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- PantherX, on 10/12/2007, -10/+150Most PhDs that I've met are pretty stupid, at least when it comes to reality.
- merreborn, on 10/12/2007, -5/+132Telling us that your stupid wife has a PhD does not make your wife look smarter. It makes Harvard PhDs look stupider.
- chicken101, on 10/12/2007, -3/+68"When someone gets a PhD, something happens to them, and I think there is this genetically engineered chemical that's on the award, and acts on the first person who touches it.... ever wonder why the people presenting the PhDs wear gloves? This chemical makes it impossible for the person, after the drug is administered, to say "I was wrong" I have never heard a PhD say it in all my years. That's my litte theory"
~James Randi - MrZop, on 10/12/2007, -5/+60booksmarts are not streetsmarts.
- Ascus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3950% of Doctors graduate in the bottom half of their class.
- madpie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+34Who says, in public, "Believe it or not, my wife is not stupid" ? I'm sure the wife is thinking to herself, "believe it or not, my husband is an *****."
- shiftt, on 10/12/2007, -14/+46did she even read the email? the offered her a refund of $191,40
you dont need a PhD to realize that $191,40 is an invalid amount of money - wwwdot1jesdotus, on 10/12/2007, -8/+37"I didn't go through 8 years of evil medical school to called Mister."
- jschunick, on 10/12/2007, -1/+28"But, believe it or not, my wife is not stupid."
I choose "or not". - chris9902, on 10/12/2007, -5/+31This is why women should be confined to a kitchen... j/k calm down ;)
- r121, on 10/12/2007, -4/+27"...due for a fat tax refund do to a..."
Come on, you used the correct "due" the first time, why not the second? - ArchonMagnus, on 10/12/2007, -2/+23I'd call Harvard and ask for my money back...
- aggrazel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18True Story:
Few years back I worked for a spam filtering company, (similar to Frontbridge, Postini, etc.)
One time I get a call from a lawyer... well, not just any lawyer, but a partner in the lawfirm (name on the firm and everything, really rich powerful dude) that was a client of ours. He calls my desk because I'm the admin and our spam filtering technology had stopped an email and he didn't notice it in quarantine until the next day, and he was pissed because he was afraid if he didn't respond immediately he wouldn't win his prize.
Yes, his prize. He had won the lottery in england and they had sent him an email notice to tell him. We stopped the "notice" and he was ready to sue our asses if he didn't win his prize.
So I sent him on to our own legal guys to deal with him. But he was really hell bent on winning that prize. - shiftt, on 10/12/2007, -1/+19"In America we don't often use it, but in Europe it sometimes is. So technically it isn't invalid; albeit, it would be strange to see the IRS using it."
The IRS only functions within the United States, so it would've been ridiculous for her to assume the IRS is using a foreign method of representing currency.
But she has a PhD from Harvard, she would know better.. :) - joehobbes, on 10/12/2007, -2/+20Great use of illustrations and speech bubbles :)
Most enjoyable blog post I've read lately. - DisembarkedOne, on 10/12/2007, -0/+17heres the kicker...
Anyway, my wife’s pretty embarassed about the whole thing and made me promise not to tell anyone. - CedEx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+16@atbnet
PhDs only test for one specific skillset. It's not like as if you get a PhD and you know *everything*. A PhD just means you know a lot about one thing. Though it seems with the attitude that some give off, they believe otherwise. - gnomon, on 10/12/2007, -8/+23@shiftt
Not in Europe. She is an American though, so it should have seemed odd to her that the IRS was suddenly using commas instead of decimals. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14Guys stop digging please, Dreamhost will have another server outage as usual. :(
/sarcasm - vault, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14ivory schools huh?
- r00tus3r, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14Don't worry, you're safe here. No chicks around for miles.
- TechnoGuyRob, on 10/12/2007, -7/+19At the end of the blog post:
"Anyway, my wife’s pretty embarassed about the whole thing and made me promise not to tell anyone."
Good job, *****, the blog post is on the frontpage of Digg.com. - jschunick, on 10/12/2007, -4/+16yea man, can't forget the bathroom and the laundry room...
- Maniaca, on 10/12/2007, -4/+15Huh. First Yale and Bush and now Harvard and this woman. The Ivy League ain't what it used to be.
- noclue, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12@tony23:
"'gullibility' isn't a word. Look it up."
I just did.
gul‧li‧ble /ˈgʌləbəl/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[guhl-uh-buhl] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–adjective
easily deceived or cheated.
Also, gul‧la‧ble.
[Origin: 1815–25; gull2 + -ible]
—Related forms
gul‧li‧bil‧i‧ty, noun
gul‧li‧bly, adverb - crimson117, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12If you've read his other stuff (like other blog posts or newsletters) you'd know he's not an *****; he's just a goofball.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+13The way this guy is handling it makes me really glad I'm using Dreamhost. No sarcasm, I like him.
