“From the moment I picked up your book until I put it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Someday I intend to read it.” —Groucho Marx
Source: The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor, February 1, 2012
From The Onion, a bit of humor related to my previous post:
INDIANAPOLIS—The National Science Foundation’s annual symposium concluded Monday, with the 1,500 scientists in attendance reaching the consensus that science is hard.
“For centuries, we have embraced the pursuit of scientific knowledge as one of the noblest and worthiest of human endeavors, one leading to the enrichment of mankind both today and for future generations,” said keynote speaker and NSF chairman Louis Farian. “However, a breakthrough discovery is challenging our long-held perceptions about our discipline—the discovery that science is really, really hard.”
See National Science Foundation: Science Hard for the rest of the article.
Last night Jorge Cham, creator of the Piled Higher and Deeper comic strip, gave a talk at CIRTL Forum 2008 titled “The Power of Procrastination: Surviving Graduate School and Deciding What is Next”. Absolutely hilarious! If you’re a graduate student and you haven’t read his comics, you owe it to yourself to take a look. You can read them online, check out the Top 200, or buy one of his books:
Enjoy! :)
It always takes longer than you think it will take, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law. —Douglas Hofstadter
Source: Douglas Hofstadter, I am a Strange Loop, p. xiv
From Scholars Before Researchers: On the Centrality of the Dissertation Literature Review in Research Preparation by Boote and Beile (2005):
We have all heard the joke before—as we move through graduate school, we learn more and more about less and less until we know everything about nothing.
I hadn’t heard the joke before, but I think it’s hilarious. Must be the limits reference.
Victor A. Barger 