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The Harsh Reality of a PhD in 8 Stages—Told with Food

BY zbh7y
July 8, 2025
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Private
8440 views

Eight Stages of Doing a PhD Visualized by Food

1. Anticipation

  • Experience: Excited to start; dreaming of being the next big scientist.
  • Food Visualization: Exotic new chocolates.
  • Metaphor: Just like trying new chocolate flavors, the beginning of a PhD is full of possibilities and anticipation of success.

2. Relaxation

  • Experience: Initial enjoyment and leisure, time feels abundant.
  • Food Visualization: Mango sorbet ice cream.
  • Metaphor: Relaxation with ice cream mirrors initial stages where everything seems easy and enjoyable.

3. Worry

  • Experience: Challenges arise; doubts about supervisor or project choice.
  • Food Visualization: Ginger Bears.
  • Metaphor: Unexpected intensity and unpleasantness, like ginger's strong flavor can simulate impostor syndrome and creeping self-doubt in a PhD.

4. Boredom

  • Experience: Monotony sets in with routine lab work and meetings.
  • Food Visualization: Dry oats or porridge.
  • Metaphor: Necessary but unexciting tasks, akin to eating bland oats, sustaining yet lacking flavor.

5. Burnout

  • Experience: Overwork without visible progress; feeling overwhelmed.
  • Food Visualization: Chili.
  • Metaphor: Initial delight that becomes painful with overconsumption, representing burnout from repetitive efforts.

6. Realization

  • Experience: Acceptance that perfection is unattainable; determination to press on.
  • Food Visualization: Coffee.
  • Metaphor: Caffeine-driven perseverance, reflecting the need for sustained focus and effort to overcome obstacles.

7. Just Right

  • Experience: The realization to finish despite challenges; efforts must not go to waste.
  • Food Visualization: Old hummus from the fridge.
  • Metaphor: Suboptimal yet necessary completion, akin to consuming questionable hummus rather than wasting it.

8. Relief

  • Experience: Completion and transformative calm post-PhD.
  • Food Visualization: Peppermint tea.
  • Metaphor: Comfort and soothing relief akin to sipping warm tea, marking the end of a trying journey with quiet satisfaction.

Conclusion

  • Interactive Element: Invites audience to share their experiences and food metaphors in the comments.
  • Additional Resource: Suggests another video with research hacks for PhD students.

Feel free to comment on your current stage or suggest your own food metaphor for each phase of PhD life!