@bgcarlisle Better questions to ask a grad student, if you want to show that you're interested and you also care about their mental health:

- What's something cool you recently learned?
- Where do you think your field's research might go in the next 5 years?
- Do you have any readings/resources you'd recommend to an interested non-specialist?

@bgcarlisle there's one family friend who leaves these kinds of questions in random posts and status updates on Facebook. I ignore them flat out, but each time I see one I instantly feel nauseous

@bgcarlisle my daughter is rapidly learning the forbidden question of our household - 'are you done with your schoolwork?'

@bgcarlisle
Literally got all three of these over the Thanksgiving holiday

@bgcarlisle I felt tired just reading these questions. My soul turned into a raisin.

@bgcarlisle I, for one, would love someone to ask me how my thesis is coming. Or even about my assignments. There's so much cool stuff I could talk about, but my family is never asks about it, and it's hard to start talking about it at a family meeting without being asked.