That works sometimes, but not usually for the theses I seem to be interested in—for example, the iodine thesis has no preceding papers or else I would’ve found those first before running into the thesis.
I’ve given up trying to predict people’s reactions. Some researchers or post-grads, when I contact them, seem thrilled to answer any questions I have or provide unpublished data; other seem to completely ignore me and as far as I can tell, pretend the thesis never existed. I’ll give a recent Evangelion example: http://eva.onegeek.org/pipermail/evangelion/2012-October/007214.html
I reviewed a like >200pg PhD thesis which as far as I can tell has been neither discussed nor cited anywhere online; I excerpt it, praise and criticize parts, point out several specific problems which could be fixed in it or places where new material would add substantially to her discussion, submit it to Reddit where it gets 3 praising comments. Then I ping her on Twitter and… nothing in almost a month despite occasional tweets posted by her.
I don’t understand how she could not reply, if only to defend herself: she must have spent years working on the thesis, and given the lack of Google hits, I might be one of maybe 10-20 people in the world to ever read it. If I had spent years working on something and someone sent me such an email, I don’t think I could ignore it: I’d be prostrate with joy that someone knowledgeable read it carefully, or I’d be berserk with rage that they would dare do anything but praise it and would reply tearing them a new one. Silence, however, I simply cannot understand.
The end result of PhD programs is a degree, and finishing a thesis is instrumental to this.The thesis might end up a sunk cost labor of hate that you just want to forget afterwards, even if it did take years, if you mostly just want the degree. Don’t know how much this happens at PhD level.
A month is nothing. Especially if she only just graduated and is busy with post-thesis life.
If you take a topic seriously, if you’ve just spent several years making the effort to think about it and write about it at levels of rigor far beyond the casual standards of ordinary thought and communication, you may put off responding to someone’s questions, precisely because you don’t want to lower your standards again, and you don’t immediately have the time to answer properly.
Especially if she only just graduated and is busy with post-thesis life.
No, she was doing it while working as an ESL teacher and still working, according to her tweets. Has had time to continue low-quality anime blogging too.
you may put off responding to someone’s questions, precisely because you don’t want to lower your standards again, and you don’t immediately have the time to answer properly.
There is no proper answer to several of my criticisms: she is simply flat out wrong or sloppy. Evangelion is one of the few topics where I acknowledge few peers and fewer superiors, and she is neither.
That works sometimes, but not usually for the theses I seem to be interested in—for example, the iodine thesis has no preceding papers or else I would’ve found those first before running into the thesis.
Interesting. It seems odd that they would publish only in as a thesis given that they have such a reputation for not being read.
I’ve given up trying to predict people’s reactions. Some researchers or post-grads, when I contact them, seem thrilled to answer any questions I have or provide unpublished data; other seem to completely ignore me and as far as I can tell, pretend the thesis never existed. I’ll give a recent Evangelion example: http://eva.onegeek.org/pipermail/evangelion/2012-October/007214.html
I reviewed a like >200pg PhD thesis which as far as I can tell has been neither discussed nor cited anywhere online; I excerpt it, praise and criticize parts, point out several specific problems which could be fixed in it or places where new material would add substantially to her discussion, submit it to Reddit where it gets 3 praising comments. Then I ping her on Twitter and… nothing in almost a month despite occasional tweets posted by her.
I don’t understand how she could not reply, if only to defend herself: she must have spent years working on the thesis, and given the lack of Google hits, I might be one of maybe 10-20 people in the world to ever read it. If I had spent years working on something and someone sent me such an email, I don’t think I could ignore it: I’d be prostrate with joy that someone knowledgeable read it carefully, or I’d be berserk with rage that they would dare do anything but praise it and would reply tearing them a new one. Silence, however, I simply cannot understand.
The end result of PhD programs is a degree, and finishing a thesis is instrumental to this.The thesis might end up a sunk cost labor of hate that you just want to forget afterwards, even if it did take years, if you mostly just want the degree. Don’t know how much this happens at PhD level.
My hypothesis would be ugh fields.
A month is nothing. Especially if she only just graduated and is busy with post-thesis life.
If you take a topic seriously, if you’ve just spent several years making the effort to think about it and write about it at levels of rigor far beyond the casual standards of ordinary thought and communication, you may put off responding to someone’s questions, precisely because you don’t want to lower your standards again, and you don’t immediately have the time to answer properly.
No, she was doing it while working as an ESL teacher and still working, according to her tweets. Has had time to continue low-quality anime blogging too.
There is no proper answer to several of my criticisms: she is simply flat out wrong or sloppy. Evangelion is one of the few topics where I acknowledge few peers and fewer superiors, and she is neither.
In that case, perhaps she agrees with your criticisms, but doesn’t want to admit to being wrong.