Relatedly: I wish there was a practice of acknowledging when you give up.
I've seen so many people just slink away from their PhD's, perhaps with a nominal masters, but always in some kind of defeat, without accepting or sorting out exactly why. That makes the experience dog them for a long time.
People leaving should write an announcement. There should be a public acknowledgement, perhaps walking the gauntlet of those staying who nonetheless applaud your decision.
We can't have venturing without a personally and socially positive way to manage venture failure and its aftermath.
I also wish there were ways to publicly acknowledge (and hopefully support) those who spend years of their lives working towards PhDs they never finish. For many it is a deeply private loss, with so few people knowing what happened and even fewer understanding the biting sense of personal failure you can feel.
I never made any sort of announcement when I left, and so had very little closure. Graduate school just ended and just trying to survive demanded my full attention in other areas. All I have left now is my unfinished dissertation, complete with the acknowledgement section I wrote.
It reads like a eulogy to a life I never had, to the shattered dreams I left behind, and to the naivete of my younger self. Perhaps there is some poetic value in there, but no one but myself will ever read it now. When it finally disappears it will, appropriately, be in a manner similar to how my failed PhD ended, with no one noticing and no one mourning its passing.
I leave (of absence, technically) this program with a lightness of heart and exhilaration at the next adventure in joining the rabid commercial world of a tech startup. I would like to acknowledge a great debt to everyone who helped me grow in these 4 years. Know that I will be a faithful alum, of lesser degree.
I've seen so many people just slink away from their PhD's, perhaps with a nominal masters, but always in some kind of defeat, without accepting or sorting out exactly why. That makes the experience dog them for a long time.
People leaving should write an announcement. There should be a public acknowledgement, perhaps walking the gauntlet of those staying who nonetheless applaud your decision.
We can't have venturing without a personally and socially positive way to manage venture failure and its aftermath.