Does having a Phd mean you're 'Clever'??

[Kameron]

Dunno, I was too stunned to ask questions

(I'll ask him for more details tonight!)

It is a fairly mind blowing CV that guy has got. Pika was so impressed by it I got sent a copy.

 

[kyser_soze]

I think you'll find that's 'floccinaucinihilipilification'

DAMMIT! Thought I could get that right from memory...

I thought it was a made up word for AGES...great word as well...

 

[Structaural]

DAMMIT! Thought I could get that right from memory...

I thought it was a made up word for AGES...great word as well...

Same here - my stepdad told me that word when I was about 11 - didn't believe him at all until years later when he acquired an Oxford Dictionary that actually had it in. He pronounced it wrong anyway.

Very easy to casually drop into conversation though (I wouldn't even know when to use it, grammatically, like)

 

[Hollis]

heh, coming from you matey boy

I actually see you as better suited to FE/6th form level - the terminally disgruntled social studies lecturer - "I could be leading the revolution, if I wasn't getting you guys through your A level"

- you get my point?

 

[kyser_soze]

Same here - my stepdad told me that word when I was about 11 - didn't believe him at all until years later when he acquired an Oxford Dictionary that actually had it in. He pronounced it wrong anyway.

Very easy to casually drop into conversaion though (I wouldn't even know when to use it, grammatically, like)

I love the variations:

floccinaucinihilipilificate
floccinaucinihilipilificated
floccinaucinihilipilificating

'I'm just going down to the garbage chute to do some floccinaucinihilipilificating'

'I floccinaucinihilipilificated those one armed barbie dolls - I reckon we could get £5 each on ebay for them...' (BUT...would that be floccinaucinihilipilificating since they have worth?)

 

[Structaural]

aha

Dave: 'This record is shit!'

'oh, Dave is floccinaucinihilipilificating again!'

 

[Guineveretoo]

I think you probably have to be quite clever to get a phd, yes. I don't reckon I'd be able to get one.

Can you *fail* a phd, though, if you produce your massive book thingy, or do they just weigh it and give you the badge and the medal?

yes, you can fail them. I know people who have, and people who have taken them again by revising their work and passed. I also know people who have failed more than once and given up!

I think you do need to be "clever" but only in a very limited field/area, so not necessarily clever in other areas of life.

 

[rhys gethin]

Quite so. I wrote a posting to say that very thing, as one who should know - but I either posted it to the wrong place or lost it. Duh. I know a fair bit about D.H. Lawrence, however, when sober!

 

[Agent Sparrow]

Given that there are many different ways in which someone can be intelligent, define "clever"

 

[zenie]

Well it's all a bit subjective like IQ's innit?

Clever and types of intelligence are interesting debates though.

I'm clever and I dont have a PhD

 

[Flavour]

My grandads got three PhDs and I've never met him but on the merits of what I know I'm fairly confident I'd edge him at Scrabble, Monopoly AND trivial pursuits, so either he's not that clever or my lineage also includes a real brainer

 

[zion]

Well, I don't have a PhD, though I know people who do. My question would be this. If having or not having a PhD is not a valid measure (among many) of cleverness, then what is a good measure?

...IQ tests?

...street smarts?

...ability at board games?

...seems like people have a lot of different answers. I don't see why having a PhD can't be one.

 

[samk]

Adaptability.

Test with a life swap. You get to follow your willing victim for a week, then have to do their job, and possibly their wife or husband

 

[sparkling]

Pikachu was interviewed for his job by a man with 8 Phds

I think thats faintly ridiculous and sad. Has the man nothing else in his life? What on earth is the point of 8?

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Does he call himself Dr Dr Dr Dr Dr Dr Dr Dr Bigbrain?

 

[Hollis]

Does he call himself Dr Dr Dr Dr Dr Dr Dr Dr Bigbrain?

This is what I was also wondering

 

[kyser_soze]

Adaptability.

Test with a life swap. You get to follow your willing victim for a week, then have to do their job, and possibly their wife or husband

I think this is spot on, that the true test of the mind is adaptability, since that's what the main criterea for survival is outside of our environmentally cushioned existance, and that in some ways, the kind of hyper-specialisation implied by a phd would potentially create problems for you since evolution doesn't generally favour super-specialisation...

 

[butterfly child]

Not at all.. I had no desire to do a phd.

That's what they all say, Hollis.

 

[Hollis]

That's what they all say, Hollis.

What ALL of them?

 

[kyser_soze]

I'm surprised no one has said this, but I think that phildwyer has a phd...

 

[lyra_k]

I'm surprised no one has said this, but I think that phildwyer has a phd...

why would that be surprising....he controls the anti-dwyer-posse like a magical puppetmaster, he probably has a psychology phd.

 

[Hollis]

What in?

I'd go more for an MBA in Global Financial Strategy (for starters),

 

[butterfly child]

What ALL of them?

All those that can't admit to themselves that they haven't got what it takes..

"I wouldn't want to do it anyway"

and so on...



(((((((((( hollis ))))))))))

 

[Hollis]

Indeed! Indeed! !!!

Frankly, I am simply unable to compete with this!!!!!



*unsubscribes from thread*

 

[rhys gethin]

Well, I don't have a PhD, though I know people who do. My question would be this. If having or not having a PhD is not a valid measure (among many) of cleverness, then what is a good measure?

...IQ tests?

...street smarts?

...ability at board games?

...seems like people have a lot of different answers. I don't see why having a PhD can't be one.

It seems to bother people more than those others, doesn't it? I think it is one of these things like riding a bike or sex that seem a big deal until you've done it.

 

[Hollis]

I see! We are unable to question the validity of academic knowledge and the role of academia unless we, ourselves, are part of the Tufty Club. Because if we do we must have baggage!

You yourselves are victims of the tyranny of academia.. I take it you all think the Today Radio show if fucking great aswell!!?!

 

[phildwyer]

I'm surprised no one has said this, but I think that phildwyer has a phd...

I do, but I still consider myself an autodidact. Anyone can get a Ph.D., but not anyone can read and understand books.

 

[phildwyer]

why would that be surprising....he controls the anti-dwyer-posse like a magical puppetmaster, he probably has a psychology phd.

Innit--from the Pavlovian school...

 

[Col_Buendia]

I do, but I still consider myself an autodidact. Anyone can get a Ph.D., but not anyone can read and understand books.

Hah-ha! So you bought yours from that place in Indiana, eh?

 

[equationgirl]

Lyra - yes you can fail a your phd. In the UK & most other countries there is a compulsory oral examination (the viva) and if the examiner is not convinced you know your subject or have completed the research in sufficient depth and breadth, or have not done an original piece of research (something not publidhes elsewhere), you will not get your phd.

My viva is next month.

Many people with phds have intelligence but zero common sense. They simply cannot function outside of a university.