One thing I learned from @Leasky's article today on #NeilOliver is that he holds honorary #doctorates from my Alma Mater, #GlasgowUniversity, and from #AbertayUniversity. Honours well-deserved at the time, but now he's publicly pushing #ConspiracyTheories, he's hardly upholding academic values
https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/viewpoint/23594881.scotlands-national-academy-cancel-neil-oliver/

Seen in the wild: “All a #PhD tells me is you were at least able to cram study and pass tests.”

I can’t even.

Do people really think this? Obviously this guy does, but in general? An honest question, not a rhetorical one.

I’ve spent a significant chunk of my life in the company of people with #doctorates—including two grandparents, so I understood from childhood that getting a PhD was quite different from any other kind of degree. Most people I know haven’t, but everyone who was part of my life through my long and winding #academic career has a pretty good idea what I did to become #Doctor Dvorkin. For anyone who doesn’t know, I’m always happy to give a quick sketch.

Among people who don’t have family or friends who have done it, and have never thought seriously about doing it themselves … is that the perception, that grad school is just a more intense version of elementary school through college? More tests, more cramming, more regurgitation, and then you get some shiny new letters after your name?

If that’s the case, I guess I can’t blame them, exactly. Like I’ve said before, most people have no idea how most of the things I’ve done for a living in my life actually work. The #military, #medicine, #science: all quite mysterious except for what people think they know from movies and TV, which is often worse than complete ignorance. So I guess it’s shouldn’t be a surprise if #academia is on that list.

But I would really like to know how widespread this view is. Maybe I can do something with that.

Story of this weekend... #Doctorates don't come easily