

The shortest Phd thesis - helwr
http://processalgebra.blogspot.com/2008/03/what-is-shortest-phd-thesis-in-tcs.html

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coffeemug
I suspect that on average the length of a thesis is inversely correlated to
its brilliance. Computer science is a fairly established field at this point,
so a mediocre thesis likely describes a large number of small improvements
upon the status quo - along with charts, graphs, and explanations that
compensate for lack of a single revolutionary finding. If someone can prove
that P=NP (or that P!=NP) in 13 pages, there's no need for another hundred
pages of explanations. On the other hand, improving the performance of Linux
page cache by 5% on some workloads will clearly be accompanied with a hundred
pages of methodology explanations and performance measurements.

Interestingly there are lots of long _and_ brilliant dissertations - Chris
Okasaki's functional data structures thesis comes to mind. However, I doubt
there are very many (if any) short mediocre dissertations - in case of
mediocrity lack of content must always be compensated by size.

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weaksauce
I agree. I wish the whole length == intelligence thing stopped after high
school. In high school the teacher sets out a length that your essay needs to
be and the student mindful of the length requirement fills the space with a
few bullet points and copious amounts of BS which translates to a lifetime
correlation for most people that length == A paper.

I think Pascal said it best: I have only made this longer, because I have not
had the time to make it shorter.

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coffeemug
This reminds me of a great essay, "How to Say Nothing in 500 Words or Less" -
<http://www.apostate.com/how-say-nothing-500-words>. I think this nonsense
should stop way _before_ high school. I still remember the SPERM formula from
my social studies class - social, political, economic, religious, and
military. Pick three, write a paragraph on each, and stick them between an
introduction and a conclusion (which is really an introduction rephrased). I
learned more about good writing by debating various political issues on the
gamedev boards I used to frequent than in any of my high school classes.

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PabloCh
A think that this discussion is a little biased. For one hand, the form of a
thesis depends a lot on the field. The more theoretical, the more it can be
concise, but in some fields you need a lot of experimental data.

Another issue is that most dissertations are not made from a single, ground
breaking contribution, but from several incremental contributions and you need
to integrate them into a coherent text.

I've not finished my dissertation, but it fall in the latter case and I think
it will be some 100 pages long.

By the way, it will be interesting to see the length of the PhD thesis of the
people that claims that "the length of a thesis is inversely correlated to its
brilliance" (only cperciva declared it)

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cperciva
It's not a record by far, but my thesis of 82 pages (8 pages front matter, 68
pages contents, 6 pages references) is definitely at the short end of the
spectrum -- somewhere around 0.5th percentile for Oxford DPhil theses
according to my search of Bodleian records.

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smanek
The 15 pg thesis (from 1899): <http://arxiv.org/pdf/0803.3787v1>

~~~
roundsquare
Very equation heavy, which I think contributes to its brevity. Contrast that
with some papers in other areas of math/TCS where you tend to be less equation
heavy and more wordy. For example, lots of algorithms papers don't make as
heavy use of equations (though there are still some of course).

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joeyo
It's not the shortest, but de Broglie's always impressed me by its sheer
awesomeness: [http://www.ensmp.fr/aflb/LDB-
oeuvres/De_Broglie_Kracklauer.h...](http://www.ensmp.fr/aflb/LDB-
oeuvres/De_Broglie_Kracklauer.htm)

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ckuehne
The guy who wrote the thesis is the same who popularized a notation about the
limiting behavior of functions which was introduced by the German
mathematician Bachman. The notation is therefore called the Bachmann-Landau
notation. Alternatively it is known as the Big-O notation.

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andrewcooke
can someone explain what the "theses" are on the last page of the thesis in
the link? i don't understand how they are connected in any way to the rest of
the work (i am not a mathematician). thanks.

~~~
asmosoinio
I was wondering about the same thing. Here's the text:

\------------

1\. It is desirable during every existence proof of a mathematical quantity to
be led, at the same time on the way to the result, to the actual existing
quantity.

2\. A boundary between arithmetic and analytic areas of mathematics cannot be
drawn.

3\. The concept of the semiconvergent series is a relative concept.

4\. Out of the impossibility of perpetual motion of second kind comes the
proof of the second law of thermodynamics.

5\. It did not succeed, the justifying of psychology on an exactly
mathematical basis.

\----------

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RK
I think Schroedinger's dissertation was only 7 pages total.

<http://www.lynge.com/item.php?bookid=38111>

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csytan
I've only ever written one undergrad thesis. The dry subject matter and the
extended length of it makes me believe that the last eyes that will be laid
upon it will be those of my thesis advisor.

Seriously though, why do research papers have to be so long? Verbosity makes
for a high barrier to entry and it is unnecessarily boring for everyone
involved.

Educational institutions could learn a thing or two from the 5 W's of
reporting.

~~~
dschobel
The 5 W's are the abstract.

The rest of it is what shows everyone else that you've done your due diligence
and thought the idea through in the context of existing research.

