Re: [TUHS] Dennis Ritchie's Dissertation

["John P. Linderman" <jpl.jpl@gmail.com>]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1784 bytes --]

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 <lm@mcvoy.com> wrote:

> On Sat, Aug 01, 2020 at 09:14:36AM +0200, markus schnalke wrote:
> > Hoi.
> >
> > [2020-07-30 20:30] Dan Cross <crossd@gmail.com>
> > >
> > > 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.
>

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 2358 bytes --]