This illustrates my remarks about the way PhDs are regarded in the general working, esp. PMC population. Joanna's right. of course, about what skills PhDs have, and Jordan's wrong on average (although some PhDs are idiots), but the perfection is that PhDs are head-in-the clouds good-for-nothings.
Mothers, don't get your kids grow up to be PhDs . . . .
--- Jordan Hayes <jmhayes at j-o-r-d-a-n.com> wrote:
> Joanna writes:
>
> > I have noticed that graduate study (up to but not
> necessarily
> > including a PhD) is good training for software
> technical writing.
> >
> > 1. It teaches you good research skills
> > 2. It teaches you how to work completely alone
> > 3. It teaches you that all the stuff people call
> "knowledge" is just
> > variously made up and so it makes you less afraid
> of dealing with a
> > realm in which everything is made up as you go
> along (software).
> > 4. It teaches you how to write books
>
> Wow, you must know some pretty special people.
> Nearly all the people I
> know who went to grad school (including those who
> completed their PhD, a
> minority):
>
> 1. Can't do research to save their lives. Why look
> things up? It's so
> much easier (and satisfying!) to just make guesses
> and posture about
> things. Or worse: have a clever thought and claim
> you discovered
> something really interesting (except that it has
> already been considered
> and discarded long ago). My favorite question: have
> you looked around
> to see if this has been done before? Blank stares.
>
> One thing that I've noticed is that grad school does
> NOT teach you good
> research skills, unless you're getting an MLS of
> course. What it
> teaches you is that if you've found some way to pick
> up and develop
> reasonable research skills on your own, you're ahead
> of the pack. But:
> no training actually occurs in this subject.
>
> 2. Get nothing done (I don't mean 80%, 90%, or even
> 95% -- I'm talking
> about getting things actually COMPLETE) unless
> pressured, and then it's
> often late and thus of poor quality (planning
> counts!) ... this mirrors
> the only "output" from grad school: the conference
> paper that is
> invariably full of handwaving and doctored graphics.
> This translates
> easily into shoddy Powerpoint presentations in your
> future.
>
> 3. Take your #3 to heart and become one of those
> people who variously
> makes things up as they go along ...
>
> 4. Talk about writing books, but never complete even
> abstracts or whole
> papers. Their dissertation is the last thing they
> ever complete, and
> even that took years beyond what it should have.
>
> -----
>
> # "Ok, you've got a Ph.D. ... just don't touch
> anything!"
>
> /jordan
>
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