Micro-thread on giving feedback (advisors/professors) & processing information (students). The most unhelpful phrase I know is "think hard"
"You need to think hard about how X phenomenon occurs"
"To analyze your data you need to think hard what it all means"
Like, *how exactly* do I think hard?
Preparing for my doctoral comprehensives was terrifying because I was asked to "think hard" about the readings I was doing
Trust me, if I'm doing my PhD I am doing my best to "think hard". What would've been helpful is if I were told to "spend time reflecting"'
This week I finished a paper in an area that, while familiar, wasn't exactly my domain. I read a ton, I spent time thinking and digesting.
It took me a solid two weeks to even process my main argument. I live-tweeted components of my process of writing the plastics paper.
AND I'm a specialist in waste governance who reads a ton. Still, I struggled to develop a coherent argument and framework. I "thought hard"!
What I tell my students and what I find most helpful for me is "to spend time with the data, the tools, the texts, the readings"
Make sure to read an article, understand its contribution, and assemble the puzzle. How do all the pieces fit together? Where do I come in?
It literally took me this week conversing with fellow garbologists and three IR people to understand where my argument could fit in.
That's why I'm also an advocate of reading every day and writing every day. One of those days, as I wrote a memo, the light turned on </end>
<addendum> I do both qualitative and quantitative methods. If I'm running a model, I look through the data. Search for patterns, clues.
If I'm analyzing qualitative data, I spend days going through the full textual corpus. Read my field notes. Make more notes. Think.
Which is why current higher education pisses me off. There's so much pressure to do a shit-tonne of stuff that we don't have time to reflect
We're always on the go, juggling many tasks, WHO has the time to sit down with a book, make notes, read, let it simmer, digest concepts.
</end rant>
