作者：Matt Might
來源：科研大匠、管理學季刊
博士難畢，全球皆如此。差不多每個學校都有1/3到一半的博士研究生拿不到學位。讀博失敗不僅本人難受，導師也不好過。為了幫助自己的博士生們順利畢業，猶他大學的Matt Might教授（計算機科學家，生物學家，教育家），總結並發表了著名的「10 Easy Ways to Fail a Ph.D. 」「讀博失敗的10大常見原因」，可謂是鞭辟入裡、針針見血。其中很多觀點，比如對「完美主義」的看法，和我們之前分享的施一公教授和諾獎得主的四條箴言中的觀點不謀而合。Matt Might教授表示，這10點，不管什麼專業的博士生，可以說是大家的都容易犯的通病。分享給大家。
Matthew Might
Matthew Might：計算機科學家，生物學家，教育家。2017年起任阿拉巴馬大學伯明罕分校（UAB）Hugh Kaul精準醫學研究所所長。2001年獲得喬治亞理工學院的學士學位，2007年獲得了計算機科學的博士學位。2008-2017年，任職猶他大學，一直擔任計算機科學和藥物化學教授；2017年，離開猶他大學，成為哈佛醫學院生物醫學信息學客座教授。
01.
過度在意成績或課程作業
Focus on grades or coursework
實際上，沒人會在意你的分數是多少。這裡有一個計算GPA的通用的公式：
最優GPA=最低要求的GPA + ε
更高的分數意味著本應該用於研究的時間被浪費在了課堂上。教授們甚至可能會對4.0的分數感到驚訝。在頭兩年裡，學生應該選擇一個感興趣的研究領域，並根據研究興趣跟隨一位導師，然後通過大量論文閱讀後，著手嘗試小型的、探索性的研究項目，而在課程上花費過多的時間只會讓你離真正的目標越來越遠。
No one cares about grades in grad school.There's a simple formula for the optimal GPA in grad school:
Optimal GPA = Minimum Required GPA + ε
Anything higher implies time that could have been spent on research was wasted on classes. Advisors might even raise an eyebrow at a 4.0. During the first two years, students need to find an advisor, pick a research area, read a lot of papers and try small, exploratory research projects. Spending too much time on coursework distracts from these objectives.
02.
什麼都想學
Learn too much
有同學讀博因為他們就是愛學習、想學習。讀博的過程的確需要大量的積累與學習，但有一點千萬要搞明白：博士生的學習是要將精力集中在畢業論文方向上進行有針對性的學習，是以形成論文為最終目的的。過多的選修或者旁聽一些與你研究方向無關的課程，可以說，基本上都是在浪費時間，完全沒必要。
到第三學年末，一個合格的博士研究生應該已經閱讀了50到150篇與你研究方向最新成果相關的學術論文。當然，有的學生在相關研究上走得太遠了，專研了一大堆他們將來打算做卻還沒有著手的研究領域的學術資料。導師們會對這些「志向遠大」的學生失去耐心——這些學生醉心於為人類知識做出重大貢獻，而不是腳踏實地的完成既定的目標。
我當年讀博的時候，為了實現對自我潛力的挖掘，就患上了「什麼都想學」的毛病。在我讀博的頭兩年，學校裡開什麼課我都跑去上：阿拉伯語、語言學、經濟學、物理、數學、心理學。在計算機科學方面，我耗了不少時間上了很多與我的研究無關的課程。所有這些「啟蒙」的代價就是——我延期一年才獲得了博士學位。
我之所以走了彎路，主要是因為當年我瞎折騰的時候，我正在擔任助教，對我的導師來說，這筆助教費花的挺值的。
Some students go to Ph.D. school because they want to learn.Let there be no mistake: Ph.D. school involves a lot of learning.But, it requires focused learning directed toward an eventual thesis.Taking (or sitting in on)non-required classes outside one's focus is almost always a waste of time, and it's always unnecessary.
By the end of the third year, a typical Ph.D. student needs to have read about 50 to 150 papers to defend the novelty of a proposed thesis.Of course, some students go too far with the related work search, reading so much about their intended area of research that they never start that research.Advisors will lose patience with "eternal" students that aren't focused on the goal--making a small but significant contribution to human knowledge.
