Dissertation…Check!

Coming soon to a digital library near you
Coming soon to a digital library near you

It’s hard to believe I’m almost to the finish line…or the starting line, depending on how you look at it.

The defense of my dissertation is just two weeks away. I can’t quite talk about it in the past tense; at the same time, I can’t help but pause for a short reflection before diving into one last sprint to the finish line–preparing the presentation (and myself) for the actual defense.

I didn’t realize this until recently, but it’s amazing the thoughts that have been waiting for a chance to be thought, given the chance. One of the first in line was reflecting on how I got to where I find myself at this moment.

It’s been a long (and occasionally turbulent) chain of events–one that reminds me of Connections, my favorite documentary series of the 80s and 90s. In that series (and book), James Burke, the host, describes a series of unrelated events spread across centuries that come together as something we, now, take for granted–something that would not be possible, if any one of these events had not occurred.

After accounting for some hindsight bias and confirmation bias, that’s basically how I got here–a series of unrelated events, each the result of or the solution to some immediate problem. It would be so much easier to say that this was just another step in my master plan, but, I’ve given up on master plans (not planning, just the notion of running my life according to some master plan). I’ve taken a more Agile approach to life–it’s a model that just seems to fit better.

Humans don’t like to view history in such a random way, so we create, and expect, stories to connect these points in some way that, ideally, makes sense–even if only after the fact. We, as a species, are very story oriented–it’s how we organize the myriad of random, unrelated, and frequently, unintentional events that make up our daily existence.

So, no self-promoting story of how this is yet another example of my brilliance and one more step on my path to greatness. Just a humble acknowledgement that as I finish this step, it’s time to see where to take the next one.

After reflecting a bit, one thing that has been consistent, is that I’ve always been attracted to interesting, if unrelated, problems to explore. Studying for my PhD has provided a steady supply of those, provided a sizable backlog to keep me occupied for some time to come, and left me with quite an appetite for new ones.

But, back to the task at hand. Time to get to work on the presentation for my defense.

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