In the interest
of full disclosure: I hold a Ph.D. degree. Therefore, if you think this tract
is intended to buttress my qualifications and demand an exalted status, I can
honestly tell you that I cannot disabuse you of that notion. Yet …
… I will share
with you what I think a Ph.D. degree means to me, what I would demand of myself,
what can be expected of me.
1.
Though Ph.Ds like to be addressed as “Doctors”,
they can only make you feel worse.
2.
A Ph.D. degree is no more than a certificate.
3.
The holder of this degree has shown certain
level of competence for successfully analyzing a situation (after deep and long
training which saner people avoid going through) that is of a higher level of
complexity than is generally associated with the problems posed to people
without this certificate.
That is a pretty long sentence and quite inelegantly
constructed. Would I like to say it in simpler words?
4.
No. Why? Because Ph.D. holders do not know how
to think in simple terms. They can only complicate things and take pride in solving
complicated problems!
5.
Ph.Ds should NOT be asked to solve problems.
6.
The most one can demand of a Ph.D. is to show
the way to solve problems. It is for the non-Ph.Ds to solve the problems, after
slaying the dragons they meet along the path paved by Ph.Ds!
7.
Ph.Ds are NOT experts, but they like others to
think they are!
8.
Ph.Ds cannot do anything; therefore, they do
Ph.Ds!
These are the
thoughts of a Ph.D. degree holder, who spent a lot of time gaining the
competence to analyze in the most convoluted way the contributions a Ph.D. can
make, where the simple answer to the title question is …
NOTHING!
Raghuram
Ekambaram
2 comments:
This is some sensible humour
Thanks Balu ... but, you are in the minority; most people take the post in the sense it was not meant to be taken - seriously.
RE
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