Dear Prof Friedman,
thanks for the note. This is probably the saddest day of the year as I
catch on the news of the death of a fine centenarian whose life is all
about learning, humanity without borders of any kind. While many people
fight for honors, their heads off, tails off (whatever material gabage you
can creatively churn out with); together with the mind up for money and
personal greed; there is someone out there over the rainbow who gave her
all. It is to my greatest sadness that such a person has passed away,
leaving instructions that no one should go collect her remains. I doubt
there are that many people who are like her who died without receiving
anything but given her all. Her honorary degrees are given after she was
100 years old. Her knowledge is beyond PhD. She is our Singapore pride,
honor and icon. I cannot help but to use her as a human spirit for learning
and life. Why? Her spirit includes constant love and giving; cheerful
curiousity to things she didn't know; always generous and giving yet asked
nothing in return. Even till her dying days and till her death that she
asked nothing and was cremated straight after her death because she didn't
want to trouble anyone for her funeral. I have not seen anyone like her. If
everyone were like her, the world would have no sufferings, no riots, no
demonstration and in particular--- no hunger. It may seem utterly strange,
but a person who barely had a university degree could achieve this much.
She comes from a tiny dot country call Singapore, but she died a person
whose guts and honor is far bigger than most people. Research is about
findings. Learning is about sharing. Peace is about taking off the fights
and unneccessary arguments. There are many more bastards (pardon my tone,
but i really think they are ********) who love to fight and still go on to
exploit all just to get what they want to achieve. Teresa Hsu may not hail
from any big country of great political and economic might; but her
humility and curosity deserves at least our attention and learning. Most of
the problems are not that complex. It is only complex because we keep
piling on them and loosing focus on the essence of the problems.
On Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 9:05 PM, Ken Friedman <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dear Karen,
>
> While the list was initially established for people with an interest in
> doctoral education and research training as well as broader topics in
> design research, there is no requirement that members have a PhD. Since
> at least 30% to 40% are doctoral students who have not yet completed a
> PhD and a great many more are researchers in industry or professional
> practitioners, it seems to me that at least half the list members do not
> have a PhD.
>
If I read your second post correctly, you’ve occasionally received
> rude off-list comments focused on the fact that you don’t have a PhD.
> It’s sad that such things happen, but all of us have received crank
> notes criticizing us for one reason or another. My advice? Save the
> notes if you like, but don’t pay much attention to them. This is
> generally a good list and most of the subscribers are nice people –
> even when we disagree with each other.
>
Yes, you've understood correctly. There is no typo there. You should come
and read a letter in my own physical mail box. That came not far away from
my first stance as a reviewer for the scientific committee a few years
back. I suppose they really don't like me. I still keep the letter. I don't
pay much attention to that but I was perfectly amazed it came from a top
notch institution. I studied abroad and I know that people aren't that
mean. But what really dismayed me was the way they put through the points.
If I was hard hearted enough, that letter could be flipped back. I kept it
for personal motivation and as a precious lesson. That was actually the
start of me scrutinzing postgraduate education. I think I should thank the
professor and the assistant for doing that. If not, I'd be blind about
education. Not to mention about another couple of emails.
> You can do me a favor, though. Please discard the “Re: Learning how
> to write from Ken” subject header. That’s another thread. Unless
> people who have taken my research writing seminars actually want to talk
> about “Learning how to write from Ken,” I’d be pleased to see
> another header for other posts.
>
>
Well, you've already saved me the trouble by changing the subject header
yourself ...
I was reading some papers about research methods. I don't know why, I kept
shaking my head. Perhaps it is the system that lines in too much on the
documentation that we may be missing out innovation done in a daily natural
way.
Come to the ground is what I tell myself to do.
Cheers,
Karen Fu
your blunt little Singaporean.
PS; i still dislike the silly lengthy name in front of the list's email
address. IMO, 'PhD design list' suffices.
Ref:
Teresa Hsu:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teresa_Hsu_Chih
http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_1590_2009-10-27.html
Yours,
>
> Ken
>
> Professor Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS | University Distinguished
> Professor | Dean, Faculty of Design | Swinburne University of Technology
> | Melbourne, Australia | [log in to unmask] | Ph: +61 3
> 9214 6078 | Faculty www.swinburne.edu.au/design
>
>
>
|