In the interest of personal disclosure, I suffered from the "want to learn everything" bug when I got to Ph.D. school.I took classes all over campus for my first two years: Arabic, linguistics, economics, physics, math and even philosophy. In computer science, I took lots of classes in areas that had nothing to do with my research.The price of all this "enlightenment" was an extra year on my Ph.D.
I only got away with this detour because while I was doing all that, I was a TA, which meant I wasn't wasting my advisor's grant funding.
03.
完美主義
Expect perfectiont
在學術界，完美主義可以說是一種悲劇性的折磨，因為它往往對最聰明的那群人打擊最大。你永遠無法做到完美，最多無限接近。有同學常常對一篇研究論文的打磨遠遠超過了收益遞減點，他們不斷追求完美，永遠不停的潤色、打磨。
想在規劃出完美的論文結構之後才能開始下筆的同學，永遠下不去筆。
對於剛開始寫論文或在寫作中遇到問題的同學，我的建議是：寫論文應該是一個反覆修改、不斷琢磨的過程。
從研究的提綱和一些粗略的筆記開始著手進行，然後在此基礎上不斷修改、迭代、打磨，然後不斷重複這一過程。當在這個過程中文章的變化越來越小時，它就到達了收益遞減點。在這一點上，它只需要再通過一兩次修改即可完工了。
在論文的寫作中「足夠好」遠遠勝過「完美」。
Perfectionism is a tragic affliction in academia, since it tends to hit the brightest the hardest.Perfection cannot be attained. It is approached in the limit.Students that polish a research paper well past the point of diminishing returns, expecting to hit perfection, will never stop polishing.Students that can't begin to write until they have the perfect structure of the paper mapped out will never get started.
For students with problems starting on a paper or dissertation, my advice is that writing a paper should be an iterative process: start with an outline and some rough notes; take a pass over the paper and improve it a little; rinse; repeat. When the paper changes little with each pass, it's at diminishing returns. One or two more passes over the paper are all it needs at that point.
"Good enough" is better than "perfect".
04.
拖延症
Procrastinate
慢性完美主義者往往也是拖延症患者。那些「志向遠大」的熱愛學習、而不是搞研究的學生往往都有拖延症。讀博士似乎對所有拖延症患者都有極強地吸引力，不幸的是，它同時也像是一個篩子，淘汰了那些效率低下的研究生。拖延症患者應該看看我寫的關於提高效率的建議。
Chronic perfectionists also tend to be procrastinators. So do eternal students with a drive to learn instead of research.Ph.D. school seems to be a magnet for every kind of procrastinator.Unfortunately, it is also a sieve that weeds out the unproductive.Procrastinators should check out my tips for boosting productivity.
05.
「獨立」地過早或過晚
Go rogue too soon/too late
是被指導還是給建議，讀博時，導師和學生的角色會隨著課題研究的不斷深入發生轉變。研究的早期，指導老師應該手把手進行指導，幫助學生選定主題並助其成早期的論文。在研究的後期，學生對於課題的了解應當遠勝於導師。一旦發生這種轉變，學生應該開始走向「獨立」，開始學會自己選擇主題，並開始著手撰寫論文。即使她的導師堅持讓她做別的事情，她也需要學會「獨立」。
關鍵在於把握好時機
在學生還沒搞清楚如何選好題、開好題之前讓她獨立去選題，最後不光她交上來的論文是廢紙一堆，導師也會被氣個半死。
另一方面來說，如果堅持要到某一個點以後才放手讓學生去做選題，考慮到導師投入的時間和產出比，以及來之不易的資助，這會讓導師壓力倍增，精疲力竭。
導師們期望畢業年級的博士研究生們能達到講師（proto-professor）的水平——對自己研究領域的具有挑戰性的問題非常熟悉。他們應該有能力去做好選題，並以合適的篇幅和視角去解答研究課題。
The advisor-advisee dynamic needs to shift over the course of a degree. Early on, the advisor should be hands on, doling out specitic topics and helping to craft early papers.Toward the end, the student should know more than the advisor about her topic. Once the inversion happens, she needs to "go rogue" and start choosing the topics to investigate and initiating the paper write-ups. She needs to do so even if her advisor is insisting she do something else.
