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Here are a few things. The list is not exhaustive.Your dissertation doesn't need to be perfect. It's not meant to be your biggest achievement. It's just a (good enough) long paper.Take care of the relationships you grow with your mentors, advisors and directors. They may become friends and collaborators for your entire career.You're probably good, or have potential, but that doesn't make you Jesus. Chill out, keep your head down and do your job the best you can. If you're great, show it, don't say it.As my director used to say to me “no te preocupes, ocúpate" (something along the lines of “don't sit and worry, just get it done”).Your job is just your job. And grad school is just one part of your life. Don't forget about everything else you are, your interests, and your people. Don't neglect them or yourself.Fields are small. Don't chitchat and gossip about a stranger in front of someone you just met at, say, a conference cocktail party. They might have gone to grad school together or happen to be friends or collaborators.Be careful at Q&As. You're a grad student, and that may be “your field of expertise" but you’re not there to judge anybody. Watch your tone, both, as you ask and as you answer. It may have implications.When you leave your lab you represent it. In the department, in the school, on campus, in conferences, on other campuses. You are your lab's ambassador. Be the best one you can be. Make everyone back home proud when they hear “Jane was amazing at the conference. Her presentation was awesome and she seems like a fantastic, young scholar.”Network. Network. Network. It pays off. Don't misrepresent your background or your achievements. Don't exaggerate because you want to impress. Anybody will be more impressed to find out about your accomplishments and to realize you were humble and down to earth.Don't be afraid to email a senior researcher from a different institution just to let them know about the deep influence of their work on your ideas. They work very hard and are often recognized, but a simple (two line!) message can brighten up their day….and you never know if this first impression may lead to something more.Focus, from as early on as you can, on your dissertation. Even before you take your exams, even before you start thinking about the proposal if you can. Begin to align readings, literature reviews, methodological design choices, analyses, etc with your dissertation. Pilot ideas through class projects. Identify what works and what doesn’t. Then, once you begin working on your dissertation, you’ll have a strong panoramic view of the area you’re interested in, and will anticipate pitfalls.Thank your department administrators if they help you. Acknowledge their hard work. If you’re on a visa and have an international advisor, do the same.Don’t be confrontational in the academic setting. Don’t be a trouble maker. Don’t argue with professors in front of other students. Be polite. You can stand your ground without looking like an entitled fool.Beware of toxic people. Toxic people are always negative, always complaining, always feel overworked and claim that the system is unfair to them. You will recognize them because they’ll never have anything nice to say about anyone, they never blame themselves for anything and they spread rumours. Their negativity will rub off on you. People may associate you with them. Identify them and move away. If that means you are left with no friends…well, that’s alright then.Keep track of all your powerpoints, presentations, handouts, lesson plans… create a dropbox folder called teaching materials and put it all in there. You might need many of those materials in the future.Start working on your CV the minute you arrive. Find a template you like, run it by your advisor, get their approval, and use it consistently. Shoot for adding 3–5 lines per semester. These may include conference presentations, publications, different forms of service, professional development, etc. Keep your CV growing. Be proactive. Picture what you want it to look like by the time you hit the job market and make the necessary arrangements to make it happen. In education we call this approach backwards design :)If you only speak English, fix that. Yes… I said it: “only”. One language is not enough. The world is multilingual. You aren’t. What are you going to do about it? There are plenty of free opportunities out there on every campus and town. I’m not saying you must become completely proficient in Czech in a semester… take 3 - 4 years, a couple of times a week, watch movies, travel to conferences if you can, find clubs and societies and go to their meetings… and you’ll see the difference.Set goals for after your PhD. If your goal is to be a professor, quite simply, it might not happen. At least not the way you envisioned it to happen. Regardless, respect yourself, respect your skills, and respect the time and effort you have invested. Don’t settle for a low-paying, temporary job at a school that doesn’t care about you. Find a plan b that will allow you to live the way you deserve. Start defining that plan b soon.Invest in things that make your life easier and better. A bigger computer screen, a comfy chair, good skin care products, healthy food, a gym membership. I know a PhD stipend doesn’t go very far, but cutting down on alcohol, eating out, and things like that works. Make good use of second hand products. Find out where in town to buy discounted stuff.If you are on a visa be aware of everything your type of visa involves. If you need a document to be able to travel out of the country for Christmas or for a conference, find out how and when to start the process. If you must return to your country of origin after you graduate, do it. Running into legal trouble may jeopardize all the efforts you've put into your degree.Seek help. Mental health a problem among academics. PhD students suffer from anxiety, depression and other mental problems more than other professional groups. Do not, by any means, think you are alone. You are not a failure. You are struggling and we all do. There are (usually) therapists and counselors on campus who are there for you.Meet - the - bloody - deadlines!!! You agreed to finish that draft by October 7; it’s October 16. Why haven't you contacted me yet to tell me you were going to be late (which I would haver been ok with)? Or to apologize for being late and to tell me when to expect the draft? or to ask for help because you haven't even started the draft because you're feeling overwhelmed with everything? Deadlines allow projects to move forward. They tell you when something must be done in order to move the project to the next stage. If you don’t meet them, the project will suffer, and your reputation will too.Enjoy the ride. This can be done. At least, some of the time. Some weeks are a little bit quieter. There’s less to grade, to teach, to write, to analyse. Use those days/weeks wisely. Go for walk, get a coffee, spend extra time with your dog, have an extra long bath, read a book or a magazine. Do whatever helps you decompress so that you can get back to work fresh.Don’t pack every bit of your calendar with new projects. Be smart. Consider how much you have on your plate right now and if you can actually get into more projects. Just because it's nice and shiny doesn't mean it's good for you right now. Be critical.Take good care of your credit history. You will soon transition into a world where you're not a student anymore. Do you best to look good in the eyes of bank and money people. Open a savings account. Activate the “keep the change option” on your debit card. You will be glad you did this.

