Which academic discipline do you respect the most?

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker


Nah, military stuff tends to have civilian applications.

My Phalynx gattling gun is great for duck hunting.

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Jon Miller


Why?

JM

Because it is a joke. If you want to be an accountant spend three years doing a professional accountancy qualification with a professional institutional body. Saying you have a degree in accountancy is tantamount to saying you aren't able to do the thing properly.

[Dauphin]

Scrap that, it's more akin to receiving a swimming badge saying you can swim 25m. It makes you special.

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by Dauphin


Because it is a joke. If you want to be an accountant spend three years doing a professional accountancy qualification with a professional institutional body. Saying you have a degree in accountancy is tantamount to saying you aren't able to do the thing properly.

I meant why did you take it.

JM
(but maybe I was not getting your joke)

[SpencerH]

In my experience as an academic I've found that all of us spend some of our time pretending that our research/field of interest is important (of course none of it is). I voted for literature simply because one has to respect those who are crazed enough to constantly exist in that point of view.

[Guynemer]

Originally posted by Dauphin


Bright and hardworking for sure, but talking to my schoolfriends who went into the profession... they are now so jaded that the last comment takes on a different meaning - they are unafraid because they don't care anymore.

There is much truth to this.

I hesitate to admit this about myself, but it is true: I have wished death on ill children, not to end their suffering, but so I could get some sleep while on-call.

[Drake Tungsten]

Sleeping in the on-call room

Sex in the on-call room

[Guynemer]

Never got to do that, either.

[Wycoff]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
Out of the ones listed, the only ones which pose true intellectual challenges are mathematics, physics and compsci.

Maybe some parts of econ too.

The rest are basically just technical disciplines.

What is your defintion of intellectual challenge?

Why aren't biological sciences as respected as chemistry?

[Drake Tungsten]

Never got to do that, either.

You have done it in the LL's library though, right?

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Wycoff
Why aren't biological sciences as respected as chemistry?

Because chemists need to know more math and physics. Duh.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Wycoff



What is your defintion of intellectual challenge?

Involving creative analytical thinking beyond the ability of the merely moderately intelligent.

[Wycoff]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
Involving creative analytical thinking beyond the ability of the merely moderately intelligent.

I thought that you'd have a more concrete definition than that. It seems like elite jurists, medical doctors, engineers, and biologists could fit into that definition.

I assume that world class theoretical physicists are the most intellectually gifted people in the world. That's why I voted for physics in this poll. However, not all physicists are great. What are second-tier graduate physics programs like? What do graduates from those types of programs do? Would you rank second rate physicists, mathematicians, and computer scientists ahead of first rate jurists, engineers, etc?

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Wycoff


I thought that you'd have a more concrete definition than that. It seems like elite jurists, medical doctors, engineers, and biologists could fit into that definition.

Some engineers. Very few doctors or biologists. Jurists?

[Wycoff]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse Jurists?

So you have no respect for people like Cardozo or Posner?