The trick is getting the timing right
Going rogue before the student knows how to choose good topics and write well will end in wasted paper submissions and a grumpy advisor.On the other hand, continuing to act only when ordered to act past a certain point will strain an advisor that expects to start seeing a "return" on an investment of time and hard-won grant money.
Advisors expect near-terminal Ph.D. students to be proto-professors with intimate knowledge of the challenges in their field. They should be capable of selecting and attacking research problems of appropriate size and scope.
06.
把讀博當成是在上學或工作
Treat Ph.D. school like school or work
讀博士既不是在上學，也不屬於工作。
讀博是一種不斷修行的體驗過程，也是一項值得別人羨慕、令人嫉妒的經歷。解決難題、完成一篇漂亮的論文獲得同行的好評需要日以繼夜的苦思冥想。
你要以宗教般的狂熱與虔誠看完所有相關研究的文獻資料，博士研究生涯甚至還意味著貧窮和服從，畢業時你才可能得到一件期待的博士服和一頂博士帽。
那些把讀博當做是朝九晚五在公司上班的研究生們，得花上至少7年才能獲得學位，甚至只能拿到準博士（ABD）。
Ph.D. school is neither school nor work.Ph.D. School is a monastic experience. And, a jealous hobby.Solving problems and writing up papers well enough to pass peer review demands contemplative labor on days, nights and weekends.
Reading through all of the related work takes biblical levels of devotion.Ph.D. school even comes with built-in vows of poverty and obedience.The end brings an ecclesiastical robe and a clerical hood.Students that treat Ph.D. school like a 9-5 endeavor are the ones that take 7+ years to finish, or end up ABD.
07.
不把委員會當回事
Ignore the committee
有的研究生忘記了學位委員會有權取消他們的學位。
對於學生們來說，在最後幾年裡和學位委員會的委員們保持聯繫非常重要。委員們需要知道你在研究什麼。而且這些委員會成員可不像你導師那樣對你耳提命面，你會很容易忘記他告訴你的建議。
儘管不常發生，但是我的確曾見過一位學位委員會的老師和答辯人因為意見不一致大吵起來，他們在用於評估實驗的指標上有分歧。這位老師曾在這位學生請教他的時候告誡過他指標選取有問題，但這位研究生忽視了他的建議。不過，這位學生還是挺走運的——他只是被延期畢業了一個學期。我知道還有一位研究生，不是在答辯期間，而是在他提交論文初稿的時候就無視學位委員會老師的建議，結果沒有獲得答辯資格。學位委員會告訴他——整個初稿推到重來。於是，他整整花了十年才完成他的博士學業。
Some Ph.D. students forget that a committee has to sign off on their Ph.D. It's important for students to maintain contact with committee members in the latter years of a Ph.D. They need to know what a student is doing.It's also easy to forget advice from a committee member since they're not an everyday presence like an advisor.Committee members, however, rarely forget the advice they give.
It doesn't usually happen, but I've seen a shouting match between a committee member and a defender where they disagreed over the metrics used for evaluation of an experiment. This committee member warned the student at his proposal about his choice of metrics.He ignored that warning.He was lucky: it added only one more semester to his Ph.D.
Another student I knew in grad school was told not to defend, based on the draft of his dissertation. He overruled his committee's advice, and failed his defense. He was told to scrap his entire dissertation and start over. It took him over ten years to finish his Ph.D.
08.
目標定的太低
Aim too low
有的研究生以最差的學生作參照，指望花最少的力氣拿到博士學位。這樣態度可想而知：將來他們肯定拿不到教職。而且，十有八九是畢業答辯要掛了的。
這些人掛掉基本上都是因為不幸選題不好或者計劃做得太隨性。
目標過低將導致你無法應對任何的不確定性。而研究恰恰是充滿了不確定性的。
Some students look at the weakest student to get a Ph.D. in their department and aim for that. This attitude guarantees that no professorship will be waiting for them. And, it all but promises failure.The weakest Ph.D. to escape was probably repeatedly unlucky with research topics, and had to settle for a contingency plan.Aiming low leaves no room for uncertainty. And, research is always uncertain.
09.
