This is great and exactly captures the PhD experience. Both in the simulator and in real life, I mostly survived until the end by slacking off frequently, and needed around 5 years.
Some highlights:
> INBOX: Based on the reviewers' comments, we regret to inform you that your manuscript has been REJECTED for publication. One of the reviewers pointed out that there is no comparison with a state-of-art method.
> You came up with a bunch of ideas. However, upon further searching, you found that they have already been done before.
> You found the missing piece during a shower. You develop one of your preliminary results into a major result.
> You found one of your ideas appears in a recently published paper. You can no longer work on it.
> Three years passed. You have witnessed many graduations. You began to worry about whether your can graduate on time.
> The simulation took a much longer time than you expected. The results are not available yet.
What was missing:
1.) Growing feeling of getting too old
2.) Growing family obligations (marriage, kids, trying to write a thesis at 3am with a crying baby next room)
3.) Questions asked by friends and relatives regarding progress
4.) Teaching obligations
Some highlights:
> INBOX: Based on the reviewers' comments, we regret to inform you that your manuscript has been REJECTED for publication. One of the reviewers pointed out that there is no comparison with a state-of-art method.
> You came up with a bunch of ideas. However, upon further searching, you found that they have already been done before.
> You found the missing piece during a shower. You develop one of your preliminary results into a major result.
> You found one of your ideas appears in a recently published paper. You can no longer work on it.
> Three years passed. You have witnessed many graduations. You began to worry about whether your can graduate on time.
> The simulation took a much longer time than you expected. The results are not available yet.
What was missing:
1.) Growing feeling of getting too old
2.) Growing family obligations (marriage, kids, trying to write a thesis at 3am with a crying baby next room)
3.) Questions asked by friends and relatives regarding progress
4.) Teaching obligations