PhD Numptys

[C0rdelia]

I have met, worked and lived with PhD students who couldn’t tie their own shoelaces or make a cup of tea.
Properly, genuinely stupid and II hate that these numptys get paid more than me.

😂

[Ponders on spellings. One numpty. Two numpties]

Ahem. OP them's the breaks.

.... so go and do a PhD?

Phd students often get paid very little during their research, and in the research posts they end up in afterwards. I would love to do one but it would mean a massive drop in income for many years.

We had one PhD student who didn’t understand ‘The three wise men’ at Christmas.
Turned up at a Christmas party in lab coat and glasses because she thought that the wise men were scientists. Never heard of the three Kings.

So witty.

I’m going to assume this is a wind up...?
Alternative interpretation- a PhD numpty is a specific type of person most of us have been happy not to have encountered but somehow the OP keeps living with (to the point of knowing their salaries) 🤪

I’m going to guess based on just a wee notion that this PhD student was a furriner? Were they East Asian OP? Or brown?

Not knowing the details of the arcane mythology you choose to believe doesn’t actually render someone stupid you know?

The PhD student was white and from Essex.

I don’t know their exact salaries but automatically paid more because of the Doctor title.

the point of a PhD is to contribute something new to a specified (usually narrow) field, which is rather the opposite of general knowledge

Umm, the point is?

I'm studying for my doctorate (although EdD and not PhD) But I can reassure you I am quite normal and actually have quite a decent amount of common sense.

What's stopping you from doing a PhD, earning a Dr. title and then getting paid more yourself?

No one gets ‘automatically paid more because of the Doctor title’. Earning a doctorate makes people eligible for certain jobs which require a doctorate, just like any other job requires a certain level of qualifications/expertise/skills. If you want one of those jobs, do a doctorate.
And having a PhD makes you an expert in a particular area, not all areas. Unless your former housemate’s PhD was in Judeo-Christian winter festival mythology, I’m not sure why you’d think having a PhD should automatically make them familiar with the three wise men.

At the last hospital I worked at there was this HCA (50 something) who always used to moan and be really patronising about the young drs starting on their first job placement saying they had no common sense and were, essentially, idiots.
These drs had spent their entire, relatively short lives at this point furiously studying the sciences and medicine, sacrificing much social time and indeed life experience to get where they were. They definitely were not idiots. They hadn’t just hadn’t had life experience, certainly not compared to her anyway.
I bet these PhD students are all young and have not yet left the world of academia. Give them a break.

The PhD is the only qualification that lowers your earning potential.

If the person with a PhD is a wanker.....they were a wanker before. They are now just a wanker with a PhD.

I can vouch for the fact there are many people who don't have PhDs who are also wankers.

I even know a few people with a PhD who aren't wankers.

If they're doing a PhD, they're not stupid. No matter what you think of them....they're really not stupid. Maybe lacking common sense....but not stupid.

Also the bursary they typically get paid while studying for a PhD is shite. You must really be on crap money OP. Get yourself some qualifications and a pay rise and you'll feel better.

Oh, and in my experience, most students are a bit dippy. I certainly was. And I don't have a PhD.

I think turning up in a lab coat as a wise man is brilliant, after all they weren't Kings and we have no idea how many of them actually arrived the bible doesn't say.

You sound nice.

I do believe there is a type of person who has a brilliant mind iin some areas and cannot deal well with real life.

We have a few in my family, we also probably have a few Aspies.

Two of my uncles when younger were knopwn for there response to, "Put the kettle on", one would switch the kettle on. The other would put water in the kettle, while it was boiling, get out the tea and tea pot and reapear with a pot of tea, mugs, milk and sugar.

One of my friends has a son who can explain economics and physics but ask him to pass you a tea towel there is a 50% chance you will get one, but you might also get a cake tin.

It's just part of life, which would be rather boring if we were all the same.

Well if even an idiot can get a PhD why not just get one in your spare time and you’ll be paid the same?

Must be galling that people so stupid are able to do the same sort of work as you. Is your job extremely easy?

I agree that it must be numpties, though my spellcheck is mad at me.

OP, I am sure the PhDs you know are excellent at their fields. Why you think this would translate into a thorough knowledge of the Three Wise Men, I don't know.

I work with a lot of PhD students every day in a support role

They are all highly intelligent people who are brilliant in their field.

But sometimes when they are really focused on their results they kinda shut off the rest of their brain and they ask the silliest of questions
Makes me laugh