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I no longer understand my PhD dissertation

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Re: I no longer understand my PhD dissertation

#21

Post by eru »

tluyben2 wrote: post #13
jedberg wrote: post #3

> Beyond scarcely stretching the boundaries of obscure mathematical knowledge, what tangible difference has a PhD made to my life? The same thing a bachelors degree does for everyone else. You've proven that you can start, stick with, and complete a task that takes multiple years and a complicated set of steps.

Which feels like a 'life is suffering' weirdness. I did it and never needed my diplomas for anything. Maybe I benefited somehow but I was a coder and entrepreneur before that; I had a software company before uni. It was over 20 years ago and in hindsight I find it pretty pointless and a waste of time. Maybe I became a better problem solver on some level but unless you are going into research or are not a self starter…

At least it keeps you from having regrets about `should have done a degree'.

Re: I no longer understand my PhD dissertation

#23

Post by mfn »

MicroBerto wrote: post #16

My response is that for every 100 of these types of papers, one of them may prove to be pivotal or inspirational in something truly groundbreaking and functionally useful. For this reason, I am all for 100 different people spending their time doing things like this, because eventually one of them will make an impact that is greater than 100x the efforts of 100 normal men. It's just a different kind of "brick in the w…

Great point. I think this applies to scientific research in general, which is why the constant emphasis on only funding research with clear and immediate economic payoff seems a bit shortsighted.

In reality, chances are that most research won't lead to anything significant - but the 1% that does will have outsized impact that will more than pay for the rest. And we don't know which 1% this will be in advance.

Re: I no longer understand my PhD dissertation

#24

Post by analog31 »

My PhD is in physics, from 20+ years ago, and I would not be able to explain or defend it today without studying it for a while. I've even forgotten the language (Pascal) that I wrote my experimental control and analysis code in.

My experiment formed the basis of a fairly productive new research program for my thesis advisor, so at least it lived on in somebody's brain, but not in mine. ;-)

Re: I no longer understand my PhD dissertation

#25

Post by crackpotbaker »

closure wrote: post #11

This does not surprise me in the least. Math was always extremely easy for me growing up. Up through my first differential equations class I found almost everything trivial to learn (the one exception is that I always found proving things difficult). I made the mistake of minoring in math and that slowly killed my enjoyment of it. Once I got to differential geometry and advanced matrix theory it all just became too a…

General skill of problem solving seems to stick with you forever.

It's probably because most of your problem solving knowledge is your own invention. Whereas math and programming is your own invention if you solve all the problems by yourself, if you code everything from the start. This gives you the understanding of the problems, and the reasoning/tools to solve it.

I've been dropping in and out of problem solving fields through the years, and I've noticed that my knowledge practically disappears, but my problem solvings skills can adapt to any framework (mathematics, physics, programming) it just takes a little bit of time to re/learn the terminology.

Re: I no longer understand my PhD dissertation

#26

Post by pluteoid »

MicroBerto wrote: post #16

My response is that for every 100 of these types of papers, one of them may prove to be pivotal or inspirational in something truly groundbreaking and functionally useful. For this reason, I am all for 100 different people spending their time doing things like this, because eventually one of them will make an impact that is greater than 100x the efforts of 100 normal men. It's just a different kind of "brick in the w…

Exactly. I have the broadly same issue with my doctorate: I know essentially what I showed, but I only ever really completely understood my thesis's more abstruse passages around the time I was writing them (and being examined on them). But I don't find this surprising or concerning. The overriding motivation for doing a PhD was to try to contribute some original knowledge and insights to a field I find interesting. All this article talks about is, what did my PhD do for me personally, and tangentially how can the PhD experience help to train the mathematical brain. To me those are secondary issues, my reward is that my thesis, although hardly earth-shattering, gets checked out of the library every so often, and I get emails from interested and interesting people asking me about it.

Re: I no longer understand my PhD dissertation

#28

Post by Someone »

jedberg wrote: post #3

> Beyond scarcely stretching the boundaries of obscure mathematical knowledge, what tangible difference has a PhD made to my life? The same thing a bachelors degree does for everyone else. You've proven that you can start, stick with, and complete a task that takes multiple years and a complicated set of steps.

I would hope a significant part of the reason people pursue a bachelors degree and, more so, a Ph.D. is because they enjoy doing it.

Re: I no longer understand my PhD dissertation

#29

Post by shalmanese »

I'm truly shocked by the multiple people in the thread who claim that Math knowledge can be completely erased through as little as a year of non-practice.

For me, Math has always resembled riding a bike more than anything else. Sure, the first few moments, the path is a bit overgrown and all the weeds need to be cleared off but it was always significantly easier revisiting a topic than understanding it for the first time.

For those who forget so quickly, I wonder if you felt like you truly understood it in the first place?

Re: I no longer understand my PhD dissertation

#30

Post by bbcbasic »

It is not like riding a bike!

I am reading up on stats after 15 years away from the subject and even the very basic stuff I have forgotten. Although the 'muscle memory' is there so that perhaps it is a bit easier then when totally new.

What I also find is I am more interested in the application/intuition behind something now rather than the mechanics of the formulas. Maybe that has to do with a different aim i.e. usefulness vs. passing an exam..

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