Finding of the week #328

Swimming, cycling and running

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the importance of happy accidents that at first might sound stressful but can turn out to be more than beneficial.

In the mids of February, about a month after I started the writing process of the cumulative dissertation, I was talking to a friend about endurance sports. During this conversation, I also said that I would need to do something „crazy“ once the thesis is finally complete. My friend used these information immediately to convince me to consider participating in a triathlon in the mids of June.

Since I was not swimming or cycling for years, I was a bit uncertain if I can really complete such an event. So I agreed to join her one evening in the swimming pool to just see if I can stay long enough above water to at least have a slim chance to survive the triathlon. Surprisingly, I did not drown and so I agreed to participate in this event. At this time, I was not aware of how important this decision was.

Having agreed to compete in a triathlon – we decided to attempt the olympic distance (1.5km swimming, 38 km cycling and 10km running in our case) – also meant to train for it. This somehow resulted in me doing sports on a daily basis since this strange day in February. As discussed in several previous articles, I was writing the thesis during this time which resulted in a lot of additional work aside from my normal work at the university. The last one and a half months were especially stressful as I tried to work on the thesis as much as possible.

As a result of this, being motivated to do sports on a daily basis helped me a lot to just compensate all this stress. For instance, during a 10 to 14 km long run, I regained a lot of energy that helped me to continue working on the thesis. Similarly, starting the day with swimming distances between 1.5 and 1.7km helped me to stay focused during the rest of the day.

In the end, I was very lucky as I managed to finish my dissertation in the week prior to the triathlon. In other words, the initial idea of competing in this event after having submitted the thesis became reality! The triathlon took place last Sunday (June 23rd) and was full of surprises: my parents drove for several hours to the venue just to cheer for me!

Swimming with more than 200 other athletes

I was mostly concerned about the swimming part. Surprisingly, it turned out to be an energetic feeling to be surrounded by more than 200 other swimmers who tried to get through this discipline as quickly as possible. Despite swimming at my limits, I was enjoying it. After having completed the distance and having sprinted to my bike, the probably most fun part of the event started.

Sprinting from the lake to my bike
Starting the bike discipline

Right from the beginning I began to overtake other athletes and got even more of them as we got into the first slopes. During the first part of the bike discipline, I was thinking back to the day I explored the track with another friend. It felt a bit like cycling with her, but without her being present in reality. Later on, cycling became a bit demanding as it felt like an endless series of slopes. Of course, I overtook other athletes with every slope we tackled, but it was also exhausting: the desire for the final downhill section increased with every uphill segment. Finally, during the last stretch, I was more or less cycling at the same speed as a different athlete and so we overtook each other several times. Each time, we cheered for each other to motivate us to keep on going.

Running in the heat is definitely not my favorite thing to do

So I returned to the lake and exchanged my cycling shoes for my running shoes. Running, my favorite discipline! At least, as long the weather is cool … or not too humid. Well, that day, it was hot, it was humid and it was calm. It felt like the slowest time I ever needed to complete 10 km. I received so much energy from seeing my mom cheering for me! During the second lap, I set small goals for myself to keep on going (or rather running in this very case). To the end of the lake, to the tennis court, to the turning point … I kept running until I finally crossed the line after 2 hours and 38 minutes (50 minutes after the winner who was a former olympic swimmer and now is a professional iron man).

I even surprised two other friends who were cheering for my friend and me as they have not expected me to be that quick. My friend managed to complete the triathlon, too, and was super happy about her result.

In the end, I am not just writing this to document my thoughts and feelings during my first triathlon. It is more about being thankful. Everyone probably might say that I did it out of my very own motivation and it was just my own discipline and performance that resulted in this achievement. At the end of the day, however, without this conversation 5 months ago, the last few months would have been so much harder.

Thank you! Even though you might never read this, but thank you for having convinced me. You probably changed my life to a tiny bit.

Finding of the week #327

The End of the Thesis

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the last few days I spent with my thesis.

Last Sunday afternoon, I was working on my thesis. As usual, I was not planning to do other things that afternoon. However, after having implemented all the remaining changes, I sat in front of my laptop and no further idea popped into my mind. More or less confused, I was asking myself: „Am I done?

I decided to just take a break and play some Diablo 3, but still no potentials for improvement evolved in my head. So I ate dinner, watched some TV and finally went to bed. Even in the next morning, no further ideas developed and so I was quite certain that I did all I could. Of course, if I would have read the entire thesis again, I might have found a few things here and there, but since I already read it three times, I hoped that no major issue remained undiscovered.

Later that day, I got the thesis printed. On Wednesday morning, I finally submitted the thesis. Unfortunately, my submission put my thesis into some kind of limbo. I still lack two signatures (I even asked for them to be send via email) and this ultimately resulted in my thesis not being fully submitted. Thus, I have to wait once again …

The only good thing is: I completed the thesis and it is over!

The thesis!

Finding of the week #326

The (Hopefully) Last Weekend

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about my last few lessons learned while writing my PhD thesis.

It seems as if I have finally reached the end of the thesis writing process. After one and a half months of polishing the text, there are not many things left to be done. Just a few hours ago, I finished the third proofreading cycle during which I only found minor issues and minor potentials for improvement. I even received nice feedback from a friend who stated that my conclusion is great and that I finally should submit it. Yet, there were still a few lessons learned.

