TP 17

I was sorting out my notes this morning when I came across some markings from the church a while ago. A friend of mine was teaching on a proverbial saying in Galatians 6:7,

"Whatever one sows, that will he also reap."

I suddenly saw his teaching in a totally new context - in a PhD context! He had three things to say about the passage, and here is his wisdom applied to a new circumstance.

1. We reap what we plant
What he wanted to say is that we will reap similar things than what we planted. As the seed will determine which kind of a plant will sprout, so will our outcome be in relation to what we have sowed. If you sow youtube videos and comics, you will not probably reap the most deep dissertation.  On the other hand, if you are sow lot's of academic books, give it some time to sink in, water and nourish it with good chocolate and coffee, you might end up with a solid dissertation in your hands.

2. We reap in a different season
This must be the most painful aspect of the PhD 6:7 truth - it will not be finished overnight. The last two weeks are not for the writing of the dissertation, they are for the final revision of the dissertation. You are not probably interested but I'll give it to you anyway. There is a kind of seed that is put into ground in the Fall, and it needs to be under the ground over the winter. It will survive against all the odds and give its harvest the next year. I can imagine the PhD harvest is a similar one - its quality will be determined by what you do now, two years in advance, three years in advance. Even if you are not producing that many final lines right now, man, are you sowing or what!

3. We reap more than we planted
I must admit that this third point seems to be off but I trust my friend. But what we can do now, is to believe in the magic what happens when the man put the seed in the ground and it grew in secret, and the man did not know how. There is a relationship between our toil and the outcome, but some parts of it are beyond our control. Even though we might have some idea about our life after the dissertation the truth is that we cannot possibly know what effect our dissertation will have on our lives and careers (ugly side of the truth is that if we have planted those youtube seeds we will be reaping more of those than we imagined too).

That said, read a lot, give it some time to grow, trust in the magic of growth, and there you have it! Isn't it easy? Thanks Bob!