The Course at Genetics.

These days, I was thinking a lot about all the factors that hindered my development during the first three years of my PhD. Although I have a lot done, it might have always been better.

Every time I deliberate on this topic, I come to the same conclusion. The biggest problem I had was being driven by fear.

I entered my PhD track account online and found out that actually, I have 13 courses completed. Thirteen… I should have taken three courses and for the rest of the time keep on publishing articles.

According to Freeman et al. (2014), active, hands-on learning beats passive instruction anyway.

Why Was Fear Holding My PhD Back?

But of course, I listened to the wrong advisors and I was thinking: am I good enough? Do I know enough? Maybe I should take this or that course, and learn more first?

According to Clance and Imes (1978), many high-achieving people privately feel like frauds despite clear evidence of their competence. They endlessly seek more credentials to quiet that self-doubt. As a result, those who risked and dived straight into the publication process without taking any courses, not only have publications now.

They also made themselves a lot of contacts by asking around for help. So, by taking courses you lose double. According to Granovetter (1973), those informal contacts are exactly where new opportunities come from.

What Is My Resolution: Stop Fearing and Jump In?

Therefore, my resolution for the times to come is as follows: to stop fearing. And jump straight into problems as they are. According to Kapur (2008), students who wrestle with a complex problem before receiving any formal instruction often learn it more deeply than those who are taught the concepts first.

Why Is Genetics the Perfect Test Case?

The new occasion just emerged: genetics ahead. Funny enough, this is a blank space in my education because so far, I never completed a proper course in genetics.

At school, it was always somewhere at the end of the textbook. And we never managed to get to the end of the book during the school year. Consequently, I never embraced even the basic concepts of it. 

I also have some peculiar phobia of genetics as a discipline, since it sounds like such a definite description of a human being, which you cannot influence. You can only passively read your genetic code and draw conclusions, but you cannot change it.

And now, finally, the time has come: I need to learn some genetics. And I have a strong resolution to do it without opening a single textbook.