Thesis proposal: Keep it simple

James Gosling at Sun has written about his experience preparing for his thesis topic:

Back when I was a grad student I was spinning out of control trying to come up with a thesis topic. My advisor took me out to lunch one day and asked me a simple question: "What is a PhD thesis?" I yattered on for a while and he listened patiently. Eventually he said "No: It's just a stack of 100 pages with 4 signatures on top". I was falling into a common grad student trap of feeling that I needed to do something grandiose and solve all of the worlds problems. He was into "keep it simple". So I did, and I came up with a pretty straightforward thesis proposal. The odd thing was that when I finally finished my thesis, I realized that I had only dealt with one sentence out of the simplified proposal.

Well, I don't know if I will cover just one of my proposed research questions (I now have three), but I have to agree with his strategy of keeping it simple. I have already begun to pare down my ambitions, by reducing the time period under study, eliminating variables from consideration, and simplifying my methodology.

I am also realistic about what will become of my research. I am a pessimist by nature. I know my thesis will not solve the world's problems. I will be thankful if it really contributes to the academic discourse about China, but I honestly expect it will be read or cited by a just a handful of people, and gather dust in the Grossman Library.