The use of honorifics was subtly discouraged at the Labs. I never saw a policy statement, but nobody I knew used "Dr" (except those in the medical department), even though the place was crawling with doctoral degrees. On Sat, Aug 1, 2020 at 10:14 AM Larry McVoy wrote: > On Sat, Aug 01, 2020 at 09:14:36AM +0200, markus schnalke wrote: > > Hoi. > > > > [2020-07-30 20:30] Dan Cross > > > > > > I understood from Mike Anshel that he was rather proud of this, [...] > > > > I once read that someone is famous when people omit the titles, > > because they add nothing to the name, but rather would smaller it. > > A good example is Albert Einstein. Who cares what titles he has. > > > > Another is Dennis Ritchie. What does it matter what degrees, titles, > > whatever he has? -- He's already a genius! > > My dad wasn't famous, but he had a PhD in physics. He never asked people > to call him Dr McVoy. As we grew up and realized he could be called that > we asked him why not. He said it sounds fancy, the only time he used it > was when he wanted a table at a crowded restaurant (which was very rare, > Madison didn't pay him very well). > > Somehow that stuck with me and I've always been sort of wary of people > who use their title. The people I admire never did. > > Someone on the list said that they thought Dennis wouldn't appreciate > it if we got his PhD official. I couldn't put my finger on it at the > time, but I agreed. And I think it is because the people who are really > great don't need or want the fancy title. I may be over thinking it, > but Dennis does not need the title, it does nothing to make his legacy > better, his legacy is way way more than that title. > > Which is a long ramble to say I agree with Markus. >