[sdenton4]

"...Dim witted grad student that you can't really trust..."

Reminds me of the phrase "graduate student descent" for training neural networks...

I've been noticing more casual dismissiveness towards grad students lately. They are certainly often treated as the grunt laborers of academia, in areas where career prospects are downright stupid. I generally feel it would be more productive to at least pretend that they're being trained to be independent, aggressive researchers in their own right, though.

[gabrielgoh]

grad students are put in the same category as interns and teenagers, a naive type of person still in the making. i dont think there's any ill will intended.

[eanzenberg]

You are dim witted.

No ill will intended.

[elmigranto]

There's a difference between metaphors/jokes and insults addressed at you personally.

[edmccard]

>No ill will intended.

Is that a new short version of Hanlon's Razor?

[vilhelm_s]

Yeah, I also thought this metaphor seemed weird. "Now you need some adult supervision in the room", but grad students are, in fact, adults. And not particularly dim-witted, as a rule.

[nullc]

Considering the working conditions and prospects for the future that graduate students face, one /could/ argue that that a selection bias should be expected there.

> to at least pretend that they're being trained to be independent, aggressive researchers

But that is the issue, isn't it-- it would be pretending.

[munin]

looks like we found the grad student!

but seriously, as a grad student, absolutely no one gives us respect. not our peers, our bosses, or society. why would you expect some random on the internet to do better?