Rich Douglas Wrote:10-05-2010
Rich Douglas

Narcissism and Posting
For the past 12 years or so, I've been posting on quite a few DL-related fora. After pondering it for awhile, I realize that my primary aims in doing so have been two:

a. Showing off what I know.
b. Proving you're wrong.

Oh, sure, there's been no small amount of desire to truly help people as well, but I'm afraid (truly) that reason doesn't crack the top two. Thus....

I've concluded that my behavior has been incredibly narcissistic and selfish. Regardless of the low esteem in which I hold a few posters, I've found a way to get even lower. Thus....

I'm going to refrain from posting for all the right reasons. I'll still read the boards, and will be happy to respond to the few PMs requesting assistance. If I have some salient and extremely essential information another poster requires--certainly a long shot, at best--I'll PM it. I would like to reserve the opportunity to post if I'm convinced it will help the community, but I suspect that will not happen. And I won't be posting this on the other board--most readers there also read here, I suspect. But it really doesn't matter. So....

See you around. I may have something to announce next year. Peace....

Rich Douglas Wrote:I'm going to refrain from posting for all the right reasons.

Quote:Absolutely nothing wrong with that especially because you know a whole bunch and whoever you are proving wrong is almost always wrong even if they never figure that out.

Quote:"Narcissistic & Selfish"

Quote:...I've found a way to get even lower.

old dog Wrote:With neither irony nor spite, I commend Douglas for his honesty.

(10-08-2010, 01:11 PM)WilliamW Wrote: What's the over and under on his return? Thanksgiving? Halloween? Tomorrow?

Rich Douglas Wrote:Why a PhD? (Or Any Other Degree)

As I mentioned in my last post, I might post something important (I think, anyway) from time to time.

We often get asked about which doctorate (or other degree) to pursue, but very often not why. But it is the latter that is the much more important question. I'll use a particular failure on my part as a case-in-point.

Longtime readers will recall the MIGS situation, as well as my involvement in it. (For those who do not, please search the archives, although you might draw enough from this post to suit you.) After being out of Union's Ph.D. program for a very long time, I had a yearning to complete my Ph.D., but didn't realize I could go back to Union to finish. Instead, I caught myself up in the MIGS situation, which was a personal disaster despite my good intentions.

Why would someone who knows a great deal about this field (nontraditional higher education ) subject himself to an operation that (a) had a shaky and suspect connection to an accredited (equivalent) Mexican university, (b) was run by someone (Danzig) with a track record of scamming, © had little in the way of resources to run its operation, (d) and seemed to be merely "renting" a foreign school's accredited status in order to operate a U.S.-based school? Very simply, because I was (sadly) obsessed with getting the Ph.D., and I was willing to cross a lot of lines to do it.

Oh, sure, there were tons of reasons to rationalize the decision. MIGS was operating under the authority of an accredited Mexican university, although that school didn't even offer the doctorate. MIGS got listed by the widely recognized International Handbook of Universities. I could get in on the ground floor and do my studies for free. I could build a good committee to supervise my studies. Blah, blah, blah, blah. And once it became clear MIGS was not going to run things legitimately, I contacted the Florida authorities and got the ball rolling that contributed to the death of MIGS. ("Contributed," because Steve Levicoff's legal battle with them was the real killer of MIGS, and rightly so.) But why?

Again, an obsession with getting the degree. A focus on the degree, but not on the reasons for getting one. So.....

I encourage anyone reading this and considering another degree to ask "why?" What is it you intend to do? What path will you take, and where will the degree take you? You see, I didn't consider these things, which led me into trouble. I managed to extricate myself from MIGS, but I still failed to answer the question, which is why my Ph.D. from Union has been only tangential to my career success. (Having the doctorate is great, but I don't really do work in the area in which I specialized.)

If you're considering a degree, please consider why you want the degree and what you're going to do with it. Obtaining that next degree isn't the answer; it is just another platform from which you can begin to explore.

For you future Ph.D. students, be sure you know what you intend to research and how it will lead your professional life. It is your opportunity to have a real impact on your profession and/or academic area--don't throw it away by being focused only on getting the degree. If you do, your sights are far too low.

Again, I love having a Ph.D, and it has done wonders for my career. But I wish I'd been more careful about aligning it with what I would do in the future, either by (a) choosing a degree that would fit my career path or (b) striving for a career along the lines of my degree. I did neither. While I certainly benefit financially from the degree, if I had it to do all over again, I would have created the alignment I'm talking about.

More on that next year. Until then, Happy Trails to all.

Rich
 

Quote:Why would someone who knows a great deal about this field (nontraditional higher education ) subject himself to an operation that (a) had a shaky and suspect connection to an accredited (equivalent) Mexican university, (b) was run by someone (Danzig) with a track record of scamming, © had little in the way of resources to run its operation, (d) and seemed to be merely "renting" a foreign school's accredited status in order to operate a U.S.-based school? Very simply, because I was (sadly) obsessed with getting the Ph.D., and I was willing to cross a lot of lines to do it.

Quote:Again, an obsession with getting the degree. A focus on the degree, but not on the reasons for getting one. So.....