Is there any good reason to write a master's thesis?

[Barna]

I have finished all my courses and I even implemented a nice software for my master's thesis. 

But the actual writing of the thesis feels like a waste of time. I don't feel like I'm learning anything useful by writing it, and no one else will learn anything from it either simply because nobody will really read it. 

I don't even know if I want to have a master's degree anymore because having a master's degree would prove that I was stupid enough to waste my time on writing a master thesis.

Am I helping or serving anybody by writing my master's thesis? Is there any good reason why I should get a master's degree? 

[Nahm]

@Barna What’s your master’s in? Software design? 

[Barna]

17 minutes ago, Nahm said:

@Barna What’s your master’s in? Software design? 

Yes, something like that. On the first year of my master's I learned software design and development, on the second year I was in an internetional master's program and I could choose whatever subjects I wanted, so I chose mostly data science subjects. And my master's thesis is supposed to be about web scraping. 

[Nahm]

@Barna Why did you want to get the masters in this? 

[Barna]

4 minutes ago, Nahm said:

@Barna Why did you want to get the masters in this? 

When I started my master's, my dream was to start my own company. So I started my master's purely to learn more about programming (I also had some courses on entrepreneurship and work organizing). And when I started my master's, I gave myself the permission to quit as soon as I want to spend more time on starting my company.

But then i drifted into enlightenment work, and I decided to find an easy mobile programming job instead, so that I can spend more time and energy on psychedelics and meditations. 

Now that I'm living the employee life, it would be nice to have a master's degree because maybe that way it would be easier to find another job if I wanted to.
On the other hand, if I want to change my job, I don't really want to work for a boss who thinks that the master's degree is more than a peace of paper. 

[Sine]

Maybe you can find the answer if you reflect back to when you started College. What kind of dreams did you have back then and Why did you choose to study subject like this. Was your Dream to someday get a high degree?

[Barna]

8 hours ago, Sine said:

Maybe you can find the answer if you reflect back to when you started College. What kind of dreams did you have back then and Why did you choose to study subject like this. Was your Dream to someday get a high degree?

I'm gonna just copy my previous answer here:

10 hours ago, Barna said:

When I started my master's, my dream was to start my own company. So I started my master's purely to learn more about programming (I also had some courses on entrepreneurship and work organizing). And when I started my master's, I gave myself the permission to quit as soon as I want to spend more time on starting my company.

But then i drifted into enlightenment work, and I decided to find an easy mobile programming job instead, so that I can spend more time and energy on psychedelics and meditations. 

Now that I'm living the employee life it would be nice to have a master's degree because maybe that way it would be easier to find another job if I wanted to.
On the other hand, if I want to change my job, I don't really want to work for a boss who thinks that the master's degree is more than a peace of paper. 

 

[ppfeiff]

@Barna

On 3/5/2018 at 3:00 PM, Barna said:

When I started my master's, my dream was to start my own company. So I started my master's purely to learn more about programming (I also had some courses on entrepreneurship and work organizing). And when I started my master's, I gave myself the permission to quit as soon as I want to spend more time on starting my company.

But then i drifted into enlightenment work, and I decided to find an easy mobile programming job instead, so that I can spend more time and energy on psychedelics and meditations. 

Now that I'm living the employee life, it would be nice to have a master's degree because maybe that way it would be easier to find another job if I wanted to.
On the other hand, if I want to change my job, I don't really want to work for a boss who thinks that the master's degree is more than a peace of paper. 

This puzzles me as well... Focus on LP/self-employment or Enlightenment/Liberation during spare time while being an employee for someone else...? Why not just wake up from the dream sooner? Then again... It'd be pretty sweet to wake up while already self-employed / financially self-sufficient. And then again... Who will wake up in the first place?

I just don't think it's practical to do both (pursue enlightenment vs. LP)... If you want enlightenment, just like anything else big in life, it needs to be priority #1 for a while.

“The man who chases two rabbits, catches neither”

Edited March 7, 2018 by ppfeiff

[ppfeiff]

@Barna Anyway, to answer your question:

Writing a thesis or taking on any big project can be a learning process in itself, and have unforeseen indirect benefits: For example, in terms of learning, improving skills in writing, articulation, and teaching (indirectly) by simplifying complex ideas to their essences. Some unforeseen indirect benefits may for example be an increase in awareness of your own habits such as in time management and self-regulation. Maybe your chronic procrastination will become blatantly obvious now, or you'll learn a better way to manage resistance (just examples that may or may not be applicable to you). The bottom line: You may end up learning more about yourself in the process by undertaking a big challenge then quitting and taking easier paths. And who knows? Maybe 1 software engineer will read that thesis, and it will inspire a major break-through in software?

