Tom Sparrow’s follow-up

On the dissertation-to-book question. HERE.

And in fact, I agree with the comment there from reader dmf:

“this would be ideal but rarely matches up with the expectations of many diss readers/examiners who often have their own agendas such that one is lucky to have a work that holds together rather than sections for each reader, all depends on the politics of the dept i suppose.”

Exactly. That’s the main possible obstacle.

It was either Kant or Schopenhauer who said that the problem with parents is that all they really care about is that their kids are able to make their own way in the world. Spiritual development, adventure, passion, all the other things humans need for a fulfilling life… parents care less about those things than that some disaster doesn’t happen to you and that you’re able to support yourself financially by a reasonably early age.

Parallel to this, we could say that the problem with dissertation advisors is that all they really care about is that you not be incompetent. Spiritual development, adventure, passion, all the things that make the life of the mind worth living… dissertation advisors often don’t care about these things, because they are primarily worried that you might embarrass yourself and them with incompetence. So they encourage you to get bogged down in footnotes, tell you to qualify and hedge all of your boldest statements, and so forth.

The best option, very rare, is to have a dissertation advisor with whom you click extremely well. I’ve only heard of a few such cases in my life, and I suspect a few of the stories are exaggerated.

The second best option (which was my own case) is to have an advisor who, even if mildly hostile to your project, leaves you alone and lets you do it your own way anyhow. (And in my case, some of the criticism that rained down at the last minute was actually useful, so at times you can benefit even from this.)

More often people end up with case three, just as dmf implies. (Which is not as bad as case four: the arbitrary sadist.) In case three, you have a very hands-on advisor who is trying to make extra-sure that you prove your competence to the world, and thereby pushes you towards something too boring and technical to be a book quite yet.