disciplines. Reach out to them as Tori suggested; maybe you could solve some of their problems. A recent example that comes to mind is a video by SmarterEveryDay, where they used a neural network to prevent kickback in circular saws. No research paper needed there! Although the litmus test is probably scarier than peer-review.

Think outside the box and keep an attitude of serving society. If you feel fear, remind yourself of the purpose of your research however abstract it may be.

Taking a different approach, fear and anxiety are interrelated and anxiety can be reduced with exercise. Assuming you don't already exercise enough, perhaps you could become more fearless by exercising more, although that's just a hypothesis. There are also drugs that eliminate fear, but it's probably best to stay away from those. At some point, fearlessness becomes recklessness.

I hope that was helpful.