That said, only you can know if it is right for you to continue or to quit. Sometimes you hold em, and sometimes you fold em--you just gotta know for yourself when to do what.

So what does that mean practically?

An exercise I like to do to bring out my intuition: imagine the end-results of both scenarios: Scenario A: you quit, and what that entails with your life as you have more time freed-up. Scenario B: you complete the thesis, and what entails with your life as a result of completing a challenge despite your initial resistance. For which scenario do you feel expansion--do you physically feel your body leaning forward and chest opening-up when replaying Scenario A? For which scenario do you feel contraction--do you physically feel your body leaning backwards and chest closing-up when replaying Scenario B? For whichever scenario you feel expansion and leaning forwards, that's your intuition more than likely telling you that's the direction to head towards. Contraction = NO. Expansion = YES.

To be honest, I live my life almost 100% intuitively this way. I trust my intuition 100%. It's never failed me in my experience. It's the divine speaking through this vessel. Then again, maybe you're not very intuitive, so this exercise may not be for you. Cheers.  

P.S. It's possible that you can feel contraction or even expansion for both scenarios. In the former case, it's clear that you have yet to think of better alternative options, and for the latter case, well, I've actually never encountered that, so then I'd just chose whichever seems most fun/challenging.

Edited March 7, 2018 by ppfeiff

[Barna]

3 hours ago, ppfeiff said:

@Barna Anyway, to answer your question:

Writing a thesis or taking on any big project can be a learning process in itself, and have unforeseen indirect benefits: For example, in terms of learning, improving skills in writing, articulation, and teaching (indirectly) by simplifying complex ideas to their essences. Some unforeseen indirect benefits may for example be an increase in awareness of your own habits such as in time management and self-regulation. Maybe your chronic procrastination will become blatantly obvious now, or you'll learn a better way to manage resistance (just examples that may or may not be applicable to you). The bottom line: You may end up learning more about yourself in the process by undertaking a big challenge then quitting and taking easier paths. And who knows? Maybe 1 software engineer will read that thesis, and it will inspire a major break-through in software?

That said, only you can know if it is right for you to continue or to quit. Sometimes you hold em, and sometimes you fold em--you just gotta know for yourself when to do what.

So what does that mean practically?

An exercise I like to do to bring out my intuition: imagine the end-results of both scenarios: Scenario A: you quit, and what that entails with your life as you have more time freed-up. Scenario B: you complete the thesis, and what entails with your life as a result of completing a challenge despite your initial resistance. For which scenario do you feel expansion--do you physically feel your body leaning forward and chest opening-up when replaying Scenario A? For which scenario do you feel contraction--do you physically feel your body leaning backwards and chest closing-up when replaying Scenario B? For whichever scenario you feel expansion and leaning forwards, that's your intuition more than likely telling you that's the direction to head towards. Contraction = NO. Expansion = YES.

To be honest, I live my life almost 100% intuitively this way. I trust my intuition 100%. It's never failed me in my experience. It's the divine speaking through this vessel. Then again, maybe you're not very intuitive, so this exercise may not be for you. Cheers.  

P.S. It's possible that you can feel contraction or even expansion for both scenarios. In the former case, it's clear that you have yet to think of better alternative options, and for the latter case, well, I've actually never encountered that, so then I'd just chose whichever seems most fun/challenging.

Thank you @ppfeiff.

The thing is that I want the master's degree for the wrong reason:

1. I'm jealous of my friends who have the degree and therefore get higher salaries 
2. I'm afraid that even if I change my job, my next job will also give higher salaries to the employees who have a master's degree 

So yeah, my ego would feel great having a master's. And it keeps alive the will to force myself to write that thesis. But when I have free time, I always find more meaningful things to do, like learning about mobile programming (my current field) or dissolving my emotional blockages. 

So I kinda want to have the degree in the future. But in the present moment, writing the thesis never becomes the top priority. 

[Elisabeth]

On 5. 3. 2018 at 6:32 PM, Barna said:

I have finished all my courses and I even implemented a nice software for my master's thesis. 

But the actual writing of the thesis feels like a waste of time. I don't feel like I'm learning anything useful by writing it, and no one else will learn anything from it either simply because nobody will really read it. 

 

Depending on the nature of your work, how about writing your theses as a manual/documentation to your software? No one ever has time to write documentation, this is your chance. Good software + good documentation = something people can use and build on further. *

And, you'll get a Master's leading to a higher salary. Nice bonus. 

*I actually have to use a software in my research which has only a 10 years and a few versions old documentation in the form of a doctoral thesis. Thanks goodness for the thesis. 

Edited March 7, 2018 by Elisabeth