As I read it, your question is about why distinction and subjectivity in taste gets categorized as hierarchy.The whole hullabaloo about having great taste in music goes deeper than the basic schism of one person liking a song and another person not liking it. Having great taste in music or art is indicative of a deeper power play than most people realize and I’ll try to break it down in simpler terms as to how it works.The first and most basic thing we need to realize is that we do anything anywhere because we are invested in it. Something in us tells us that it is important to do so, and we invest a part within us……not for nothing…..we do it to draw some sort of rewards.The reward could be holding our ground as when we are defending attacks on our ethnicity, or it could be recognition when your Quora answer gets published.And what do you call that thing you invest in things?Capital.The amount and the kind of capital I have could be similar or different from the amount of capital you have. So when Kim Kardashian sought to break the Internet, she was investing with a different kind of capital than Donald Trump.Capital doesn’t just mean money.Capital could be economic (Money and its forms), Capital could be cultural (knowledge to play the culture game), Capital could be Social (networks, friends, membership to clubs/associations, etc).It is the cultural capital that is important to understand in this Quora answer. So… onto that.Cultural CapitalThis is the capability to recognize Mozart from Handel, or Jethro Tull from Pearl Jam or Murakami from Harper Lee. This is just not it….there’s more to this cultural capital than the ability to recognize and differentiate from forms of music. It also includes the ability to recognize why particular forms of it are better than others, or the ability of draw a hierarchy.I know of someone who’d draw on obscure forms of songs from famous artists to show how he has got an eclectic taste. He’d do a Top 10 list of songs from particular musicians, totally oblivious to the possibility that these kind of lists in music or art means zilch beyond the select group of followers.But I knew why he was projecting himself like that. He wanted to project himself as a person who had an avante-garde cultural acumen when it came to music. This act attributed social prestige to him, more power to him, more power to dominate conversations and to have a presence on Facebook.That was just one example of cultural capital. Cultural capital encompasses a whole range of abilities and information than just remembering obscure songs. It includes liking fava beans with Chianti, it includes the ability to differentiate and categorize one form of wine from another, having the ability to know more about cheese and not appear cheesy thereby……it is knowing how to dress properly in a dinner party, it is knowing what to talk about when anybody asks “What kind of music do you prefer to listen when you work” (Good answer: Classical music; Bad answer: Katy Perry/Michael Jackson).So I want you to note the several processes that cultural capital enable:Creating a hierarchy whereby there is good music and bad music, good dressing sense and bad dressing sense, good gourmet food which is different from comfort food.Creating a hierarchy that leads to forms of domination and a sense of prestige in a situation.Creating a hierarchy that is dependent on your economic powers……because you need money to buy that good bottle of wine, don’t you? Your working class parents might not have been listening to Mozart in their leisure time. How the hell would you know about classical music if nobody in your family or friend circle listened to it? How the hell would you know about the kind of good linen if your family couldn't afford it?So, yes, cultural capital is determined by economic capital (money).But more money doesn't mean more cultural capital. I could be poor but I could love to read and I could go to a public library (whose membership I can afford with my low economic power) and borrow and read whatever catches my fancy. I might know about what constitutes good fashion, but Goodwill or thrift stores could be my only recourse to buying clothes.The graph below illustrates the relationship between cultural capital and economic capital well:Boom Boom Power RangersBy now I hope you realize how capital can take up several forms and can range across various social groups/categories (class, alumni association, neighbourhood, family, ethnicity, etc). The amount and kind of cultural capital is usually predictable based on social origins of an individual. The main struggle is not between the more powerful section of the society and the less powerful.Here's the catch: the main struggle is within the dominating class. The working class girl already knows the power of a Prada.But what about those who have the economic power to buy a Prada? Or to distinguish between a Mozart and Beethoven?How can they establish their domination?By creating hierarchy within subjective taste, and by continuously trying to change the balance of power so that social relations are organized around them, where they serve as the axes of power.Thereby appreciation of cultural things is often reduced to pretension. We pretend to like a thing because it symbolizes a matter of high class, the hoity toity. One refuses the vulgar, the prosaic, the common.....and attributes higher class to things that are difficult to understand, or are simply, out of our league.-----------If you're interested to know more, please read Pierre Bourdieu's work Distinction: La DistinctionImage Sources:1) Distinction (Bourdieu)2) Busy City3) Language as Bourdieuan capital in the era of globalization

