Another somewhat high profile of completing a PhD later than most is Brian May, guitarist for Queen, who completed his PhD in astrophysics more than 30 years after starting graduate studies. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_May#As_an_astrophysicist
This man is trully an inspiration! I'm a developer but I dropped out of college (Finance and Banking) because of great work opportunities a few years ago. I should really go back and get my degree so I can finish before I'm 30. Great article!
I thought folks here would criticize him from taking the place from someone who would have time to use his knowledge. So why didn't this happen? Do you guys think knowledge has intrinsic value by itself?
The doctoral programme he has embarked on involves field trips, interviews and finally writing a thesis.
It doesn't sound like he's necessarily taking the place of anyone. I don't smell a lot of grant money in this kind of research, nor do I see a lot of equipment or lab space being required.
And, yes, research has value. If this fellow writes down what he knows, and what he finds out, people in the future will be able to read it. That's creating something of value. Would it be better if this hundred-year-old smart guy took all his knowledge to the grave?
Nowadays it's fashionable to think of all education, right up to the Ph.D. level, as a kind of jobs training program, but in fact the traditional point of the Ph.D. isn't to make yourself smarter. It's to make the world smarter by doing some original research and then publishing it.
There isn't any guarantee that a young person gaining a PHd won't leave the field or move into a position for the money where there PHd work is irrelevant. The work, providing of enough value to society, will always exist though.
> Do you guys think knowledge has intrinsic value by itself?
While knowledge may have no intrinsic value, the act of learning does!
Exciting and satisfying your curiosity is one of the best things you to can do for your brain. And staying mentally healthy in old age is something very valuable. It's definitely better than just watching TV, playing cards or solving crossword puzzles. Learning is more comparable with traveling, but with a lot less stress for the (aged) body. And it's more interactive than just reading, and interactivity is very important, too.
There is a lot of knowledge (to which I count in particular all proven facts) that has no value at all for me.
For example, take every kind tabloid press. Well, at least the true part of it. Even then, I simply don't care whether some people who I don't even know cheat their spouse, had cosmetic surgery or whatever.
Another example are sports statistics. At least for me, those are absolutely uninteresting. Okay, memorizing them is a nice exercise for the brain, but so is memorizing hundreds of digits of pi, too. (which is also useless, BTW, because we need at most 35 digits of pi for any practical calculation)
I don't think how it's useful to you matters, since we're talking about "intrinsic" value of knowledge. Unless I misunderstood the meaning of the word.
