Today, I figured out that I couldn’t finish the revision before our meeting at 3:15pm, so I sent him an email to ask for rescheduling the time. However, I checked the email box all the time and could not get any reply by 2:20pm. In fact, I’m afraid to see him at this moment because I still don’t know how to think about the models and variables, I’m afraid that before I work it out, meeting with him will make me even more frustrated. “Whether he will criticize me for my slow progress? Whether I should go?” I sat on the chair and focused on my breath for 5 minutes and finally decided to go.
However, to my surprise, meeting with him today makes me feel much better now. We discussed some of the implicit assumptions of my model specifications and how to add economic intuitions in the model. He said that my proposal is full of math but lack of intuitions. While I said: “I do have a few intuitions but don’t know how to related them with the model”. He provided me an example of the marginal effects of income on mortality in coal-mining county and tobacco county. Based on the model, do I think that they are different? I got stuck again for a few seconds, after some of his hints, I said that residents in coal-mining counties earn income from the coal industry, but at the same time they may suffer from negative externality from coal production, such as air pollution. So the marginal effect of income may be lower than that in tobacco counties. Then, he asked me: “how about obesity rate?” I said: “my intuition tells me the marginal effect is the same but I don’t know how to explain this”. He said: “it is OK to say “I don’t know”, that is why you need to think. I know you may think that I’m too hard on you. But in a job seminar, others will ask you this type of questions. You need to know how to answer. Only after understanding what the model assumes and why you add these variables into the model, you are able to interpret the results”.
After this meeting, I really appreciate his suggestions. As a graduate student, we often get stuck in some questions and feel bad about ourselves. This experience tells me that we should open our heart, talk to advisors and others, and seek help if needed.
I agree that it seems to take a special skill to be able to complete work on the computer or internet without giving in to the desire to surf the web. I think the key to incorporating technology in education is finding ways to keep these distractions from having the opportunity to distract students. I know there are many programs that can limit what a user can access for certain periods of time. In my class we require students to use a specific browser that keeps them from logging opening any other tabs or windows while they are working. While this programs is used to stop cheating, I can also see something similar being immensely useful in other contexts.
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Ya, you are saying right we should trust and seek help from others, it will help us a lot.
Ya, I agree with you and helping others is a good thing.
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