Another friend gets a PhD

[Pingers]

I'm absolutely delighted for her, she's worked her socks off for that.

Do you do this? Surround yourself with people much, much brighter than you for some reason you can't discern, so that you are in no doubt that you're none too bright? Because I certainly do.

[idunnosomename]

ive got a phd and im a complete fucking idiot

[phes]

University shattered my confidence and ego. It was the worst of times, it was the best of times. I like geeky stuff but don't have the motivation, obsessiveness and intellect to fit in with genuine geeky/academic types. I'm like that guy in Community who meets Abed at the bar and tries hitting on him by striking up a conversation about a sci-fi show, before realising how horribly out of depth and place he is

[Danger Man]

I'm absolutely delighted for her, she's worked her socks off for that.

Did she do it because she wanted to be called 'Dr 'instead of 'Miss'?

I know two people who did a PhD for that reason.

Two

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Freddie Mercury advised to dumb down lyrics.

[Pingers]

Did she do it because she wanted to be called 'Dr 'instead of 'Miss'?

I know two people who did a PhD for that reason.

Two

No, definitely not.

[kittens]

zero people on earth know what phd stands for. i barely know what it even means. it says that you're a doctor but my tutor at university had a phd in film studies. is there a doctor in the house? well, yes, but,

[idunnosomename]

Doctor of PHilosophy

we were called Doctor before hack MDs like Liam Fox pushed their way into the scene. They're just posers

[royce coolidge]

Everybody is clever nowadays.

[Jockice]

I've often mentioned my disastrous attempt at a PhD on these pages. Quite possibly the biggest mess I've ever made of anything in my life. Among some very strong competition. It's approaching four years since I quit/got chucked off it and it still wakes me up in the middle of the night.

Anyway, a few days ago I went to a talk featuring one of my old lecturers (the bloke who shares his name with an 80s pop star) and also there was the head of my department. Who, when I spoke to him seemed to have no recollection of me at all. Possibly because I'd actually go to the department about twice a year.

He eventually remembered who I was and much to my surprise invited me to get back in touch with the department with a view to finishing the PhD. Or to put it realistically to start the whole thing again with a different supervisor as the one I had retired then died a year later.

And you know something, I'm sort of tempted. I'm not entirely sure that the department head realises just how little progress I made in such a lengthy period first time around. Think I should? After all, nervous breakdowns are much of a muchness really.

[Tikwid]

[tag]Queen first draft rejected by anti-intellectual EMI execs[/tag]

[Danger Man]

Quite possibly the biggest mess I've ever made of anything in my life.

Apart from that time you had a vindaloo.

[idunnosomename]

Funnily enough Brian May finished his PhD on interplanetary dust in 2006-7 which surprisingly no one else had bothered to do since he stopped in 1974 when Queen took off

[Jockice]

Apart from that time you had a vindaloo.

File under 'never happened.' And never will either.

[poo]

Most overrated thing ever. Shite PhDs get rubber-stamped by equally shite examiners all the time. Prospects for many new PhDs (in academia) are fucking grim nowadays too. I got one. Absolute charlatan.

[idunnosomename]

I know some people with PhDs with jobs whose research is so unethically terrible and they're also thick as pigshit and terrible people, so NO fuckin throw it out the window and get on with your life. UK HE is a fucking load of burning rubbish (hmm not the same ring to it. anyway it's on fire and it stinks and no ones putting it out soon)

[BlodwynPig]

I've often mentioned my disastrous attempt at a PhD on these pages. Quite possibly the biggest mess I've ever made of anything in my life. Among some very strong competition. It's approaching four years since I quit/got chucked off it and it still wakes me up in the middle of the night.

Anyway, a few days ago I went to a talk featuring one of my old lecturers (the bloke who shares his name with an 80s pop star) and also there was the head of my department. Who, when I spoke to him seemed to have no recollection of me at all. Possibly because I'd actually go to the department about twice a year.

