He told me of his early years when he worked in Connecticut, but, he
said, he wanted to pursue “further” graduate work, so he returned to
Missouri where he took his PhD at University of Missouri. I told him my
sister had taken her PhD at Missouri and the conversation turned to
areas of expertise. I asked what his field was and he replied, “poultry
nutrition.” So now I fancy that I know a fellow who knows more about
chicken feed than I do, notwithstanding that I raised a family on a
paycheck that amounted to about that.
I have long
believed that academia narrows fields of expertise to a fine point, and
here is an excellent illustration of that fact. Someday, some
university is going to narrow a study down to a vanishing-point, and the
recipients of the degree offered will know everything about nothing!
This little snippet is extracted from a longer post from 2012.
Image: Oregon State University
