muppet said:Isaac Newton could spend 18 hours a day working, and go for months on end with barely any human interaction. He achieved a lot- as you might expect.
n!kofeyn said:I don't understand all the harping on mathboy for his want to study. If that is what he wants, then so be it. Why does he have to conform to what everybody else notes as normal? Nikola Tesla mentioned in his autobiography that his hours for nearly a year were from 10:30am to 5:00am the next day. He continued this type of work ethic throughout his life (and developed it during his university years). I would say that Newton's behavior and personal defects were not solely a cause of his secluded studying, but more from his underlying personal nature developed during childhood. Many guitar players, including Dimebag Darrell, Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai, etc. mention how they used to practice 10-14 hours a day. Why is studying any different. Greatness takes practice and if mathboy wants to study 12 hours a day, then let him. Although I do agree that a balance of life is helpful, and that it is very, very important to be able to communicate not only your ideas to, but just plain communicate with, other people.
leptos said:i found the best way to study is 1-2 hours in the morning when i wake up, 1-2 hours when i get home, and 1-2 hours before bed.
creepypasta13 said:Looking back on this thread again and being similar to the OP, I would like to share my thoughts. I started off college being painfully shy and studied close to 12 hours/day. I then realized that I had to work on my social skills.. for practical reasons, like networking, interviewing for jobs, etc. But I had no interest in things normal people like (watching movies, TV, listening to pop music, etc) and had no non-academic hobbies. Thus, socializing was extremely difficult for me. I changed that by getting involved in a sport. I met a lot of non-physics majors and made decent friendships with some of them and a lot of acquaintances, but towards the end of college. However, being in so many uncomfortable social situations got me really depressed and my grades suffered. It dropped from a 4.0 to about 3.6
So I screwed things up. Ideally, I wished I had spent my early college years socializing and, after building up the bare minimum social skills needed to be 'healthy' and helpful for practical purposes, I should have spent my later years studying close to 12 hours/day. Thats why I'm really jealous at people who do really academically and still have good social skills. They developed them at a younger age and didn't have to waste time in college to work on them. As a result, I got admitted to top-20 physics and math schools, but didn't get to any in the top-10. I don't know if I made the right decisions or not as it really hurt not getting into any top-5 or top-10 schools. I'm not painfully shy anymore and have gotten past interviews to get job offers. But I paid a big price, considering that my social skills are still far from great and my odds for becoming a professor are now dramatically reduced
DrManhattanVB said:I really hope you don't think you need to be in a top 10 school or top 5 school to become a professor. Yes, its nearly impossible. But there's research groups even at top 50 schools that will put you on track for a top quality post-doc.
Studying 12 hours a day for 5 days a week outside of midterms and finals is absolutely ridiculous. I am skeptical, because I've never needed that much time in order to master the material well enough to get A's, usually 4 to 5 hours per day is enough for me.
creepypasta13 said:Well the odds are much better at a top 5 or 10 school. At the schools I got admitted to, most of the faculty whose research I'm interested in are young, recently tenured professors, and not really well-known.
The OP and I didnt study 12 hours a day just to get A's. We used that time to learn material outside class or learn more details about the class material in order to greater appreciate what we were learning (as opposed to doing the minimum necessary to get A's).
Exactly, I have a friend that has excelled in med school, studying around 6 hours per day prior to exams, and graduating near the top of his class. Even so, he says he could probably optimize his studies and study even less, and I agree with that fully. I put in more work than that since apparently I haven't found that sweet spot yet, but plugging away mindlessly isn't helping. And no one can honestly say they truly enjoy studying 12 hours per day (if they do, I feel pity for them and their one-dimensionality). Sure, you can't just always go by what you feel like doing at that exact moment, but once you're over a certain threshold, you should really focus on doing other things that interest you, as it's going to help with studies, as well. People are "successful" because they're interesting, not because they conform to the working more is better ethic for the sake of it.MissSilvy said:Believe it or not, the quality of studying is actually better than the quantity and I am very skeptical of anyone who says the fifth hour of studying in a ten hour block is as good as the first two. I get up two hours early most days, three on weekends, go to a cafe and drink some coffee while working on my studies. I do a little at night, but not very much (1-2 hours) and I get waaay more done than the chumps having marathon 'study' sessions in the library. After a while, you lose focus, no matter how much you love what you're doing. I'd say wake up early, study for a few hours, then go about your day. If this isn't enough, then think of adding more time slots to your schedule, but don't just glue yourself to a chair for ten hours and think that such a method is the best or only way to get stuff done.
MissSilvy said:Believe it or not, the quality of studying is actually better than the quantity and I am very skeptical of anyone who says the fifth hour of studying in a ten hour block is as good as the first two. I get up two hours early most days, three on weekends, go to a cafe and drink some coffee while working on my studies. I do a little at night, but not very much (1-2 hours) and I get waaay more done than the chumps having marathon 'study' sessions in the library. After a while, you lose focus, no matter how much you love what you're doing. I'd say wake up early, study for a few hours, then go about your day. If this isn't enough, then think of adding more time slots to your schedule, but don't just glue yourself to a chair for ten hours and think that such a method is the best or only way to get stuff done.
DukeofDuke said:Newton never got laid.
He was proud of that fact.
I'm just saying, his laws may have been great for the rest of us, but I'm not quite sure he lived a "good life." Many geniuses don't.
Nobody said working 12+ hours a day isn't incredibly productive. They said its not healthy. Neither was Newton's life, I'd wager.
