japhy wrote: ↑Wed Oct 02, 2024 8:25 am
I recently spent the day at KU talking to students and faculty at an engineering career fair. A lot of highly educated, very intelligent people. It is interesting that never once in my years of going there has any of them reminded me they had a PHD or even talked about it. None of them has ever felt it needed to be said that they were intelligent. In the sciences it seems that ideas and facts are paramount to making any point they wish to make. And your work speaks for itself.
But in the pseudosciences it seems to be different. I know a couple of PHDs in that category. One has her doctorate from an on line school in "gender/racial equity" and is obsessed with letting everyone know she has a PHD and she is "intelligent and philosophically so". She complains about how she has to work as an adjunct in another school to make ends meet. I have to wonder is this a trait of online PHDs? Is this a trait that is fostered by earning "advanced" degrees in the pseudosciences? Maybe it is just human frailty and insecurity.
My take away message for everyone is the same as always. Raise your children to understand the importance of math, science and critical thinking skills. This is how we make the world a better place. I read last night that some engineers figured out how to make a filter that fits on a faucet and will remove micro-plastics from your water. And "the economy" values these skills, so your kids won't be complaining about their second and third jobs.
I hear, in your post, echoes of last night's exchanges on expertise.
In my experience, people with true expertise in anything - substantive subject matter mastery obtained through education AND experience, as distinct from an impressive-but-airy ability to
talk masterfully about the subject matter - recognize the limits of that kind of expertise, and respect that kind of expertise in others.
The reason for this is obvious: there is only so much TIME for a person to acquire (by education AND experience) substantive subject matter expertise in something, and that TIME is not available to acquire substantive subject matter expertise in other things.
Conversely, it's very easy for an intelligent person to acquire
speaking mastery of many things.
Where we run into trouble is when the rubes of the world confuse
speaking mastery for substantive subject matter mastery. That is how junk science gets elevated above experience-based expertise.