[SoftTalker]

This is why so many research papers have "Towards" as the first word in the title. I.e. we didn't actually achieve our original goal, but here's a writeup of what progress we made.

I heard academic research described like this: Imagine yourself inside a balloon. The body of research in your field is represented by the current size of the balloon. Now put your fingertip on the wall of the balloon and push. That little indentation is your Ph.D.

Another analogy is a lake: The lake is the current body of research, you walk up and dump in an additional bucket of water. That's your Ph.D.

I'm sure there are many others.

[sunrunner]

> That little indentation is your Ph.D.

Illustrated nicely by https://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in-pictures/

[orochimaaru]

Lol. That one. I wish I had seen that before I began my PhD. It describes the anti-climactic and exhilarating feeling you have simultaneously at your thesis defense.