Topic of my blog..Learning through failures....I plan to discuss not only the technical failures but also the problem what the research scholars face with their advisor...may be that too learning through failures...

I have seen most of the students in USA comments dont do PhD under AXYZW especially who came from XYZWA....They squeeze you like anything...and nub your growth...I accept 100%...That is different...let us enjoy the story

FAIRY TALES


The Superiority of Rabbits over Foxes and Wolves

One sunny day a rabbit came out of her hole in the ground to enjoy the fine weather. The day was so nice that she became careless and a fox snack up behind her and caught her.

"I am going to eat you for lunch, said the fox".

"Wait!" replied the rabbit, "You should at least wait a few days. "

"Oh yeah ? Why should I wait ?"

"Well, I am just finishing my thesis on the Superiority of Rabbits over Foxes and Wolves".

"Are you crazy ? I should eat you right now. Everybody knows that a fox will always win over a rabbit."

"Not really, not according to my research. If you like, you can come into my hole and read it for yourself. If you are not convinced, you can go ahead and have me for lunch."

"You really are crazy. "

But since the fox was curious and had nothing to lose, it went with the rabbit. The fox never came out.

A few days later the rabbit was again taking a break from writing and sure enough, a wolf came out of the bushes and was ready to set upon her.

"Wait" yelled the rabbit, "You can't eat me right now."

"And why might that be, my furry appetiser?"

"I am almost finished writing my thesis on The Superiority of Rabbits over Foxes and Wolves".

The wolf laughed so hard that it almost lost its grip on the rabbit.

"Maybe I shouldn't eat you; you really are sick ... in the head. You might have something contagious."

"Come and read it for yourself, you can eat me afterward if you disagree with my conclusions."

So the wolf went down into the rabbit's hole and never came out.

The rabbit finished her thesis and was out celebrating in the local lettuce patch. Another rabbit came along and asked, "What's up? You seem very happy."

"Yup, I just finished my thesis."

"Congratulations. What's it about?"

"'The Superiority of Rabbits over Foxes and Wolves."'

"Are you sure ? That doesn't sound right."

"Oh yes. Come and read it for yourself "
So together they went down into the rabbit's hole. As they entered, the friend saw the typical graduate abode, albeit a rather messy one after writing a thesis. The computer with the controversial work was in one corner. And to the right there was a pile of fox bones, on the left a pile of wolf bones.

And in the middle was a large, well-fed lion.

The moral of the story.
The research doesn't matter.
The title of your thesis doesn't matter.
The subject doesn't matter.
All that matters is who your advisor is.

Hello,

Checking the reference during the job interview? In general, we are providing the reference to the companies who are interviewing, generally we will be careful in select the persons who will provide positive note about us. But I wonder, how come the companies which as policy of selecting peoples based on the reference has work community which is not upto the par, why they failed in their duty. Whether it is mistake of reference or mistake of people who recruited.

More to follow in this topic with wonderful example which I received through email. I may not be expressing the true company name, since there are people who created wonder in that company through humankind and environment books, but we will discuss in general in forthcoming blog....

Till then...

Affy,
Jana

Hello,

Geoengineer.org provides access to lot of literature's in geotechnical engineering. It can only provide the source but authenticity and correctness of the materials left to the fellow engineers who access it. I have my own practical experience, it is difficult to pinpoint someone is wrong (since we ourselves are not perfect) but the noble and ethical person will accept is mistake and will try to rectify it. But there are few people in profession who might feel hurted if there ego is touched, that is human nature and of course soil nature too.

I came across a source in the forum which provided link to the procedure for laboratory testing of soils. In my opinion it is better to follow ASTM codes itself instead of few wrong materials. I wonder how come students who followed this manual will commit mistake in the profession. Now the question is whether it is student mistake in following this manual or the person who prepared this manual?

When we are calculating the atterberg limit, the plot has to be made between moisture content and number of blows. Since the number of blows might be varying, code specify to provide it in log scale. The number of blows should be on the log-scale and water content on the arthimetic scale. But the source provided in this manual specify the number of blows in ordinary scale. Now I wonder about the situation of the students graduated by reading this manual.

God bless Geotechnical Engineers

Dear Fellow Geotechnical Engineers,

I express my sincere thanks to Geoengineer forum for providing a platform to express my opinions and views through this wonderful portal. I was very much excited to write about the failures and lesson which we learn from it. "Experience is cruel teacher which punishes first and teaches next". As I mentioned in the title page, I am going to focus on Learning through failures, which might be useful to other fellows through which they can learn and prevent in their life. Express yourself; it is better than keeping it to yourself.

This blog is going to focus on (a)Technical failures - Role of geotechnical engineers (b)Problems in the geotechnical engineering profession (masters and doctoral students day today problems and how to overcome it). Already I created an email to my fellow phd mates who can express their problems and feelings, through which I am trying to provide feasible solution.

I am interested in teaching career, since it is golden profession through which we can create the future humanity. But, embarking into this profession without practical experience is equivalent to story of five blind people explaining elephant. All people are similar to soil, each have unique identity and difficult to gauge it. It needs time and patience in understanding the people. But, since the life time which we serve in this world is smaller, it will be appropriate to learn from other failures and move forward.

To error is human forgive is divine.

More to follow...

Jana