The first task for a Ph.D. student in research is to understand the research problem, and perform a literature review to find gaps in the literature that can be areas for improvement or research. Naturally, we stand on the shoulders of giants in science, and all scientists need to learn from others in the scientific community.
But, there is a danger of learning too much from others to the point of copying their methods without much understanding or thinking on whether the methods and approaches are appropriate for the task at hand. Thus, it is useful to think original and organic about the problem and develop solutions on your own. In this process, you will learn from other scientists in finetuning your methods, but, the solution, on the whole, will be yours and will be a plus for your Ph.D. thesis.
Category: education,
Tags: original and organic solution, Ph.D. solutions, learning from others, scientific community, literature review,
Looking at life with a scientific lens 