Stay true to yourself. As I gave a couple of colleagues access to my manusscript, I also received some critical feedback this week. In particular, my colleague’s feedback addressed two points of my thesis where I was not sure how to add the needed information at best. After long considerations, I decided for an option that seemed to provide the best compromise. However, after having received some feedback – he was the only one who complained about it – I was thinking about my approach again. After evaluating the pros and cons, I decided to stick with my approach. In the end, it is my thesis and feedback often is a subjective opinion. It can give some inspirations for improvement, but it can also achieve the opposite. Sometimes, it is good to evaluate the implementation of feedback and to deliberately decide against it.

Be the one who makes the final call. As the PhD thesis will be graded by two to three independent reviewers, it is very hard to write an ideal thesis. There is always room for improvement, but the potential improvements depend on the individual perspectives. As discussed above, asking several other people can result in various kinds of feedback. In this way, it is better to simply follow the rules of scientific writing, carefully evaluate feedback and subsequently polish the thesis until a state of satisfaction is reached. The only one who really has to be happy with the thesis is the author.

Be bold? This actually is one of my last few issues with my thesis. How bold can I am? Currently, I think about how far I can go with giving my thesis a bit of a personal touch. Adding a personal note can be interpreted as taking research not serious. However, it is also my work and thus it can reflect a bit of my personality as long as this does not interfere with a clear scientific presentation of the results. Sometimes, it is good to distinguish oneself from the rest by doing something unique (?).

If all goes well and I do not receive any critical feedback until the start of next week, this will be my last entry before submitting the thesis. Keep your fingers crossed!

Finding of the week #325

Returning to an Old Game

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about my return to Diablo 3. Playing such a fast-paced action game can help players to completely forget about stressful tasks, thus allowing for a quick regeneration of some energy.

Recently, caused by the stressful last phase of my thesis writing process, I experienced the strong desire to play Diablo 3, again. Several years ago, as I was writing my master’s thesis, I also played this game to distract me for a few minutes and to help me to regain some energy. Since then, I occasionally played it during the initial stages of my research process, but my interest eventually stopped after I exhausted most of its challenges.

Now, as I just need something quick and fun to play, again, Diablo 3 exactly fulfills my needs. Furthermore, an expansion pack got released some years ago which I have not bought until this week. As a result, I now even have new content to explore and new character levels to reach!

The gameplay is very simple as it mainly requires me to run through open terrain or dungeons to find the next quest item or to slay a specific enemy. Running and attacking is done using the left mouse button and additional skills can be triggered using the right mouse button or pressing the 1-4 keys. In this way, Diablo 3 causes only a very limited mental load. A perfect game for relaxing between or after demanding writing phases.

Aside from providing me with an easy access to some challenging and entertaining gameplay moments, it also feels very rewarding. The game implements several game mechanics that constantly provide me with feedback about my progress. For instance, with each monster killed, my experience bar rises just a little bit and each stronger foe, i.e., bosses or champion versions of regular monsters, drops some potentially valuable loot. Of course, seeing my PhD thesis evolve is also rewarding, but it takes a lot of more effort and is less entertaining to look at a polished section than just to charge into a horde of monsters with my barbarian. As a result, the game is highly flow inducing and thus ideal for forgetting the thesis for a few minutes.

Naturally, playing other games is great, too. I very much enjoy to escape into the virtual worlds of Minecraft or of Astroneer. However, in contrast to the segmented gameplay of Diablo 3, these games often keep me immersed for a very long time. By experiencing the gameplay in short units, I find it easier to set myself a particular goal for my quick break, e.g., reaching the next waypoint or solving a quest.

In conclusion, computer games that provide a simplistic or creative gameplay are ideal for achieving a quick break from very demanding tasks to regain some energy. However, to have an efficient break, it is important that the game provides the gameplay in short units. This could be a future research direction: design an ideal game that supports a thesis writing process.

Finding of the week #324

A Long Weekend with my PhD Thesis

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think even more about the final push towards finishing the PhD thesis.

This Thursday was a bank holiday and so I took Friday off to gain four consecutive days at home. As I am currently doing the final push towards finishing the thesis, these four days are great as they allow me to focus on my thesis uninteruptedly. Today is already the third day of this long and intimate weekend with my thesis. Thus far, my plan worked out well as I could make some great progress: most of my primary goals are already completed!

Also, I received feedback from two friends at work which I already implemented in my thesis. Asking others to proofread such an important text is always helpful. Over time, one simply overlooks typos and other minor things. I am super thankful for every comment I receive despite causing even more work that needs to be done.

While this might sound great to an outstander, it does not feel like this right now. Friends who already got their PhDs fully agree with me and confirm that it is a very stressful but good approach to finally get it done for once and for all. As already stated in last week’s entry, it requires a lot of discipline continue working on the thesis while simultaneously facing the usual chores.

By now, I read this text so many times that I just do not want to see it again, but there are still a lot of things left to be checked, unfortunately. Despite giving me a lot of time to focus on the thesis, this long weekend makes me feel as if I am stuck in some kind of hamster wheel or working on a Sysiphean task.

Thus, I cannot stress enough the importance of having an activity that completely distracts one from the thesis. This might be counterintuitive at first, but it really helps to regain some energy which, in return, is beneficial for the writing process. In my very case, it is endurance sports, i.e., running, cycling or swimming. During these acitivities, I can forget the thesis for a few moments and sometimes even find new inspirations to solve some leftover problems.

In contrast to most other articles I wrote in this blog, the last two entries are not related gaming. Instead, they are about the process of working on a PhD thesis which is a very demanding task. I mostly write them to document my finals steps before submitting my thesis, but I also hope that it will give some other researchers some inspiration and the energy to continue on working on their projects.