Occam's Razor
01 Apr, 2011
I remember when I was doing my PhD (yes, I know, amazing, did they have memory in those days etc etc..yadayadayada) and my supervisor (John Kay) and I would chat about my data at 5pm. he’d say things like ‘Why don’t you try (stuff)...it’ll only take five minutes. Yeah! After a while, I found out his home phone number and would make a point of calling him from the lab at 9pm (on his phone, there were no mobiles in those days) to tell him that his stupid idea hadn’t worked, or that my brilliant insight had paid off!
Needless to say, this was greeted with huge enthusiasm and encouragement to call at any time about data...but you could FEEL the disapproval from Elaine as she tried to get the children settled :-).
Anyway, the irreverence and complete lack of understanding of supervisors has completely crossed a whole generation (and a bit!). Let’s take today...
“If you have time to make us all Simpson’s avatars, you have time to fix Gemma’s database”, or
“Never mind Occam’s razor, it’s Occam’s Professor you work to...”
Sigh...
I now have my research group advising me how to spend my home time.
Another mol bites the dust.
And in the spirit of a true confessional, this was the era...
Needless to say, this was greeted with huge enthusiasm and encouragement to call at any time about data...but you could FEEL the disapproval from Elaine as she tried to get the children settled :-).
Anyway, the irreverence and complete lack of understanding of supervisors has completely crossed a whole generation (and a bit!). Let’s take today...
“If you have time to make us all Simpson’s avatars, you have time to fix Gemma’s database”, or
“Never mind Occam’s razor, it’s Occam’s Professor you work to...”
Sigh...
I now have my research group advising me how to spend my home time.
Another mol bites the dust.
And in the spirit of a true confessional, this was the era...