Fairly captures the essence of my bloated discontent with mankind:
I know of many exceptions.
Take Jeffrey for instance, one of the people I mentioned who is coming to visit us this summer, with his wife Wendy — Dr. Wendy! I first met Jefferey in Cleveland when I was going to school, as was Wendy, she to become a medical doctor. Jeff could be a bit irascible at times but the man has a good heart. Especially around issues concerning dogs he’s a complete mush. When Rufus finally surrendered nobody texted and emailed me more than Jeff did. Lately, he’s done the same inquiring about Lucy (who’s hanging in there, btw). And the back and forth we had when his and Wendy’s dog Dexter was in his final days was heart wrenching. Anyway, one day while in Cleveland at a celebration shortly after I defended my dissertation and officially became Dr. Nibbe, Jefferey overheard me debating with myself whether I should take the consulting job or sign on with the university, because, I thought, you can only perform well in one job at a time, right?
Well, Jefferey jumped on that right quick, “Are you kidding, do both. You’re a PhD now, start behaving like one.”
What he meant, I think, is not that getting a PhD invests one with a god-like power, whereas before you were a mere mortal and now you are omniscient, but rather that a heightened level of respect comes with having earned the degree, more people will be interested in your highly specialized knowledge and there’s no reason why you can’t, and shouldn’t, think in parallel rather than serially. In other words, as he said, do both jobs at the same time.
Jeff, a PhD himself, I should point out was teaching bioethics courses at Case Western while also consulting for a company in Washington D.C..
I did end up serving in two separate roles for a time, drawing two salaries, but eventually moved full-time into just one. Nevertheless, I’ve not forgotten Jeff’s wisdom. It’ll be good to see him and Wendy again.
Speaking of bumper stickers, what ya wanna bet the driver of this truck works for the Department of Environmental Conservation?
During a conversation on the pros and cons of PhDness with my daughter and son-in-law, he (PhD Yale, Forestry) said and she (PhD Yale Nursing) concurred: “there are lots of smart people and the one’s with PhD’s are just more persistant.” They also said they would never have gone through that if they hadn’t needed to for the work they wanted to do. That doesn’t really speak to the idea that people will give someone more credence if they have three letters rather than two behind their name.
I still say Happy Wife best captured the true motivation for my returning to school late to get the club card: “It’s just your mountain to climb.”