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From: Hoffman.es@XEROX.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.ai
Subject: Re: Ph.D. and 'understanding'
Message-ID: <493@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 27-Jul-84 11:42:24 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.493
Posted: Fri Jul 27 11:42:24 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 30-Jul-84 01:06:17 EDT
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>From H. E. Booker in a piece in "Science" magazine (maybe around summer 1973):

"At the conclusion of an ideal undergraduate education, a man's brain
works well.  He is convinced, not that he knows everything or even that
he knows everything in a particular field, but that he stands a
reasonable chance of understanding anything that someone else has
already understood.  Any subject that he can look up in a book he feels
that he too can probably understand.  On the other hand, if he cannot
look it up in a book, he is uncertain what to do next.  This is where
graduate education comes in.  Unlike the recipient of a Bachelor's Degree,
the recipient of a Doctor's Degree should have a reasonable confidence in
his ability to face what is novel and to continue doing so throughout life."

--Rodney Hoffman