{"id":3239,"date":"2020-03-28T11:59:49","date_gmt":"2020-03-28T11:59:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2020\/03\/28\/the-great-blizzard-of-78-and-how-i-got-my-dissertation-done\/"},"modified":"2020-03-28T11:59:49","modified_gmt":"2020-03-28T11:59:49","slug":"the-great-blizzard-of-78-and-how-i-got-my-dissertation-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2020\/03\/28\/the-great-blizzard-of-78-and-how-i-got-my-dissertation-done\/","title":{"rendered":"The Great Blizzard of ’78 and How I Got my Dissertation Done"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reader Josh E. asks for tips on how to get a dissertation done. Here is how I did it.<\/span><\/p>\n

……………………………………<\/span><\/p>\n

I had an odd schedule in those days.  I hit the sack at four in the afternoon and got up at midnight.  I caught the last trolley of the night to the end of the line, Boston College station.  I got off and hiked up the hill to my office where I worked all night on my dissertation while listening to a classical music station out of Waltham, Mass.  Then I prepared my lectures, taught a couple of classes, went for a run, played a game of chess with my apartment mate,  Quentin Smith,  and was in bed by four again.  That was my schedule early fall '77 to late spring '78 every single day<\/em> holidays included.<\/span><\/p>\n

That's how I got my dissertation done. I ruthlessly cut out everything from my life except the essential.  I told  one girlfriend, "See you at my dissertation defense."  She later expressed doubts about marrying a man given to occasional interludes of "hibernation."  Another girlfriend complained that I kept "odd hours."  True enough.  And I still do.  I don't get up at midnight any more.  I get up at 2 AM.  I've become a slacker.<\/span><\/p>\n

One night in early February the snow was coming down pretty thick as I caught the last trolley of the night.  The trip up the hill to my office was quite a slog.  A big drift against the main door to Carney Hall made it difficult to get the door open.  But I made it inside and holed up in my windowless office for two or three days as the Great Blizzard of '78<\/a> raged.  I got a lot of work done and finished the dissertation on schedule.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Blizzard<\/a>
<\/span><\/p>\n

Addendum<\/strong>.  An excerpt  from Dissertation Advice on the Occasion of Kant's Birthday<\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

So finish the bloody thing now while you are young and cocky and energetic.  Give yourself a year, say, do your absolute best and crank it out. Think of it as a union card. It might not get you a job but then it just might. Don't think of it as a magnum opus<\/em> or you will never finish. Get it done by age 30 and before accepting a full-time appointment. And all of this before getting married. That, in my opinion, is the optimal order. Dissertation before 30, marriage after 30. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reader Josh E. asks for tips on how to get a dissertation done. Here is how I did it. …………………………………… I had an odd schedule in those days.  I hit the sack at four in the afternoon and got up at midnight.  I caught the last trolley of the night to the end of the … Continue reading “The Great Blizzard of ’78 and How I Got my Dissertation Done”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[92,72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-autobiographical","category-sage-advice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3239\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}