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2. Is bullshit. Stapler thesis are totally acceptable. In fact many people think they are better than a traditional thesis since they are based on work that is
by sjtrny 12y ago
2. Is bullshit. Stapler thesis are totally acceptable. In fact many people think they are better than a traditional thesis since they are based on work that is of enough quality to already have been published in other venues.
- stared 12y agoOnly in _some_ places.
- sjtrny 12y agoPlaces that are self aware enough to realise that no one really cares about your thesis anymore. It's all about your publication list.
- seanmcdirmid 12y agoTrue, but your thesis is your best opportunity to express yourself in long form writing, a chance you might not ever get again unless you decide to write a book. You should at least care about your thesis.
- foldr 12y agoNo-one will read it. If you want to do it as a personal exercise in self expression that's fine, but it's a mistake to view it as a career goal. Any time you spend in grad school writing something other than a draft paper is (in purely career terms) time wasted. (Probably no-one will read your papers either, but you can at least list them on your CV.)
- seanmcdirmid 12y agoWriting is often part of the journey, not the destination. But you should always write to with the hope of being read. Building a career in academia is vacuous, it's not the only thing that can be done with a phd.
- foldr 12y agoIt's a really bad idea to do a PhD if you don't want a career in academia. If you have a different goal there will always be a better way to spend five years.
- seanmcdirmid 12y ago8 years actually. One could work in an industrial research lab; I like it. There are plenty of dev jobs that work well for PhDs (look at Google).
- foldr 12y agoIn a few fields. In my field there is no career option other than academia, and that is very much the rule rather than the exception as far as PhDs go. To encourage people who are ambivalent about an academic career to do a PhD is terrible terrible life advice.
- stared 12y agoSure. So the problem is that no one cares about your thesis, but you still need to put some month to write it down (for univs that don't accept stapler theses).
- pcrh 12y ago"Stapler theses" are common in some European countries, e.g. Germany and the Netherlands.
- georgewfraser 12y agoI wrote a stapler thesis and I agree with all of this.