5 ms·

The shortest Phd thesis

24 points by helwr 17y ago

smanek 17y ago
The 15 pg thesis (from 1899): http://arxiv.org/pdf/0803.3787v1 http://arxiv.org/pdf/0803.3787v1
- jrp 17y ago
  Thank you; I thought he was talking about the physicist Landau.
- roundsquare 17y ago
  Very equation heavy, which I think contributes to its brevity. Contrast that with some papers in other areas of math/TCS where you tend to be less equation heavy and more wordy. For example, lots of algorithms papers don't make as heavy use of equations (though there are still some of course).
cperciva 17y ago
It's not a record by far, but my thesis of 82 pages (8 pages front matter, 68 pages contents, 6 pages references) is definitely at the short end of the spectrum -- somewhere around 0.5th percentile for Oxford DPhil theses according to my search of Bodleian records.
joeyo 17y ago
It's not the shortest, but de Broglie's always impressed me by its sheer awesomeness: http://www.ensmp.fr/aflb/LDB-oeuvres/De_Broglie_Kracklauer.htm http://www.ensmp.fr/aflb/LDB-oeuvres/De_Broglie_Kracklauer.h...
csytan 17y ago
I've only ever written one undergrad thesis. The dry subject matter and the extended length of it makes me believe that the last eyes that will be laid upon it will be those of my thesis advisor. Seriously though, why do research papers have to be so long? Verbosity makes for a high barrier to entry and it is unnecessarily boring for everyone involved. Educational institutions could learn a thing or two from the 5 W's of reporting.
- dschobel 17y ago
  The 5 W's are the abstract. The rest of it is what shows everyone else that you've done your due diligence and thought the idea through in the context of existing research.
coffeemug 17y ago
I suspect that on average the length of a thesis is inversely correlated to its brilliance. Computer science is a fairly established field at this point, so a mediocre thesis likely describes a large number of small improvements upon the status quo - along with charts, graphs, and explanations that compensate for lack of a single revolutionary finding. If someone can prove that P=NP (or that P!=NP) in 13 pages, there's no need for another hundred pages of explanations. On the other hand, improving the performance of Linux page cache by 5% on some workloads will clearly be accompanied with a hundred pages of methodology explanations and performance measurements. Interestingly there are lots of long and brilliant dissertations - Chris Okasaki's functional data structures thesis comes to mind. However, I doubt there are very many (if any) short mediocre dissertations - in case of mediocrity lack of content must always be compensated by size.
- weaksauce 17y ago
  I agree. I wish the whole length == intelligence thing stopped after high school. In high school the teacher sets out a length that your essay needs to be and the student mindful of the length requirement fills the space with a few bullet points and copious amounts of BS which translates to a lifetime correlation for most people that length == A paper. I think Pascal said it best: I have only made this longer, because I have not had the time to make it shorter.
  - coffeemug 17y ago
    This reminds me of a great essay, "How to Say Nothing in 500 Words or Less" - http://www.apostate.com/how-say-nothing-500-words http://www.apostate.com/how-say-nothing-500-words. I think this nonsense should stop way before high school. I still remember the SPERM formula from my social studies class - social, political, economic, religious, and military. Pick three, write a paragraph on each, and stick them between an introduction and a conclusion (which is really an introduction rephrased). I learned more about good writing by debating various political issues on the gamedev boards I used to frequent than in any of my high school classes.
  - tetha 17y ago
    WEll, length == intelligence has been disproven by shamir and his paper about secret sharing. 2 pages of groundbreaking paper and the whole crypto world is shaking. Most of the time, if people tell me to write more, I just ask them what they are missing, and either I can point them to a single paragraph where it is written or I need to write more, indeed. Most of the time, the other people give up and accept the short length after around 5-10 iterations :)
andrewcooke 17y ago
can someone explain what the "theses" are on the last page of the thesis in the link? i don't understand how they are connected in any way to the rest of the work (i am not a mathematician). thanks.
- asmosoinio 17y ago
  I was wondering about the same thing. Here's the text: ------------ 1. It is desirable during every existence proof of a mathematical quantity to be led, at the same time on the way to the result, to the actual existing quantity. 2. A boundary between arithmetic and analytic areas of mathematics cannot be drawn. 3. The concept of the semiconvergent series is a relative concept. 4. Out of the impossibility of perpetual motion of second kind comes the proof of the second law of thermodynamics. 5. It did not succeed, the justifying of psychology on an exactly mathematical basis. ----------
RK 17y ago
I think Schroedinger's dissertation was only 7 pages total. http://www.lynge.com/item.php?bookid=38111 http://www.lynge.com/item.php?bookid=38111
PabloCh 17y ago
A think that this discussion is a little biased. For one hand, the form of a thesis depends a lot on the field. The more theoretical, the more it can be concise, but in some fields you need a lot of experimental data. Another issue is that most dissertations are not made from a single, ground breaking contribution, but from several incremental contributions and you need to integrate them into a coherent text. I've not finished my dissertation, but it fall in the latter case and I think it will be some 100 pages long. By the way, it will be interesting to see the length of the PhD thesis of the people that claims that "the length of a thesis is inversely correlated to its brilliance" (only cperciva declared it)
ckuehne 17y ago
The guy who wrote the thesis is the same who popularized a notation about the limiting behavior of functions which was introduced by the German mathematician Bachman. The notation is therefore called the Bachmann-Landau notation. Alternatively it is known as the Big-O notation.

