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Comment by Hamuko | Hacker News Reader

Title is the one that always confuses me since titles are basically non-existent here. It seems really like a really important thing in the Anglosphere and I have no idea why. I just always pick "Dr" when I'm forced to pick one. So far it has never made any difference.

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My wife picked "Baroness" once from a drop down, and now we always know that they sold her info when we get junk mail addressed to "Baroness So-and-so."

(PhD) Dr. is a funny one in the Anglosphere and also at least parts of continental Europe (and possibly elsewhere). It's sort of a big deal in academia and some percentage of other people feel pretty attached to the title. For others, the attitude is more it's just a degree and lots of people have advanced degrees that we don't go around using honorifics for.

I didn't even know that I could put my Bachelor of Engineering degree next to my name, and from what I can tell on the Internet, putting it next to my name would be considered pretentious.

>putting it next to my name would be considered pretentious.

Yeah, probably. I sometimes will list degrees in a longer bio but that's mostly because it may turn out I went to school with someone. They're not very relevant to anything I'd be talking about at a conference. I'd never put degrees and class years next to my name unless it were an alumni thing.

As I say, PhDs in a non-academia setting are what you see something of a split on with some people displaying them liberally and others never mentioning them.

I've got a Bachelor of Science, so I'd be toast0, BS. Which seems appropriate, because putting a title like that feels like BS. It's in Computer Engineering, so I could be toast0, BSCE. But that feels pretentious.

Rincewind the Wizzard, BMgc, Unseen University.

Oh, MSEE would, I guess, finally solve the awkward question of “what do you use as a title if you have a masters degree,” haha.

It is the last degree, after all.

Lots of people (this will seem ridiculous to anyone who’s worked with academics, but) seem to mix up PhD’s, lecturers, and don’t know about the grueling path from there to full-on tenured professor.

> For others, the attitude is more it's just a degree and lots of people have advanced degrees that we don't go around using honorifics for.

Like what? Doesn't that argument work the other way around, that lots of people have equivalent or higher degrees than medicos, but only the latter are called doctors at their place of work?

All I can think is things like EngD, but I'd think those holders are as likely as PhDs to use the 'Doctor' from it, it's really just the term the university happened to use in awarding it.

The impression I get from some people I know with PhDs (or equivalent from schools that use different names) is that, in a non-academic/research setting, they feel that emphasizing their degree can come across as a sort of superior attitude working alongside a lot of talented people with various degrees (or lack thereof)—especially to the degree that whatever their thesis was in however many years ago may have next to nothing with what they do today.

I have no particular stake in the question though. Totally understand that people are proud of their achievement.

Yeah certainly, and even at university most lecturers I had I think were 'just call me (first name)'.

I just meant that I can't think of anything else at that level that we don't use (sometimes/to the same not-100% extent) an honourific for. In many countries (not North America I know) medicine is a lesser qualification (Bachelor of each Medicine & Surgery, MBBS or BMBS) but we still use it, so it seemed to me the argument up thread works there (Masters aren't called doctors) but not as far as I can think of anything at PhD level?

I don't think so. As you say, not any sort of Masters degree. And even though the standard JD for lawyers has "doctor" in it, no one calls anyone with a standard 3 year law degree "doctor." Obviously there are aristocratic and clerical titles as well--in addition to various certifications (though those don't usually have a prefix-type title--mostly positions like Judge do).

>Yeah certainly, and even at university most lecturers I had I think were 'just call me (first name)'.

Of course not all lecturers have doctorates and you also get into the very academia "Professor" sensitivity.

> For others, the attitude is more it's just a degree

Good for them. In reality, it's not just a degree, it's the final degree.

It's the degree you start working towards only after you get just a degree.

A friend of mine got a PhD, and then got three more degrees (so far) afterwards.

> It's sort of a big deal in academia and some percentage of other people feel pretty attached to the title.

Having been yelled at by colleagues for opting to not include Dr. on my own freaking business cards - here here.

It's always been a point of amusement for me; some sites get these incredibly long lists of titles, but you can only pick one. So, despite it all, folks like Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would still be put out. And for example, when you pick "Reverend Mother" out of an airline website's dropdown list, they don't actually say "Reverend Mother" when they call your name over the PA.

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