目標定的過高
Aim too high
對博士研究生來說，拿下博士學位那就是讀博期間的主要目標，的確如此，但是，這不是終極目標。恰恰相反，這是你學術生涯的開端，是入場券。
獲得博士學位不一定要能夠治癒癌症或實現冷聚變。相信還有少數化學家記得愛因斯坦的博士學位論文，愛因斯坦的博士論文就是一個原則性的計算，旨在估計阿伏伽德羅常數。並且他還弄錯了，算成了其3倍，但他還是拿到了最終的博士學位。
博士論文對人類知識的貢獻雖小但卻意義重大。它的影響在於其是學生一生所要從事研究的目標。獲得博士學位所產生巨大影響就如同你第一次開槍就擊中靶心那樣。一旦你知道如何射擊，你就可以一直射擊，直到你擊中它為止。
而有了博士學位，你就如同有了終身的彈藥供應。
有的導師會給你一個可以參考的研究課題清單，如果他們同意的話，你可以在裡面挑一個感興趣的而且最容易的試試。
但是要記住：你的博士學位是什麼並不重要，重要的是你能拿到一個。
博士生涯對思維的訓練遠遠勝過你選擇了一個什麼樣的課題。
A Ph.D. seems like a major undertaking from the perspective of the student. It is. But, it is not the final undertaking. It's the start of a scientific career.A Ph.D. does not have to cure cancer or enable cold fusion. At best a handful of chemists remember what Einstein's Ph.D. was in. Einstein's Ph.D. dissertation was a principled calculation meant to estimate Avogadro's number. He got it wrong. By a factor of 3.He still got a Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a small but significant contribution to human knowledge.Impact is something students should aim for over a lifetime of research.Making a big impact with a Ph.D. is about as likely as hitting a bullseye the very first time you've fired a gun.
Once you know how to shoot, you can keep shooting until you hit it.Plus, with a Ph.D., you get a lifetime supply of ammo.Some advisors can give you a list of potential research topics. If they can, pick the topic that's easiest to do but which still retains your interest.It does not matter at all what you get your Ph.D. in.A ll that matters is that you get one. It's the training that counts--not the topic.
10.
誤解了真正的裡程碑
Miss the real milestones
大部分學校都要求學生完成課程設計、課程合格、開題報告、論文答辯和畢業論文。這些都是寫在紙面上的要求。
實際上，真正的裡程碑是能發表三篇像樣的、和你研究課題（大致）相關的好論文。
課程設計和課程合格的機制設置是為了能挽回在招生時的失誤。一位學生如果發表了論文就證明了她每科順利過關是貨真價實的。
一旦一位學生發表了兩篇好論文，而且她也能使答辯委員會相信她即將發表第三篇，那她就可以開題了。
假如一位學生發表了三篇學術論文，鑑於她可以持續的發表具有一定價值的報告並獲得同行的認同，那麼她就可以滿懷信心的參加答辯了。如果她的這些文章都圍繞一個主題，又有論題，還把她發表過的東西都裝訂成冊，那她連畢業論文都弄好了。
我幻想去買一個工業訂書機，把發表的三份學術期刊裝訂在一起，並把它稱作「答辯天書」（The Dissertator）。
當然，三篇發表論文遠不足以獲得教職——哪怕是在一個爛學校。不過，對拿到博士學位來說，夠了！
Most schools require coursework, qualifiers, thesis proposal, thesis defense and dissertation. These are the requirements on paper. In practice, the real milestones are three good publications connected by a (perhaps loosely) unified theme.Coursework and qualifiers are meant to undo admissions mistakes. A student that has published by the time she takes her qualifiers is not a mistake.
Once a student has two good publications, if she convinces her committee that she can extrapolate a third, she has a thesis proposal.Once a student has three publications, she has defended, with reasonable confidence, that she can repeatedly conduct research of sufficient quality to meet the standards of peer review. If she draws a unifying theme, she has a thesis, and if she staples her publications together, she has a dissertation.
I fantasize about buying an industrial-grade stapler capable of punching through three journal papers and calling it The Dissertator.Of course, three publications is nowhere near enough to get a professorship--even at a crappy school. But, it's about enough to get a Ph.D.
連結：http://matt.might.net/articles/ways-to-fail-a-phd/