“All of the humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”
— Blaise Pascal, Pensées
The best thing to being Grad student is … “the free food” on a seminar.
Based on my personal observation, during a seminar, it is always hard to ask a question unless you work on the exact same topic ( a very small probability) with the speaker.
If this really happens, you would also be hesitating to ask anything for the reason that if you may offend the speaker or worse. You may worry about what other audiences would think about you if you raised such a question, are you try to be smart or show off?
No way, you want in that positions, even though it is awkward on the stage. But hey, the host is in control and he/she will save the show.
The truth is that everybody knows the academic people sometimes do not have a sense of humor. They are too serious to talk about anything. If you ask me, my question will be “Could I bring the rest food back to my Ph.D. cubicle?”
C. Cui's Blog 