PhD thesis appendix 'Behind the Scenes' tradition reveals the confusion behind polished papers
benno_krojer · x · 2026-10-28
Benno Krojer published a 'Behind the Scenes' appendix to his PhD thesis, a word-by-word account of five years of doctoral life. He chose his direction in 2020 out of dissatisfaction with NLP, starting from a computational linguistics BSc at LMU Munich.
He began mid-PhD by adding such a section to the AURORA paper appendix; it became a tradition for all his first-author papers, with collaborators picking up the habit — aiming to 'humanize the field' and show young researchers the confusion and uncertainty behind polished work.
The text covers PhD applications, slumps, pivots, lessons learned, and his original statement of purpose.
Related event: Researcher Adds "Behind the Scenes" Sections to Paper Appendices(3 posts)→
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