The PhD journey is a demanding one – with a lot of ups and downs!
Feeling pulled down?! Take this tip!!
“Piled High & Deep”, www.PhDCOMICS.com, by Jorge Cham
I stumbled across ‘The PhD movie’ and its sequel ” The PhD Movie 2: Still in Grad School” in 2019 end, just before Covid – and right after earning my PhD!
Both the movies are a brainchild of Jorge Cham, the outrageously funny, disruptively discerning creator of the popular comic strip “Piled higher and Deeper”.
The film takes a smart and humorous look at the world of Academia through the eyes of four grad students and features real academics (including a Nobel Prize winner!) in many of the roles. I really loved Raj and Alexa in their respective roles (the nameless scholar / Cecilia), going thru the trials and tribulations of the nameless PhD scholars struggling with their guides.
Their struggles with the thesis writing are so real – and reminiscent of my own journey! I must have written and rewritten and polished my work a score of times till its final submission!!
And Raj, as the nameless scholar, bowls over not just the research committee and the academia at his paper presentation – he brings out some fundamentals of research. You have to follow the data – not force fit data to your theory!
Both the PhD Movie – and PhD Movie 2 are a great watch. However, I loved the PhD Movie 2 so much that I guess I would have watched it at least a dozen times in different contexts.
Incidentally, Jorge is a PhD in Robotics and, obviously, a talented cartoonist.
Strongly recommended (especially, PhD Movie 2 – a quick preview shared below)!
