Thank you for your comment, Grayson. Those are important questions and I’m afraid I don’t have quick answers to them. I will only reiterate what Michael Billig told me in 2015: “Be brave and do things for their own sake rather than because you think they will be useful for your ‘career’. Above all try to read widely. By reading widely, you can ‘meet’ some extraordinary thinkers.” (from the interview: https://dgozli.com/interview-with-michael-billig/)

Not sure if you have left this comment function here intentionally for this purpose, but since I accidentally wandered to this page and read through your whole blog article, I decided I must leave a comment to say thank you SO MUCH for publishing this blog. Many thoughts are really intriguing for me. I’ve been wandering and “unproductive” recently too, thinking a lot about theoretical psychology (more precisely and in my case, theoretical cognitive science and nature of mind). On the edge of PhD, I found many of the experiences relatable. How do you reconcile deeper interest of mind and science versus the more publishable and concrete research topics? How would you recommend choosing PhD program and research area? And what is your motivation for pursuing PhD and how do you see this career path so far?

I know this is probably too many questions all at once, but in case you might be happy to chat, I would be really delighted and honored. Regardless, THANK YOU so much for publishing this.

Your former Macau student,
Grayson

Your former student