Beamer? :p

This is exactly the kind of ignoble aspiration I'm talking about. Perhaps this website will interest you http://www.lochaberhighlandestates.com . Much easier and cheaper.

There's a minimum PhD stipend which has been increasing annually for a few years now. Last time I checked it was £13,100 and it's tax-free. Take the matter up with the administrative people in the department.

Indeed if society did do away with these silly titles -- and I certainly hope it does -- it would be a source of great joy to see the disappointment on the faces of those idiots who did phd's just to acquire a title.

In our office of five phd students, two of them openly and proudly admitted they were just there "because i want to be called a doctor"

This is so pathetic. Beyond pathetic. The very thought that someone could be motivated to do something for 4 years for a reason so selfish, ignoble and ignorant makes me quite angry.

I'm wholly convinced that titles like 'dr', 'reverend', 'professor' all belong in the junk bin. What is it a person can truly profess in other than their own ignorance? Like Aristotle said "as for me, all I know is that I know nothing". And as for 'reverend', isn't it God who should be revered? And then there are politicians who assume the title 'Lord'. I find all these titles grossly abhorrent.

Why should a person who studies a craft, like carpentry, and refines their craft over many years not be entitled to a title like Dr, while a phd student who spends several years acquiring some obscure branch of knowledge can?

These titles just miss the point that we're all equal, and I'd be quite happy if society done away with all of them.

Misspacey, you're implying that being a high school biology teacher isn't an honourable profession and/or that it's for unintelligent people. Nonsense.

I don't care much about having a high IQ, but some of you obviously feel obliged to discredit it to make you feel better about your low IQ. Go look at the list of people with the highest IQs and you'll see they're almost all extremely accomplished mathematicians, physicists, chess players, etc.

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The 'Terman Study of the Gifted' is pretty interesting. Apparently a big determinant of being successful is whether our parents raise us with a sense of 'privilege' or not. Most of us aren't, so for example when we went to visit the doctor as kids we probably just did as the good doctor said and answered their questions (probably with single word answers) then went home.

Kids raised with a sense of privilege will have their parents telling them in the car on the way to the doctor "You should be thinking of questions you might want to ask the doctor,"... "You can ask him anything you want. Don't be shy. You can ask anything." Basically they're taught to speak up and assert themselves from the youngest age, even around authority figures.

Personally, my parents let me be me without this kind of malarky, and I turned out ok. But there are studies which associate success with instilling this sense of privilege from a young age, and I'll probably take this into account with my own kids (if I ever have any).

Yes I know what you mean. My viva is in around 3 weeks and I still can't stand the sight of it. Will have to soon though.

I'm thinking about printing out the university's criteria for meriting the award of a PhD, and writing under each point how the criteria were satisfied. The examiners' can't move the goalposts because I forgot some crap I wrote 3 months ago.

The IQ 180 guy sounds like a complete plonker. Being smart isn't about having a high IQ it's about using what one has to contribute to society. If having a high IQ leads to introversion and over-analysis instead of action then it's a burden. Malcolm Gladwell wrote an awesome book on this stuff called 'Outliers'.

Your supervisors sound pretty nice compared to mine. Just grow a thick skin and finish your PhD.

Well seeing as you did ask, I'm a MENSA member with an IQ of 170. But it's what a person does with their cleverness that counts.

precisely

Coming to America! --- Too funny, with an alright story

#2 Blues Brothers, for the music, characters, story, chase scenes, etc. (up)