24 points by helwr 17y ago

smanek 17y ago

The 15 pg thesis (from 1899): http://arxiv.org/pdf/0803.3787v1 http://arxiv.org/pdf/0803.3787v1

jrp 17y ago
Thank you; I thought he was talking about the physicist Landau.
roundsquare 17y ago
Very equation heavy, which I think contributes to its brevity. Contrast that with some papers in other areas of math/TCS where you tend to be less equation heavy and more wordy. For example, lots of algorithms papers don't make as heavy use of equations (though there are still some of course).

cperciva 17y ago

It's not a record by far, but my thesis of 82 pages (8 pages front matter, 68 pages contents, 6 pages references) is definitely at the short end of the spectrum -- somewhere around 0.5th percentile for Oxford DPhil theses according to my search of Bodleian records.

joeyo 17y ago

It's not the shortest, but de Broglie's always impressed me by its sheer awesomeness: http://www.ensmp.fr/aflb/LDB-oeuvres/De_Broglie_Kracklauer.htm http://www.ensmp.fr/aflb/LDB-oeuvres/De_Broglie_Kracklauer.h...

csytan 17y ago

I've only ever written one undergrad thesis. The dry subject matter and the extended length of it makes me believe that the last eyes that will be laid upon it will be those of my thesis advisor. Seriously though, why do research papers have to be so long? Verbosity makes for a high barrier to entry and it is unnecessarily boring for everyone involved. Educational institutions could learn a thing or two from the 5 W's of reporting.

dschobel 17y ago
The 5 W's are the abstract. The rest of it is what shows everyone else that you've done your due diligence and thought the idea through in the context of existing research.

coffeemug 17y ago

I suspect that on average the length of a thesis is inversely correlated to its brilliance. Computer science is a fairly established field at this point, so a mediocre thesis likely describes a large number of small improvements upon the status quo - along with charts, graphs, and explanations that compensate for lack of a single revolutionary finding. If someone can prove that P=NP (or that P!=NP) in 13 pages, there's no need for another hundred pages of explanations. On the other hand, improving the performance of Linux page cache by 5% on some workloads will clearly be accompanied with a hundred pages of methodology explanations and performance measurements. Interestingly there are lots of long and brilliant dissertations - Chris Okasaki's functional data structures thesis comes to mind. However, I doubt there are very many (if any) short mediocre dissertations - in case of mediocrity lack of content must always be compensated by size.

weaksauce 17y ago
I agree. I wish the whole length == intelligence thing stopped after high school. In high school the teacher sets out a length that your essay needs to be and the student mindful of the length requirement fills the space with a few bullet points and copious amounts of BS which translates to a lifetime correlation for most people that length == A paper. I think Pascal said it best: I have only made this longer, because I have not had the time to make it shorter.
- coffeemug 17y ago
  This reminds me of a great essay, "How to Say Nothing in 500 Words or Less" - http://www.apostate.com/how-say-nothing-500-words http://www.apostate.com/how-say-nothing-500-words. I think this nonsense should stop way before high school. I still remember the SPERM formula from my social studies class - social, political, economic, religious, and military. Pick three, write a paragraph on each, and stick them between an introduction and a conclusion (which is really an introduction rephrased). I learned more about good writing by debating various political issues on the gamedev boards I used to frequent than in any of my high school classes.
- tetha 17y ago
  WEll, length == intelligence has been disproven by shamir and his paper about secret sharing. 2 pages of groundbreaking paper and the whole crypto world is shaking. Most of the time, if people tell me to write more, I just ask them what they are missing, and either I can point them to a single paragraph where it is written or I need to write more, indeed. Most of the time, the other people give up and accept the short length after around 5-10 iterations :)

andrewcooke 17y ago

can someone explain what the "theses" are on the last page of the thesis in the link? i don't understand how they are connected in any way to the rest of the work (i am not a mathematician). thanks.

asmosoinio 17y ago
I was wondering about the same thing. Here's the text: ------------ 1. It is desirable during every existence proof of a mathematical quantity to be led, at the same time on the way to the result, to the actual existing quantity. 2. A boundary between arithmetic and analytic areas of mathematics cannot be drawn. 3. The concept of the semiconvergent series is a relative concept. 4. Out of the impossibility of perpetual motion of second kind comes the proof of the second law of thermodynamics. 5. It did not succeed, the justifying of psychology on an exactly mathematical basis. ----------

RK 17y ago

I think Schroedinger's dissertation was only 7 pages total. http://www.lynge.com/item.php?bookid=38111 http://www.lynge.com/item.php?bookid=38111

PabloCh 17y ago

A think that this discussion is a little biased. For one hand, the form of a thesis depends a lot on the field. The more theoretical, the more it can be concise, but in some fields you need a lot of experimental data. Another issue is that most dissertations are not made from a single, ground breaking contribution, but from several incremental contributions and you need to integrate them into a coherent text. I've not finished my dissertation, but it fall in the latter case and I think it will be some 100 pages long. By the way, it will be interesting to see the length of the PhD thesis of the people that claims that "the length of a thesis is inversely correlated to its brilliance" (only cperciva declared it)

ckuehne 17y ago

The guy who wrote the thesis is the same who popularized a notation about the limiting behavior of functions which was introduced by the German mathematician Bachman. The notation is therefore called the Bachmann-Landau notation. Alternatively it is known as the Big-O notation.