A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.
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They're not trying to destroy your thesis, they're trying to make sure it's complete and sccurate. In theory, the only person who knows the material is you, so they can't just ask anyone else.
I never really understood why they call it a defense. Nobody's going in there trying to insult or fight it.
->Enter Thesis defense. Scream "Your thesis sucks!". You or your thesis now have to fight me
Tbh this scenario sounds way better to me than asking detailed questions about methodology or the results. But somehow I want to keep my job.
Two dissertations enter, one dissertation leaves.
So...this video doesn't depict a real thesis defence? Awkward...
Nobody's going in there trying to insult or fight it.
Lmao
That person went to a department that was WAY less toxic than mine was.
That said, my committee was lovely and my thesis and dissertation were relatively low-stress compared to some of the horror stories I've heard.
How science often works is you try to disprove things, and if you can't, you accept them as likely to be true. So, to show that the thesis is complete and accurate, they're trying to find places where it's incomplete or inaccurate. In the defense, your job is to defend against these attempts.
So trying to destroy it and making sure its accurate and complete turns out to be the same thing
Blah blah blah²³, blah blah
²³ Some truths are just self evident
Unironically based.
Scientific works should ideally stand on their own and present all the required information to understand its conclusions in a easy to comprehend for form.
Requiring a human, who is more prone to emotional and subjective errors during live speech then during honest predetermined writing sessions is everything but ideal.
However, a scientific work should be the most possible comprehendible to the target audience which may require multiple mixed forms including live discussion of subject matter.
[scientific medium that allows people to learn and grow independently of other factors] > [scientific medium that aids learning and growth in combination with other factors] > [scientific medium that requires near full knowledge of the subject matter to understand (thats just art for smart people)]