Caltech students in Hawking's lecture

biggs
Fri, 06 Apr 2007 07:51:11 +0000

To Ben Golub #23: You just disqualified me! I don’t think I can handle all those heavy-sounding experiments. Guys would love to see me deck. Hope the fair amount of common sense left can save me. I fully agree with you that ‘tone’ does have significant impact on the interpretation of verbal message.

Your ?but that doesn’t mean that the lower-ranked person should speak like a schoolchild" is perfectly correct. Whoever does that has no one to blame but him/herself. The absurdity is, you feel as you were a schoolchild, or the professor had just been crowned, either way, if you don?t call him by his first name. That is your problem! The appalling part is you are making a big deal of it by asserting calling a Professor ‘Professor’ would keep one from “getting to the heart of the matter”, rendering this behavior of social norm worthless in Caltech. I am sorry I can’t think of a better term to depict your assertion other than the one I have been using in this thread.

You don?t salute authority, neither do I. But grafting the so-called first-name-basis onto Caltech population is a tyrannous act, a ritual in its own right. Calling the professors by their first names has been hyped as a pride, a symbol of identity. Can?t think of anything more plastic and soulless! Analogous to Joe’s example pertaining to Professor David Baltimore, if you feel more comfortable saying: “Hi, Jean-Lou, what’s up?” to get to the heart of the matter, proceed. That is your right, your taste and your style, which I’ll fight to death to protect if needed in this country. But please refrain from propagandizing your ‘tone’ theory, or hypothesis, to be exact at this point. To gag me by demanding evidence is an easy shot. What made Einstein a great high school calculus coach was simply he knew the stuff! (Don’t recall hearing ‘Albert’ from the Physics Professors in Stephen Hawking’s lecture) Take it as a challenge to teach me, and whoever interested in, the relevancy between your hypothesis and those proven theories. I sincerely hope you will eventually be able to turn what you ?like? into a theory. Until then, I am not convinced.

To collegealum314 #26: I posted a question about Chem. Eng. major a few weeks back. Got buried quick. Your view? My go east option is still alive. Thanks.

To lizzardfire #27: Glad to hear you love the place. Be yourself. Wish you all the best.