{"id":2328,"date":"2009-08-26T05:49:10","date_gmt":"2009-08-26T13:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=2328"},"modified":"2009-08-26T05:49:10","modified_gmt":"2009-08-26T13:49:10","slug":"every-ph-d-has-a-little-crazy-inside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2009\/08\/26\/every-ph-d-has-a-little-crazy-inside","title":{"rendered":"Every Ph.D. Has A Little Crazy Inside"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Straight<\/a>Ph.D. stands for doc\u00adtor of phi\u00adlos\u00ado\u00adphy<\/i>. Doc\u00adtor is from the Latin doc\u00adtor<\/i> which means \u2018teacher\u2019. Phi\u00adlos\u00ado\u00adphy is from the Greek (the verb phileo<\/i> \u2018I love\u2019 plus the noun sophia<\/i> \u2018wis\u00addom\u2019). From an ety\u00admo\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal stand\u00adpoint, a doc\u00adtor of phi\u00adlos\u00ado\u00adphy is one who teach\u00ades oth\u00aders to love wis\u00addom.<\/p>\n

But ety\u00admol\u00ado\u00adgy is often a mis\u00adlead\u00ading guide to real\u00adi\u00adty. Just ask a but\u00adter\u00adfly or a pineap\u00adple.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an old joke that Ph.D. stands for per\u00adma\u00adnent head dam\u00adage<\/i>. Humor usu\u00adal\u00adly has more truth buried inside it than ety\u00admol\u00ado\u00adgy. I am con\u00advinced that most Ph.D.s have a lit\u00adtle crazy in them.<\/p>\n

You see, to earn a Ph.D. one must con\u00advince not only one\u00adself but also a com\u00admit\u00adtee that you are one of the world\u2019s lead\u00ading experts about one nar\u00adrow slice of real\u00adi\u00adty. Ide\u00adal\u00adly, you con\u00advince the com\u00admit\u00adtee that you know more about this very nar\u00adrow prob\u00adlem than any\u00adone else who has ever lived.<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s where the crazy comes in: this idea that you are unique\u00adly qual\u00adi\u00adfied to hold a cer\u00adtain opin\u00adion in a very eso\u00adteric area becomes a habit which creeps into oth\u00ader areas of your life. You con\u00advince your\u00adself that you are right and the world is wrong about some\u00adthing quite triv\u00adial. Every\u00adone does this to a degree, but there is one impor\u00adtant dif\u00adfer\u00adence: the Ph.D. believes some\u00adthing absolute\u00adly crazy.<\/p>\n

At this point you are think\u00ading to your\u00adself, \u201cGlen, I know sev\u00ader\u00adal Ph.D. hold\u00aders. They\u2019re nice, nor\u00admal peo\u00adple.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes. They are. They are also insane about some\u00adthing unex\u00adpect\u00aded. They have learned through expe\u00adri\u00adence to keep their crazi\u00adness well-masked. You have to dig down deep.<\/p>\n

Talk with your friend long enough and you will like\u00adly dis\u00adcov\u00ader that they raise ham\u00adsters for food. Or that they have a plan for which stores to loot in which order after the next major nat\u00adur\u00adal dis\u00adas\u00adter, and actu\u00adal\u00adly have a shop\u00adping list secret\u00aded about their per\u00adson at all times for just such an even\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adi\u00adty. Or that they believe in flood\u00ading preschools with mar\u00adi\u00adjua\u00adna smoke to keep the kids calm. Or that they keep a bazooka in the trunk of their car. <\/p>\n

And that\u2019s just the way it is. Some things come with acces\u00adsories \u2014 Bar\u00adbie dolls are one and Ph.D.s are anoth\u00ader. You just have to learn to live with it. This is why I have a much high\u00ader tol\u00ader\u00adance for eccen\u00adtric beliefs in out\u00adside speak\u00aders for my min\u00adistry if they have a doc\u00adtor\u00adate. I expect the crazy. I actu\u00adal\u00adly wel\u00adcome the crazy \u2014 it keeps things inter\u00adest\u00ading.<\/p>\n

So if you are my friend and are in pur\u00adsuit of a Ph.D., know that I love you and that I won\u2019t be dis\u00adtressed when you turn crazy in a few years. <\/p>\n

And if you already have your Ph.D., just remem\u00adber that I know. Some\u00adwhere deep in the recess\u00ades of your brain is an idea. I don\u2019t know what it is. I don\u2019t even know what it\u2019s about. But I know it is so insane that your fam\u00adi\u00adly has tried to slip phar\u00adma\u00adceu\u00adti\u00adcals into your meals on more than one occa\u00adsion, which is why you only eat foods that are translu\u00adcent. Which is crazy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ph.D. stands for doc\u00adtor of phi\u00adlos\u00ado\u00adphy. Doc\u00adtor is from the Latin doc\u00adtor which means \u2018teacher\u2019. Phi\u00adlos\u00ado\u00adphy is from the Greek (the verb phileo \u2018I love\u2019 plus the noun sophia \u2018wis\u00addom\u2019). From an ety\u00admo\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal stand\u00adpoint, a doc\u00adtor of phi\u00adlos\u00ado\u00adphy is one who teach\u00ades oth\u00aders to love wis\u00addom. But ety\u00admol\u00ado\u00adgy is often a mis\u00adlead\u00ading guide to real\u00adi\u00adty. \u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading \u201cEvery Ph.D. Has A Lit\u00adtle Crazy Inside\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rants-opinions-and-general-contrariness"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-By","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2328"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2344,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2328\/revisions\/2344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}