Re:The readability of scientific texts is decreasing
by coldtea on Sunday September 10, 2017 @06:57PM
(#15214750)
>The casual nature with which you dismiss thousands of people who have devoted their lives to the pursuit of academic knowledge is frustrating and incredibly childish.
Like seriously? Do you think all of us PhDs just sit around and laugh about how dumb the government is while planning how we can make more useless papers? Do you think grad students just train to become better bullshitters?
Many people with PhDs and experience of academic publishing and the academic world can attest to exactly that. In fact many had -- some even published studies about it.
And what does the "devoted their lives" has to do with anything? When someone has a PhD all that tells us is that the pursued a career in academics (and sometimes not even than). Nothing about them having noble goals and "devoting their life to the pursuit of knowledge" etc, except in the tautological way that working in research implies it. They might just like the paycheck, the prestige, or whatever else. Heck, they might even have been pushed by their parents. Or they couldn't think they'd make it as entrepreneurs and didn't fancy getting into the enterprise job market.
When doctors are wined and dined by drug companies to promote crap drugs, or are complicit in ordering thousands of needless operations to pad their profits, as they often do, have they not devoted even more years that the average PhD holder? They did, but people can still cheat and take advantage of a system, whether their credentials or position.
Many people with PhDs and experience of academic publishing and the academic world can attest to exactly that. In fact many had -- some even published studies about it.
http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/jou...
And what does the "devoted their lives" has to do with anything? When someone has a PhD all that tells us is that the pursued a career in academics (and sometimes not even than). Nothing about them having noble goals and "devoting their life to the pursuit of knowledge" etc, except in the tautological way that working in research implies it. They might just like the paycheck, the prestige, or whatever else. Heck, they might even have been pushed by their parents. Or they couldn't think they'd make it as entrepreneurs and didn't fancy getting into the enterprise job market.
When doctors are wined and dined by drug companies to promote crap drugs, or are complicit in ordering thousands of needless operations to pad their profits, as they often do, have they not devoted even more years that the average PhD holder? They did, but people can still cheat and take advantage of a system, whether their credentials or position.