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"I disagree with this article! Here's a hypothetical that proves it - I know it's true because I disagree with this article." I'm all for nuanced positions, th

by rplacd 15y ago

"I disagree with this article! Here's a hypothetical that proves it - I know it's true because I disagree with this article." I'm all for nuanced positions, though.

lhnz 15y ago
Indeed. Well, I'm not going to be able to create a good argument because mine is also based on the people at Oxford (and Cambridge) that I've met and how they've acted, too. (It could just be that I only meet certain kinds of people?) However, I suspect the author of this articles is speaking falsely because it doesn't match with the reality I've seen/heard. You have some of the brainiest people in the UK there and you expect me to believe that it always comes down to talk? For instance, my brother comes back from Oxford and I see the amount of work he brings back with him. He reads and writes more in one term than many other University's expect from their students in a few years... There are folders and folders of notes proving the workload. The reading lists that he has been provided have not been finished. This is because they're pages long and it is impossible to finish them in the time they are given. He often spends full days revising or reading, and especially now that is exam time he gives himself very few hours to relax. Of course there is a mix of people: some that literally work from 8AM till midnight and others that somehow seem to mix this with being a socialite (perhaps those people don't do any work and just buddy up to the professors by telling them that they do no work!? To me, that sounds bizarre.) Despite the different kinds of people that are there I think it is disingenuous for somebody with a relative that goes there to argue that workaholic study is not encouraged. I have seen the opposite; I have seen people under way too much stress and pressure to succeed and work hard. Okay, not very nuanced but maybe you see why I call it bullshit.
- rplacd 15y ago
  I have admit - I have a cousin that's been through Cambridge (went through a nanotechnology track, now taking a doctoral at Max Planck, will always feel inferior to him) and I do agree with you: he's barely poked his head out and reconnected with the extended family in ages. I'm interpreting this as "complete devotion to work" because complete disconnection is rather unheard of in the Asian family he comes from. So my observations line up with yours to some extent. I can't prove the existence of lack of of the opposite, annoyingly enough.

by rplacd 15y ago

"I disagree with this article! Here's a hypothetical that proves it - I know it's true because I disagree with this article." I'm all for nuanced positions, though.

lhnz 15y ago

Indeed. Well, I'm not going to be able to create a good argument because mine is also based on the people at Oxford (and Cambridge) that I've met and how they've acted, too. (It could just be that I only meet certain kinds of people?) However, I suspect the author of this articles is speaking falsely because it doesn't match with the reality I've seen/heard. You have some of the brainiest people in the UK there and you expect me to believe that it always comes down to talk? For instance, my brother comes back from Oxford and I see the amount of work he brings back with him. He reads and writes more in one term than many other University's expect from their students in a few years... There are folders and folders of notes proving the workload. The reading lists that he has been provided have not been finished. This is because they're pages long and it is impossible to finish them in the time they are given. He often spends full days revising or reading, and especially now that is exam time he gives himself very few hours to relax. Of course there is a mix of people: some that literally work from 8AM till midnight and others that somehow seem to mix this with being a socialite (perhaps those people don't do any work and just buddy up to the professors by telling them that they do no work!? To me, that sounds bizarre.) Despite the different kinds of people that are there I think it is disingenuous for somebody with a relative that goes there to argue that workaholic study is not encouraged. I have seen the opposite; I have seen people under way too much stress and pressure to succeed and work hard. Okay, not very nuanced but maybe you see why I call it bullshit.

rplacd 15y ago
I have admit - I have a cousin that's been through Cambridge (went through a nanotechnology track, now taking a doctoral at Max Planck, will always feel inferior to him) and I do agree with you: he's barely poked his head out and reconnected with the extended family in ages. I'm interpreting this as "complete devotion to work" because complete disconnection is rather unheard of in the Asian family he comes from. So my observations line up with yours to some extent. I can't prove the existence of lack of of the opposite, annoyingly enough.