Economist on "PhDWhaleChallenge"

1. Carve with a razor "PhD" on your hand, send a photo to your advisor.
2. Wake up at 4.20 a.m. and read a paper that advisor sends you.
3. Write an abstract, but not too long, only 3 paragraphs, send it to the advisor.
4. Manually collect some data, send them to advisor.
5. If you are ready to "become a PhD", carve "Candidate" on your leg. If not, replicate a paper which uses secret data (punish yourself).
6. Estimate a panel regression with R
7. Carve "T.A." on your hand, send a photo to advisor.
8. Type "#I_like_office_hours" in your university webpage.
9. You have to overcome your writer's block.
10. Wake up at 4:20 a.m. and do a call with a co-author of your advisor overseas.
11. Write a whole draft, send it to advisor.
12. Watch "Masters of finance" videos all day.
13. Prepare the lecture slides that "they" (faculty) ask you.
14. Erase the backup copy of your thesis.
15. Grade some undergrad essays many times
16. Pull an all-nighter with your research, make yourself sick.
17. Write a rant email to a senior faculty, put the cursor on the "send" button.
18. Write a threatening email to your PhD director, put the cursor on the "send" button.
19. Prove your advisor wrong or at least try to do it
20. The advisor checks if you are trustworthy.
21. Have a talk "with a whale" (with another PhD student like you or with a advisor) in Skype.
22. Go a lunch seminar without touching the food.
23. Do some more econometrics with R
24. Beg for secret data
25. Have a meeting with a "whale."
26. The advisor tells you the date of the end of your funding and you have to accept it.
27. Wake up at 4:20 a.m. and submit your paper to a conference (visit any conference website that you can find).
28. Don't procrastinate all day.
29. Make a vow that you'll finish your PhD
30-49. Everyday you wake up at 4:20am, check your code running, read the papers "they" send you, write two pages of your JMP per day, talk "to a whale."
50. Defend your thesis. "They"'ll take your life.