After setting up an online store for Chinese customers five years ago, U.S. based retail giant Costco Wholesale opened its first brick-and-mortar store on the Chinese mainland on Tuesday.The 14,000-square-meter store is located in southwest Shanghai’s Minhang District, with 3,400 stock-keeping units of 60 kinds of goods including household appliances, fresh food, daily necessities and travel accessories.Not as what analysts said that Costco would face a very different market in China, where most city dwellers prefer shopping more frequently and haven’t embraced bulk-shopping habits, the store was too popular to shut down early on its first day because of too many shoppers.Why Costco can arouse Chinese consumers' interest and stimulate their purchasing desire? Here are some possible reasons.High-quality products with lower pricesThe store features the “same bulk buy experience as U.S. locations,” Costco said in a promotional email in June.Prices of general merchandise in Costco Shanghai are 30 to 60 percent lower than market prices and the food sold there is 10 to 20 percent cheaper, according to the retailer.“The quality and good prices of Costco's food products are a major attraction to Chinese consumers, as the demand for such products has grown, ” Jason Yu, general manager of market consultancy Kantar Worldpanel China, said to China Daily.A 57-year-old retiree in Shanghai left the store with avocados, cheese, milk and a pizza. She said quality foods enticed her to travel the 40 kilometers to the store."The products are of good value. I may come here one month later when it is less crowded," she said.Luxury brands easy to get in hypermarketAccording to photos shared by shoppers on social media, Moutai liquor (China’s luxury liquor brand), which is expensive and hard to get in in the home market, was priced at 1,498 yuan (about 209 U.S. dollars), about 400 yuan cheaper than elsewhere.South Korean luxury brand MCM’s leather backpack was retailing at 4,399 yuan, about 1,100 yuan lower than on China’s e-commerce platform Tmall.Prada tote bags were selling for 13,999 yuan(about 1,956 U.S. dollars). Even Hermès’ popular Birkin bags were available at the wholesaler.Chinese consumers’ understanding of bulk products and membershipCostco’s business model of offering discounted products in bulk could have enduring popularity in China. Chinese consumers already got used to the idea from Pinduoduo, a Chinese app where people can get together in a group and buy in bulk and distribute the goods among friends.Costco has been careful in making their foray into the huge but brutal Chinese market. Zhang Sihan (Richard Zhang), Costco's senior vice president for Asia, said the team has been waiting a long time, assuring a deep understanding of the local market. It also has been patient while Chinese consumers get to know the brand as well as the membership concept before entering the country.Costco Shanghai offers two types of memberships — one for families and the other for corporations, both with an annual price of 299 yuan (about 43 U.S. dollars).The savvy Shanghaists can easily figure out that spending more than 600 yuan for once here, the discounts they get will earn back the 299 yuan membership fee.Costco has gathered over tens of thousands of memberships within the two months before its opening."Shanghai residents are so enthusiastic! You have to wait in queue for four hours to get a membership!" a netizen commented.Chinese market’s great consumption powerPrior to Costco, U.S. electric carmaker Tesla moved in the opposite direction to the U.S. government in constructing its first gigafactory outside of the U.S., also in Shanghai. US biotech firm Thermo Fisher Scientific also announced that it would invest in a new production base in Suzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province.There are many more US companies quietly investing in China to avoid attention during this sensitive time in China-U.S. relations, but the fact remains that the Chinese market has the biggest potential, said Song Guoyou, director of Fudan University's Center for Economic Diplomacy. "There is no more room for market growth in Europe and the US," he told the Global Times.Despite the Day One hype around its Shanghai store, the US retailer has to prove it can stick around for the long haul.Will Costco succeed in China?We’ll see.