06/24/2025

Ditch Pros and Cons Lists

Decision-making needs probabilities

Near the end of my second year, my PhD supervisor delivered the news: They were not going to have funding for me anymore. Not an ideal start to a Tuesday morning.

However, I was already on a half-stipend anyway. I thought this was normal, so I did what I thought you were supposed to do: Patch together a living and fit life in the cracks. I had a full-time job at the university as a project officer, plus five other side gigs. $42,000 needed; two semesters to cover. 60+ hours of real work. Get to the PhD in the off hours, the early mornings, the late nights, and the days we used to call weekends.

Simple math, brutal reality. Six months in, I realized this was not normal. It was highly irregular and professionally questionable. The more conversations I had with university officials, the more people subtly (or not so subtly) suggested I extract myself from a relationship gone sour.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Big Think.