He eventually remembered who I was and much to my surprise invited me to get back in touch with the department with a view to finishing the PhD. Or to put it realistically to start the whole thing again with a different supervisor as the one I had retired then died a year later.

And you know something, I'm sort of tempted. I'm not entirely sure that the department head realises just how little progress I made in such a lengthy period first time around. Think I should? After all, nervous breakdowns are much of a muchness really.

Piece of piss.

[BlodwynPig]

Everybody is clever nowadays.

I have that feeling too. I enjoyed the good old days when you felt like king amongst the dullards. Today you feel like the only dullard in the world.

[touchingcloth]

I graduated during the financial crash, so a lot of my friends have PhDs because there were no jobs available when they finished university.

[Pingers]

I have that feeling too. I enjoyed the good old days when you felt like king amongst the dullards. Today you feel like the only dullard in the world.

You should read more YouTube comments

[BlodwynPig]

You should read more YouTube comments

I posted a comment on youtube once and the internet turned on me, pointing fingers and laughing.

[garbed_attic]

I've got a PhD and don't know my 12 times table. You just need to be stubborn enough to do research on something obscure enough that you'll be granted a doctorate out of pity and the fact that noone can really question your research because that'd also require them trading in 5 years of their life for sitting in a room with deteriorating mental health!

[garbed_attic]

I graduated during the financial crash, so a lot of my friends have PhDs because there were no jobs available when they finished university.

Same here - THIS

[Jockice]

Anyway, a few days ago I went to a talk featuring one of my old lecturers (the bloke who shares his name with an 80s pop star) and also there was the head of my department. Who, when I spoke to him seemed to have no recollection of me at all. Possibly because I'd actually go to the department about twice a year.

incidentally, that's despite living less than five minutes drive away from the department. My contemporaries came from places like Japan, Brazil, Jamaica and Turkey to study there. Not forgetting those from Bridgend and Stockport which is possibly worse.

[pancreas]

I've got two PhD students at the moment. One pleasures me in the front and one in the back while I write their theses for them. This is authority.

[Blue Jam]

Do you do this? Surround yourself with people much, much brighter than you for some reason you can't discern, so that you are in no doubt that you're none too bright? Because I certainly do.

I work for a university, at a research centre attached to a hospital, so there are doctors of both kinds all over the shop.

Loads of them will still try to open a toilet door when it is clearly locked, though.

That makes me feel a bit less stupid.

[shiftwork2]

You just need to be stubborn enough to do research on something obscure enough that you'll be granted a doctorate out of pity and the fact that noone can really question your research because that'd also require them trading in 5 years of their life for sitting in a room with deteriorating mental health!

I laughed _{because it's true}

[BlodwynPig]

I laughed _{because it's true}

Except its not true in academic circles. Yes, there are some obscure PhD theses out there, but most nowadays are less opaque and quite fun to dive into as a lay person.

[Janie Jones]

In the early 1980s someone told me that if your title is 'Dr,' you won't get stopped by the police for minor traffic infringements because they'll look up your registration documents (I think in those pre-ANPR days they radioed your number plate to a desk person who looked you up on a database) and assume you are a medical doctor speeding to an emergency. I know, but it was the 80s and we'd swallow any guff about how thick the pigs were. Around the same time my friend's older sister got a PhD in feminist iconography in Judy Garland films. So both my partner and I, with nowt more than a BSc between us, started using Dr on official documents and ever since it's remained on our passports and our driving licences which is proper fraud.

[garbed_attic]

Except its not true in academic circles. Yes, there are some obscure PhD theses out there, but most nowadays are less opaque and quite fun to dive into as a lay person.

Sure, in terms of style (thankfully) but in terms of hyper-specificity, it certainly still seems to be true within the humanities, even while there is concurrently a push towards "impact" (and so the commodification of one's research).

But, I get I am biased, because I ended up with both a supervisor and a VIVA panel of academics who really had very little familiarity with the topic/s of my work.