Advice is for Winners

Even in an advice-centric environment dedicated to advising young graduate students, as reflected in the formal title of advisor, there are many questions for which advice seeking is not supported in the normal course of affairs. Graduate students at research universities are surrounded by many peers who could act as a sounding board, and students have formal advisors who might agree to offer advice outside of the conventional, expected area of research advice. This aspect of graduate-student life is captured hilariously in several “Piled Higher and Deeper” cartoons by Jorge Cham (www.phdcomics.com), who studied for a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at Stanford and later was an instructor and researcher at Caltech.

1. personal questions
2. irrelevance
3. no matter