Recently I have come to realise that what makes me most unhappy in the whole wide world is feeling incompetent. Unfortunately, feeling incompetent is the defining feature of my PhD student existence right now.
Something needs to be done about this. And someone should hurry up and do it. (Not me, though: I'm not competent.)
Monday, October 23, 2006
I don't have a solution (and I think I'm part of the problem)
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4 Comments:
If you find someone to fix the problem, send them over to me, afterwards. You're not incompetent, though.
i felt exactly the same way in grad school. in fact i can't think of anyone i knew who didn't feel incompetent. it's like being a baby again - but having the cognitive power to understand how bad you are at doing stuff on your own and how long it's taking you to learn one simple task. it's so ugh.
but when you leave grad school you'll look back and see that what was really going on wasn't incompetenece - it was a combination of being overworked, underpaid and undervalued. it gets better....i promise!
Ugh - feeling incompetent makes me terribly unhappy, too. And overwhelmed.
I think it is a function of grad school, though.
Lucy, I'll send them your way right after they finish with me :)
Betty, I think you are right about it being like being a baby again. I can see how things should be done, but that's not the way they are happening for me! I think it's because the whole thing is meant to be a learning process as much as it's about being overworked, underpaid or undervalued (at least for me -- our department is pretty awesome and I don't think I am any of these three things.)
Talk to me! (You know you want to!)