{"id":5304,"date":"2020-02-29T10:25:12","date_gmt":"2020-02-29T10:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/?p=5304"},"modified":"2020-02-29T10:28:12","modified_gmt":"2020-02-29T10:28:12","slug":"the-thesis-idea-hamster-wheel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/2020\/02\/29\/the-thesis-idea-hamster-wheel\/","title":{"rendered":"The thesis idea hamster wheel"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0<\/span>o<\/span>ption term is going by at light speed, which means that it is nearly the<\/span>sis<\/span>\u00a0time.\u00a0<\/span>And while the course conveners have been quick to\u00a0<\/span>tell<\/span>\u00a0us that\u00a0<\/span>we have plenty of time\u00a0<\/span>to sort out projects\u00a0<\/span>and\u00a0<\/span>not to get too stressed out<\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>I have<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>in fact<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0been stressing out about it<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>In particular, t<\/span>he process of\u00a0<\/span>choos<\/span>ing a project idea has been\u00a0<\/span>intensely frustrating for me.\u00a0<\/span>I would describe it as running on a sort of hamster wheel<\/span>\u00a0that cycles throug<\/span>h several stages<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Brainstorm<\/span>ing<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Back in December, I started a word doc of\u00a0<\/span>words and concepts<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>relating to t<\/span>opics\u00a0<\/span>that I found interesting<\/span>\u00a0and potentially\u00a0<\/span>thesis-<\/span>able<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>Over the past two months, it turned from a word association game into\u00a0<\/span>what\u00a0<\/span>wa<\/span>s\u00a0<\/span>basically one long run-on sentence<\/span>\u00a0that<\/span>\u00a0now<\/span>\u00a0scares me to look at or think about<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>Clearly, though g<\/span>etting\u00a0<\/span>all<\/span>\u00a0the ideas out of my head ha<\/span>d<\/span>\u00a0been\u00a0<\/span>somewhat\u00a0<\/span>cathartic<\/span>, there\u00a0<\/span>we<\/span>re limits to brainstorming<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Narrow down topics<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

I figured the best way to get away from my overlong brainstorming document was to mash some of the ideas together<\/span>\u00a0and see\u00a0<\/span>what Google thought.\u00a0<\/span>Google sent me down a rabbit hole of\u00a0<\/span>organization websites and\u00a0<\/span>academic papers. I\u00a0<\/span>was learning a lot\u00a0<\/span>about urban resilience and flood management\u00a0<\/span>but\u00a0<\/span>had no idea if\u00a0<\/span>anything I was turning up was in the realm of reasonable for a master\u2019s thesis.\u00a0<\/span>I needed a new perspective.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Talk to<\/span>\u00a0people<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Fortunately, the course comes with some built-in<\/span>\u00a0people to have\u00a0<\/span>project ideas at<\/span>, namely the option conven<\/span>e<\/span>rs.\u00a0<\/span>One of my conveners very patiently\u00a0<\/span>helped talk me through the scope of what I wanted to do for half an hour<\/span>. She then<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>recommended\u00a0<\/span>further\u00a0<\/span>people\u00a0<\/span>who might know more about the\u00a0<\/span>topic,\u00a0so I went to talk to them as well<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>On the one hand, it was good to get\u00a0<\/span>more new perspectives; on the other, each new person br<\/span>ought<\/span>\u00a0up new possible areas to\u00a0<\/span>look into<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Repeat\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Back to the brainstorm doc.\u00a0<\/span>I<\/span>n fairness, i<\/span>t now is marginally more coherent\u00a0<\/span>than before. However,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>the specific and investigable research question that I was hoping would form from my<\/span>\u00a0efforts<\/span>\u00a0has yet to emerge.<\/span>..instead I just have more potential topics. I h<\/span>ave\u00a0<\/span>done more research and talked to yet more people<\/span>; the cycle doesn\u2019t look like it\u2019s going to let up any time soon.\u00a0<\/span>To be honest, I am probably too open to suggestion and would find thi<\/span>s situation\u00a0<\/span>a lot easier if I could dredge up some tunnel<\/span>\u00a0vision.\u00a0<\/span>Since I can\u2019t magically do that though, I<\/span>\u00a0may end up relying on th<\/span>e research proposal\u00a0<\/span>deadline\u00a0<\/span>in April\u00a0<\/span>to<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>spur me into some decision.\u00a0<\/span>Until then, I\u2019ll keep running on the hamster wheel.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0option term is going by at light speed, which means that it is nearly thesis\u00a0time.\u00a0And while the course conveners have been quick to\u00a0tell\u00a0us that\u00a0we have plenty of time\u00a0to sort out projects\u00a0and\u00a0not to get too stressed out,\u00a0I have,\u00a0in fact,\u00a0been stressing out about it.\u00a0In particular, the process of\u00a0choosing a project idea has been\u00a0intensely frustrating for me.\u00a0I would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1414,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe thesis idea hamster wheel - Student blogs - Imperial College London<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/2020\/02\/29\/the-thesis-idea-hamster-wheel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The thesis idea hamster wheel - Student blogs - Imperial College London\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The\u00a0option term is going by at light speed, which means that it is nearly thesis\u00a0time.\u00a0And while the course conveners have been quick to\u00a0tell\u00a0us that\u00a0we have plenty of time\u00a0to sort out projects\u00a0and\u00a0not to get too stressed out,\u00a0I have,\u00a0in fact,\u00a0been stressing out about it.\u00a0In particular, the process of\u00a0choosing a project idea has been\u00a0intensely frustrating for me.\u00a0I would […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/2020\/02\/29\/the-thesis-idea-hamster-wheel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Student blogs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-02-29T10:25:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-02-29T10:28:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Emma Tipton\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Emma Tipton\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/2020\/02\/29\/the-thesis-idea-hamster-wheel\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/2020\/02\/29\/the-thesis-idea-hamster-wheel\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Emma Tipton\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/#\/schema\/person\/5f55b0d68f5fe4244a2cacc5da433d09\"},\"headline\":\"The thesis idea hamster wheel\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-02-29T10:25:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-02-29T10:28:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/2020\/02\/29\/the-thesis-idea-hamster-wheel\/\"},\"wordCount\":482,\"commentCount\":0,\"articleSection\":[\"Uncategorized\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/2020\/02\/29\/the-thesis-idea-hamster-wheel\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/2020\/02\/29\/the-thesis-idea-hamster-wheel\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/2020\/02\/29\/the-thesis-idea-hamster-wheel\/\",\"name\":\"The thesis idea hamster wheel - 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