As a courtesy of my current research, I have been introduced with the meaning of a word “paradigm”. And as it usually happens when your world revolves around one thing, I became obsessed with it. So much that I have noticed a paradigm shift happening to me…
According to Thomas Kuhn, the philosopher who introduced the meaning of paradigm to the world, paradigm represents a set of examples that act as a guideline (to behavior). So, you have these examples and you try to solve as many problems using these examples (you copy-paste them to every problem and hope for the best) . However, it happens that you encounter a problem that cannot be solved by applying a template from your examples. You write it off as an anomaly. But then you encounter another unresolved problem, and another one, and another one… That’s when you and your whole belief system fall into crises. If you are fortunate enough, you start speculating how you can approach these problems, entering some kind of a pre-paradigm state. And if you are really lucky (like winning-a-lottery lucky), these speculations come true, as you manage to solve your problems by adapting to a new paradigm.
Well, I am somewhere around crisis…that’s as far as I have gotten now…
I have always been this disciplined, by-the-book person, who always did the right thing and always knew how to motivate herself when the things didn’t go as planned. Not to mention that working under a strict plan was my modus operandi. A plan I always managed to complete, no matter what. In brief, I had my set of examples that got me through my studies, up the company hierarchy, ahead of my generation in sport endeavors…
And then along came first anomaly as I started with my PhD… In a hidden form of procrastination… I consoled myself that all PhD students encounter it (otherwise there wouldn’t be so many jokes on this account). Then came another anomaly of avoiding gym (which I very much enjoy on an average day) with an excuse that I need to work on my thesis because I was procrastinating. And then the not-sleeping anomaly, because of all the procrastination I was feeling really guilty. And again, none of my example behaviors were successful in resolving these problems…
However, the moment I notices there is crisis is when I felt I was facing real crisis… I am simply without any solution since none of my previous go-to template behaviors are working.
So, I’m hoping there is a new paradigm somewhere on the horizon. A damn good one. Because I have deadlines coming and I am not ready to degrade my hard-earned reputation!