- Wooism, on 10/12/2007, -12/+21PhD. or no, that chick is STUPID! I don't care if I get an e-mail directly from IRS.gov and can't identify it as coming from anywhere else I'd be picking up the phone to verify a whole bunch of information. And since when does the IRS need a credit card? The most they can do is direct deposit to a checking account, but then fancy smancy rich folk like them have probably never done their own taxes..
- martian, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12I live down the street from Harvard, and they may be super smart when it comes to running horrible companies and filing lawsuits, but they're certainly not completely 'with it'.
- jboi, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11Well, yes.. but I forwarded it to you on Monday and you never wrote back! So I just did it.
I never saw that email! (Sure enough.. it was caught in my spam filters. Makes sense!)
And it seems her email address is not on his whitelist, he must be really loving his wife ... - fyngyrz, on 10/12/2007, -7/+16It's not stupidity. It's gullibility. Like religion, this phishing scam event serves to show that intelligence and gullibility are two completely separate types of mental functioning.
Another PhD recently (couple months ago, story out of California) in the news fell for a Nigerian scam letter; and I know people I would not describe as really smart who recognize the scam underlying religion without any trouble.
It is really no different than being artistic or physically adept -- the mind doesn't always provide a powerful ability in one area, just because it does in another. Intelligence is the ability to manipulate information. Not the ability to ferret out bad information, or to engender suspicion on (relatively) small cues. - bluehouse, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11"But, believe it or not, my wife is not stupid"
yes she is - BIllyBobFett, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9>"'gullibility' isn't a word. Look it up."
gul‧li‧bil‧i‧ty, noun
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=gullibility
Maybe you should try looking it up before you say that. - MasterDwarf, on 10/12/2007, -3/+11I never read that having a PhD made you more intelligent. It just tells me the person went to school for a long time and successfully graduated.
- Araxen, on 10/12/2007, -6/+14Just because you have a degree doesn't mean you aren't stupid. Anyone can be a book worm.
- wurzelgummage, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8I'd love to see stats of how many MENSA members fall for phishing emails.
I'm willing to bet it's quite a lot. - OrangeTide, on 10/12/2007, -3/+11She might be educated (PhD), but apparently she was not educated about this. Why would anyone assume astrophysics or cellular biology would translate into an understanding of the basic con game.
Honestly these cons are successful often enough for criminals to make a bundle. It's not that people are stupid, but it is that most people assume nobody is out to get them and that most people are going to be decent human beings.
The emotional response we have to these types of cons is one of betrayal. We put a certain amount of trust in our fellow man, and when he/she screws us off we are pissed, and rightfully so.
As for PhDs being dumb or smart or whatever, I think many PhDs are highly skilled in their very narrow field. But there is currently no metric to indicate how well someone is skilled at life.
These cons are pretty sneaky, and you really should not be too hard on someone who falls for one. I'm sure they feel bad enough as it is. Now you should feel free to mock someone who repetitively falls for the same con. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. - diggmaddy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9why do lawyers have to be so damn greedy? As if he is not already making ***** loads of money by abusing the American justice system, he also wants that extra prize.
Lord, why hath thou made man so greedy? - form3hide, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10Josh,
Face it. Your wife is pretty stupid. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -5/+13Intelligence != common sense.
My valedictorian was almost a genius, but couldnt walk and chew gum at the same time. - RonaldLewis, on 10/12/2007, -4/+11True, very true. Unfortunately, we know how much value "paper" holds in life.
- tony23, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7@ubermensch - You're in law school, right?
- atbnet, on 10/12/2007, -4/+10I had an engineering professor that didn't have a clue at all. Kind of wonder what the requirements are to get a PhD these days.
- Jakyll, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8Just another example of "book smart" not equating to "street smart."
I once knew a PhD who boiled a thermometer in an effort to disinfect it - too bad they only go up to about 110 degrees fahrenheit before popping. - chicken101, on 10/12/2007, -8/+14@shift
Sometimes you can exchange a "." for a ",".
In America we don't often use it, but in Europe it sometimes is. So technically it isn't invalid; albeit, it would be strange to see the IRS using it. - Snakedal337, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8This is why we need Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 with Anti-Phising Technology Built-in!
....or not. - u2wedge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5she must run their data center, too...
http://blog.dreamhost.com/2006/08/01/anatomy-of-an-ongoing-disaster/
they definitely run things by the seat of their pants at Dreamhost. - dotdan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6If she had a PhD in phishing, she'd probably be the one who sent it.
- rabiddogma, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6I know a guy who is a web developer who fell for the Nigerian money transfer scam. Absolute truth. He fell hard too. Gave up a ton of cash to them, made plane trips to the Caribbean etc. I was totally floored.
- gd007, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5and phishing too!
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