Clearing up the air...

In case it didn't come out ... I do like my postdoc adviser so far. I also wish he were less busy.

Here is the thing .. I really don't know these fields I am supposed to be learning about. He is busy with a billion projects and I understand that. He also hasn't pressed me on my productivity so far. Is that because he doesn't know about it or because it is OK since I am still spending time reading random stuffs? Or is it because half of this project is new to him too and naturally it is easier to work on the other problems first?

Now this may come of as major insecurity. But consider this: I had a fairly dysfunctional relationship with my PhD adviser, where we didn't speak for months. In retrospect, the majority of my thesis could have been finished in 2/3 of the time it took. So was the 1/3 left out necessary time to gel ideas? Or just the cost of doing business since I was not about to switch labs (again).

So of course I looked for feedback elsewhere. And here is the thing -- people came to my department talks, and liked my ideas. I always had questions and they were not of the kind "so why should anyone care? so what is your conclusion? or so what did you do in this project?" When it came down to discussing my thesis, which was more of a negotiation between my adviser and I than anything, I turned to one of those people I had talked about. On my concern of whether I have a thesis, he said I had tons of stuff at those department presentations that were new, interesting and significant. But they have yet to turn into papers. So did I leave based on ideas ? Or did I just have too many projects started that I get to finish now?

In short ... I need a mentor.