Saturday, January 30, 2010
To Mr Sng Bing De
Dear Mr Sng,
You've already done your readings since the end of your ICT, and you've already typed out your Thesis outline. All you have to do now is to follow the outline, and type it out in proper words, with the proper citation, and if you're good, you will be done with parts 1 and 2 of your thesis already. It's only the end of week 3. Just take your time to do them, and I'll give you one week, it should be more than enough. If you can finish this by week 4, you're "in good shape".
Meanwhile, if you're sick of typing words, you can organise your excel data into some sort of summary statistics so you can describe them. Also, once they are in a stata-able form, and you can run some preliminary regressions, to get a feel of what kind of results you can get. Again, you can slowly take week 5 to do this, which you can then safely and happily celebrate Chinese New Year without a worry.
Please do not attempt to do anything during the Chinese New Year week, and give yourself a proper rest. There is plenty of time.
After a good rest in the NUS-cheated "Chinese New Year + Recess" week, you can then pick yourself up, as you slowly build up momentum to read up your econometrics textbook and some further details in the methodologies of old papers, to try to include good Instrumental Variables in your model. Week 6 should suffice.
After which, you'll have a good week 7 (22 Feb) to end week 12 (1st April) to do whatever trying out new models, typing, editing, citations. You have more than 5 weeks to do so, and if you are good, slowly pace yourself in doing them, it will not be a rush.
If you're still not done by then, you have the last 5 days, before you need to hand in the soft copies in CD form by 6th April.
So for now, please do not feel so stressed. You are even thinking of what to do for your thesis when you get to bed at night, and you are even comtemplating to give up and just get a pass grade for this. This has resulted in very bad sleeps in the past few days. Plus the flu you're having, it has resulted in even worse headaches for yourself. What's that for? Just plan your stuff properly like I've done for you, and you are on the right track.
Meanwhile, just do what you can in the day by following the outline I've done for you, and you are surely on track to completing your thesis. And trust me, it's gonna be GOOD.
So right now, please learn to relax! Your body needs good rest to recover, and your brain cannot afford to over-think when you're sleeping. Give yourself a break! Remember. The plan is out already. You do not need to plan anymore while you're sleeping. Just follow the plan when you're awake.
Please take care. Getting sick by getting stressed through inadequate planning and paranoia is really pretty freaky, and it's totally not your style. Where has the old swagger and 'getting on top on things' mentality gone to? Be good. Be competent. Be on top on things. Find back the old you. It has served yourself so well in most of the past 7 sems. You can do it. You WILL do it.
Meanwhile, just rest well and follow my plan. Don't worry so much already.
Regards,
Bing De
lowtide blogged @
10:34 pm
Monday, January 18, 2010
Enjoy the Uncomfortable Challenge
One of Adam Khoo's post said that we should do something that is uncomfortable to us everyday, this is how we break barriers, and this is how we expand and grow our capabilities.
The Thesis I'm doing now is really challenging my comfort zone, day by day. My comfort zone is having the teacher to define the parameters of exactly what to do, what he/she expects of us, for me to second-guess that expectation, study hard within that fence, and get good results in that comfortable boundary.
The thing about doing Thesis is that the boundaries are endless. There are no prescribed readings, and you can no longer second-guess what so many other professors want, as opposed to only one professor's expectations. So, what is the dominant strategy? Cover your ass by reading as much as possible, as there is simply no gazetted reading list.
And people who know my method of studying will definitely know how much I HATE reading texts. I usually stare at the lecture notes until they 'come alive', and reading a textbook is pretty much the last resort - when I have a sucky lecturer with sucky notes.
Getting out of this comfort zone isn't easy. I literally have to take a deep breath when I delve on a economics paper, trying to dig out the theoractical foundation, literature review, mind-boggling econometrical methodology, and the applicability of them all to my paper. For a notes-based, mathematics-based economics major, this is something we have never been taught in economics modules, and ironically I learnt them in "Methods of Social Research" and some political science modules.
I have to tell myself to be positive about this. Enjoy the challenge, enjoy the challenging of my comfort zone, enjoy the expansion of capabilities. Thinking back, for the first week in school, I've already managed to
1) Download most of the pre-1999 relevant studies
2) Find data from 2002-2008 and converted the relevant parts to excel
3) Read 3-4 papers
Not too bad, but I can always speed things up. I want to clear it at least 1 week before the deadline. I suck at last minute work, that is why I always like to pay first, and play later.
Just do it, and enjoy every bit of it.
lowtide blogged @
10:57 am
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Lonely existence in NUS
Damn bored, seriously.
Doing thesis is a lonely process. And what's there to haolian about? It just a thing that HAS to be done, and it's really damn boring. Lonesome gathering of data, lonesome reading of paper after paper. No explicit reading list like in modules, no fixed stuff to study to handle the exams, the very way we are brought up in this mechanical country.
And going to the clubroom, everyone is like so down, so sian. Other than that, I don't get to see anyone, and the lecture on Friday becomes something I'm looking forward to! Looking forward to a lecture, that's new!
The only thing that keeps me going is the effort I put in the previous 7 sems. So worried and scared that I will put it to waste. And wasting a long-term effort due to a short-term frustration, is, well, wasteful.
Yawns.
lowtide blogged @
10:31 pm
