About doing a Ph.D.

Doing a Ph.D. is a totally absorbing activity, but it can be one of the most exciting periods of your life. However, I realize that students do not have usually the idea of what it is about.
Actually I put a brief post times ago about what is the core of Ph.D. studies, which is well summarised by the  picture below:

The Figure and the idea is by Matt Might whose blog is a nice reading experience (here the full story).
Recently, I discover that my colleague Davide Geneletti usually provides his students with a set of links of useful readings.  In my best tradition of robber I post them here below with some addition, since I found them  quite informative. They comes from authors from various disciplines  and roles, but their contents are of quite general interest. So here it is the list:

• Useful Things to Know About Ph. D. Thesis Research, by  H.T. Kung
• What makes a good research question ? (by Yee row Lee)
• Developing and submitting a research proposal (by Nelleke Bak)
• Technicalities and less trivial things about preparing a  Thesis that can be useful (D.G. Rossiter)

Last but not least he suggest the reading  of the book which I found amusing:

• The Unwritten Rules of PhD Research (Open Up Study Skills)  by Marian Petre and Gordon Rugg ( )

that more or less complete the picture. I would not avoid also to give a look to these "slides offering advice that is wickedly and memorably to the point"

• How to have a bad carrier in research/academia by David A. Patterson, 

The web is full of other good link and you can certainly find your favorite web site or blog. A suggestion do not hesitate too much on this stuff: eventually you have a Ph.D to pursue ;-)