Work vs Coursework

Currently mired in a long calculation that I have done for the nth time, I reflected this morning on why research is hard. My answer - it is not coursework. The hard calculations that one does for a class can be mostly right. Ninety-five percent right is enough to move on to the next problem, with a pat on the back for basically understanding. For research, if a calculation is 95% right, it is wrong, and may lead to the wrong conclusion. It must be redone, again and again and again (you'll never guess what I am doing this month). It can be agonizing.

There is a way that work is better than course work though. As a researcher one can have multiple projects, so that when one is particularly annoying you can change gears and do something else for awhile (at least until you are refreshed and ready to dive back in). This is true to a lesser extent for coursework, but on a different timescale. Although one can work on material for different classes, coursework typically has a due date, by which it must be done. So there will be a day by which you must attack each classes problems. For research, one is basically free work on each project on your own timescale, so long as something is getting done the order of projects doesn't matter so much. So here's to fun, clean important mathematics without any messy calculations. If only every project fit that description.