I told my PhD advisor that I had inserted the sentence “The whale is the largest living mammal.” somewhere in my thesis about superconducting devices. I then did NOT insert the sentence. My theory was if I had put the sentence in then he would have realized he could stop reading so carefully once he found it.
He was a tenured professor that ran large observatories. He was always more interested in what I could do technically than in whether I approved of him or not. I don’t think he paid any attention to my comment about the whale, although he did give me good comments on my thesis.
I did include quotes from “Moby Dick” at the tops of some of the chapters, including ”...I hold that the Whale is a fish [not an animal]...” whcih I had at the top of a chapter which was the quantum theory of the SIS device I was working with. So there were whale quotes in there for him :)
I told my PhD advisor that I had inserted the sentence “The whale is the largest living mammal.” somewhere in my thesis about superconducting devices. I then did NOT insert the sentence. My theory was if I had put the sentence in then he would have realized he could stop reading so carefully once he found it.
How did this go over with your advisor? (Serious question.)
He was a tenured professor that ran large observatories. He was always more interested in what I could do technically than in whether I approved of him or not. I don’t think he paid any attention to my comment about the whale, although he did give me good comments on my thesis.
I did include quotes from “Moby Dick” at the tops of some of the chapters, including ”...I hold that the Whale is a fish [not an animal]...” whcih I had at the top of a chapter which was the quantum theory of the SIS device I was working with. So there were whale quotes in there for him :)