I once told my dad that if the subject of my thesis was something I could easily explain then it wouldn't be interesting enough to do a PhD in. I said it half-jokingly and he laughed about it, but he stopped asking me what I'm studying after that so maybe he did take it more seriously.
There’s something bittersweet about that moment when someone you love stops asking about your research. It’s a quiet kind of respect, but also a reminder of the communication gap academia often creates.
i once got excited to explain to my father what i did at a research lab after grad school. he listened patiently for about 30 minutes then he said “oh, so you build software for big business?”
