Dear Fiona and Carma,

 many thanks for the message.
I know a few who have brilliant minds tend to 'lurk' as they don't tend to voice out their opinions as much. But they give out in other ways. Then there are some who do comply to what most dictionaries have defined silent people who take and not give as 'lurks'. Guess there are good lurks and bad lurks. 

Anyway, we have to leave lurks as lurks for now. 

Fiona: I think you may have misread me. I probably didn't  express myself better as I sped type at one go. I was meaning to say that PhDs should belong to brilliant people of those aforementioned positive characteristics. To get to that academic pinnacle, one expects these people to uphold the highest of both intellectual knowledge and finest characters to lead what is right for humanity as a whole. 

PhDs itself cannot train charisma, character and all. But to those who have the opportunity to do a PhD, it should go to those with that set of characteristics. So far, as I have mentioned in my earlier posts, some PhD graduates do not show that kind of positive traits. If one were to be promoted to that level of academic pinnacle, I expect the best out of the best. However in reality, this isn't true.


Thanks for the compliment about my zeal for learning. I know I have no means to a postgrad now because I have dragged it way too long and academic reference is now almost gone. To top it off, I think my negative encounters with certain PhD grads have already diluted my motivation to do a postgrad. But this hasn't diluted my motivation to be a snoopy when it comes to learning. I don't like to sound like a nerd either.

You are spot on about my idealism for learning that has somewhat hindered me in my studies. I have that cultivated since high school and I question why this and that wasn't what I was expecting. Then I started to look on and think, write and scribble. It is not that good in a way because in reality no one cares that much about what is ideal. They just get on with it. The style of studying and school atmosphere were basically what bothered me.

I suppose if I were to stick to pragmatism, I could have gotten on far better.  But I always adamantly believe studying is more than grades. It's what I want to know, how I want to learn and  identify the questions that swim around me that I need to fish. The style is mine as long as I can solve the problems brilliantly. 

Guess I still haven't fully grown out of idealism. I have to always remind myself that I live in an extremely pragmatic place. How to make dreams come true becomes very difficult.

Cheers,
Karen



On 2 Nov, 2012, at 16:51, Fiona Jane Candy <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Dear Karen
> 
> In response to your email to Teena, I think the list probably suffers from the limitations of text only communication.  It is very difficult to bring emotional subtlety to email communications. I think that the issue over 'the lurking' has been caused by an established culture on the list that has got used to using that term  in an ironic and friendly way- I think that some people have used it to describe their own shyness or even to make fun of themselves- not of others.  But it does show the risks of language being used  in the absence of the physical, embodied persona- where a wink, a smile or a  nuance of voice would have made the intention of the expression clearer.
> 
> You write that: 
> 
> "PhD to me belongs to  brilliant people who uphold unique mindsets  of how things work and how to structure different thought processes which lead to new findings. It also means a fine special character  which oozes rare charisma" . 
> 
> Personally I don't see how a PhD can give a person a unique mindset, fine character or charisma ( which are each certainly characteristics that are difficult to convey via an email text)- a PhD qualification can very possibly enable or develop an individual's innate charisma- and help them to find their way to a "fine character" and "a unique mindset"-- But these are not obligatory human qualities - even though there are millions of people in the world without PhD's who may have such qualities.   
> 
> I think your post to Teena is highly charged and passionate - you obviously have a great energy for study and for learning.  Thats brilliant! Don't ever lose it. However, I can't help feeling that there is some idealism going on for you that may not be that helpful for your study. 
> 
> You say that to you "...university means cultivating one's own thinking, not following" I think thats spot on.
> 
> All the best from rainy NW UK
> 
> Fiona 
> 
> ________________________________________
> On 2 Nov, 2012, at 14:56, Carma Gorman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
>> Dear Karen:
>> 
>> I'll just mention, as regards the term "lurkers," that like Teena, I
>> do not take it to have such negative connotations. I think Wikipedia's
>> definition of a lurker is in this case more apt than
>> Merriam-Webster's: "In Internet culture, a lurker is a person who
>> reads discussions on a message board, newsgroup, chatroom, file
>> sharing, social networking site, listening to people in VOIP calls
>> such as Skype and Ventrilo or other interactive system, but rarely or
>> never participates actively. Research indicates that "lurkers make up
>> over 90% of online groups" (Nonnecke & Preece 2000)." (from
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lurker).
>> 
>> If you read further in the Wikipedia definition, you'll see that the
>> term used to (and sometimes still does) have negative connotations,
>> but I've used the term "lurkers" on this list before simply to refer
>> to the roughly 2,000 subscribers who never or very rarely post. (Some
>> of my best friends are lurkers!)


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