4 ms·

Probably worth pointing out that this particular poster has an extremely negative view of many of their life experiences! (e.g., look for their comments about

Probably worth pointing out that this particular poster has an extremely negative view of many of their life experiences! (e.g., look for their comments about working for Google.)

michaelochurch 13y ago
Actually, my year of graduate school was pretty positive, as far as things go. No complaints. I did look ahead and realize that academia was not the best deal in the world. Also, you're a douche for bringing up irrelevancies like that.
- shardling 13y ago
  I think that, if someone asks for a level-headed analysis of grad school, it is totally worth pointing out that an anecdotal response is from someone that has highly charged and divisive opinions about many things, especially institutional culture! Also I'm pretty sure I've seen you say that you're proud of the fact that your perspective on life isn't typical -- so at least own that fact here.
- hyperbovine 13y ago
  Really? I find that to be entirely relevant. Subtract the bias to get an unbiased estimator...
nostrademons 13y ago
Ad hominem alert! FWIW, much as I get annoyed by Michael's constant negative comments about Google (experiences which are fairly foreign to my own experience there), they are still his experiences. Take them with a grain of salt, but take everyone's experiences from the Internet with a grain of salt. Also FWIW, I have a number of friends who are generally shiny happy people who were basically ground down into dust in their Ph.D programs. They stayed for the whole time and not just the first year, but around year 4-6 even the most mentally stable and cheerful of them start saying things like "My life is miserable. I just want this to be over."
- shardling 13y ago
  Please look at the definition of ad hominem before tossing the term around. You also seem to have read a personal opinion into my post that simply isn't there!
  - nostrademons 13y ago
    http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/ad-hominem.html http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/ad-hominem.html Structure of this thread: MOC: I spent a year in graduate school. Life-wise, graduate school is a pretty negative experience. Shardling: Probably worth pointing out that MOC has an extremely negative view of many of their life experiences. That's exactly the form of an ad-hominem argument: Person A makes a statement, person B brings up some fact about person A that would lead them to make that statement, ergo person A's statement is invalid. The problem here is logical, not personal: just because MOC has made negative statements about other things does not mean this negative statement is without basis. I read no such personal opinion into your post: I'm attacking your logic, not your tone.
    - shardling 13y ago
      Ad hominem attacks are when you imply that someone's argument is invalid because of their background. That's what makes it a fallacy -- the validity of someone's argument is completely unrelated to their personal qualities. http://plover.net/~bonds/adhominem.html http://plover.net/~bonds/adhominem.html In contrast, when someone offers an anecdote about their experiences, or in general offers their subjective judgement, then knowing something about them is damn important! For instance, if I knew MOC was a compulsive liar, that would certainly be relevant. Likewise, if MOC was in general an optimist who was loath to ever say anything negative, that would lend extra weight to their comments on grad school.

Probably worth pointing out that this particular poster has an extremely negative view of many of their life experiences! (e.g., look for their comments about working for Google.)

michaelochurch 13y ago

Actually, my year of graduate school was pretty positive, as far as things go. No complaints. I did look ahead and realize that academia was not the best deal in the world. Also, you're a douche for bringing up irrelevancies like that.

shardling 13y ago
I think that, if someone asks for a level-headed analysis of grad school, it is totally worth pointing out that an anecdotal response is from someone that has highly charged and divisive opinions about many things, especially institutional culture! Also I'm pretty sure I've seen you say that you're proud of the fact that your perspective on life isn't typical -- so at least own that fact here.
hyperbovine 13y ago
Really? I find that to be entirely relevant. Subtract the bias to get an unbiased estimator...

nostrademons 13y ago

Ad hominem alert! FWIW, much as I get annoyed by Michael's constant negative comments about Google (experiences which are fairly foreign to my own experience there), they are still his experiences. Take them with a grain of salt, but take everyone's experiences from the Internet with a grain of salt. Also FWIW, I have a number of friends who are generally shiny happy people who were basically ground down into dust in their Ph.D programs. They stayed for the whole time and not just the first year, but around year 4-6 even the most mentally stable and cheerful of them start saying things like "My life is miserable. I just want this to be over."

shardling 13y ago
Please look at the definition of ad hominem before tossing the term around. You also seem to have read a personal opinion into my post that simply isn't there!
- nostrademons 13y ago
  http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/ad-hominem.html http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/ad-hominem.html Structure of this thread: MOC: I spent a year in graduate school. Life-wise, graduate school is a pretty negative experience. Shardling: Probably worth pointing out that MOC has an extremely negative view of many of their life experiences. That's exactly the form of an ad-hominem argument: Person A makes a statement, person B brings up some fact about person A that would lead them to make that statement, ergo person A's statement is invalid. The problem here is logical, not personal: just because MOC has made negative statements about other things does not mean this negative statement is without basis. I read no such personal opinion into your post: I'm attacking your logic, not your tone.
  - shardling 13y ago
    Ad hominem attacks are when you imply that someone's argument is invalid because of their background. That's what makes it a fallacy -- the validity of someone's argument is completely unrelated to their personal qualities. http://plover.net/~bonds/adhominem.html http://plover.net/~bonds/adhominem.html In contrast, when someone offers an anecdote about their experiences, or in general offers their subjective judgement, then knowing something about them is damn important! For instance, if I knew MOC was a compulsive liar, that would certainly be relevant. Likewise, if MOC was in general an optimist who was loath to ever say anything negative, that would lend extra weight to their comments on grad school.