Quote:
Originally Posted by Barrykgerdes
It is surprising the number of applicants that had good degrees but could not apply the basics of their course to a simple common sense problem that I had already given them the answer to indirectly.
Barry
|
Too true, Barry.
For instance, a lot of astronomy PhD theses simply amount to making some observations of some objects and analyzing and presenting the data, without drawing any conclusions or saying anything new.
I think that, even these days, it is important to 'actually be able to do it'
I recall a really tedious man, when I had a spell working in the public service, who used to sit there doing nothing all day, and who was very scornful of all the paper shuffling that administrative work involved. He had a superior air, because he had a doctorate in palaeontology.
He could have been out there digging, and preparing fossils, and actually doing something, instead of sitting at a desk and being bored. Many people do research these days without being paid for it: some of them have never had a formal position in their area of research, and some of them manage to do it without formal qualifications. It ain't easy to get to the stage where you can actually solve problems in a specialized field of science, but the very large amount of required knowledge can be obtained simply through personal study.