3 ms·

The PhD is a set of projects, but the person is recognized not by the projects but by the degree. (As in "That guy's a doctor" and not "That's that guy who buil

by cool-RR 16y ago

The PhD is a set of projects, but the person is recognized not by the projects but by the degree. (As in "That guy's a doctor" and not "That's that guy who built the awesome Foobsnicator project".) This is what the argument is about here, that the value of the PhD is being cheapened. If a person was judged by his projects, this would become irrelevant.

St-Clock 16y ago
Wrong, Ph.D. candidates get a lot of pressure to be associated with an idea, or a set of related projects, and they can get a lot of flak if they deviate a little because when you apply for an academic or industrial job, "you want to be known for an idea, not for your degree" (disclaimer: i'm a ph.d. candidate)
- ChristianMarks 16y ago
  That's where I went wrong!
lrm242 16y ago
A lot of PhD recipients are judged by their project, in that they continue to do research in and explore the area of their research. Building something and releasing it as an open source project, for example, says something about an individual. It doesn't necessarily say everything you need to know. The same goes for someone with a PhD or any academic degree. Both are useful in judging the worthwhileness of an individual.
michael_dorfman 16y ago
My argument is that it is difficult for casual observers to assess each individual project, so we as a group outsource this job to an accredited agency, who verifies that a set of projects has been completed that match a pre-defined standard. When I go to a doctor's office, I don't really always have time to investigate in detail the various projects he undertook. What's at stake here is that the agency tasked with upholding the standard (the U of Manitoba) seems to have slackened the agreed-upon standard for the sets of projects involved to reach the level of "PhD in Mathematics".
- pyre 16y ago
  > When I go to a doctor's office, I don't really always > have time to investigate in detail the various > projects he undertook. Is mathematician a registered profession in your locality?

by cool-RR 16y ago

St-Clock 16y ago

Wrong, Ph.D. candidates get a lot of pressure to be associated with an idea, or a set of related projects, and they can get a lot of flak if they deviate a little because when you apply for an academic or industrial job, "you want to be known for an idea, not for your degree" (disclaimer: i'm a ph.d. candidate)

ChristianMarks 16y ago
That's where I went wrong!

lrm242 16y ago

A lot of PhD recipients are judged by their project, in that they continue to do research in and explore the area of their research. Building something and releasing it as an open source project, for example, says something about an individual. It doesn't necessarily say everything you need to know. The same goes for someone with a PhD or any academic degree. Both are useful in judging the worthwhileness of an individual.

michael_dorfman 16y ago

My argument is that it is difficult for casual observers to assess each individual project, so we as a group outsource this job to an accredited agency, who verifies that a set of projects has been completed that match a pre-defined standard. When I go to a doctor's office, I don't really always have time to investigate in detail the various projects he undertook. What's at stake here is that the agency tasked with upholding the standard (the U of Manitoba) seems to have slackened the agreed-upon standard for the sets of projects involved to reach the level of "PhD in Mathematics".

pyre 16y ago
> When I go to a doctor's office, I don't really always > have time to investigate in detail the various > projects he undertook. Is mathematician a registered profession in your locality?