Taxi Driver with a PhD

Straits Times has also reported on the blog of the Taxi Driver with a PhD in Singapore.

It is apparent from the number of comments in the newspaper article and the blog that the netizens of Singapore are up in arms with this - horrors, a PhD holder driving a taxi cab. I suppose the Asian mentality is still influenced by the axiom that getting a good education means a good life. Well, and the warped notion that a good life is a high paying job.

In any case, this story has personally touched me and I read through the blog in one sitting (and my wife is dumbfounded at my fascination at this issue). I suppose it was a stark reminder of how things could turn out for me and my family - will I get retrenched in my 50s, be laden with debt and no job prospects, and be resigned to driving a taxi cab? (Sidenote: I have secured various verbal agreements with people to live in their balcony if things get bad)

In other news, I received this email:

I am writing to confirm that we have corrected your name on our records. Please reply with any corrections.

Here is how we now have your first name: Yew Jin
Your last name: Lim
Since you have completed your PHD, we have changed your title to Dr.

Communications to you should now be addressed: Dr. Yew Jin Lim

One question:
When addressing your mail using only your initials, should we include the initial of the second part of your first name, ie. Dr. Y.J. Lim?
Or, should we use the first initial only ie. Dr. Y. Lim?

Thank you for your patience in this matter.

In response, I have fulfilled my end of the bet (see the landing page of yewjin.com for details)

Grrrrr. Ok, which one of you emailed the University? :)

A Singapore Taxi Driver's Diary

Probably the only taxi driver in this world with a PhD from Stanford and a proven track record of scientific accomplishments, I have been forced out of my research job at the height of my scientific career, and unable to find another one, for reasons I can only describe as something "uniquely Singapore". As a result, I am driving taxi to make a living and writing these real life stories just to make the dull job a little more interesting. I hope that these stories are interesting to you too.

A Singapore Taxi Driver's Diary

Thanks for the acknowledgement, but...

I just read Wee-Chong's PhD thesis on M²ICAL. (Fine, scanned through). I have to thank him for the kind acknowledgement which I shall reproduce here because it's so amusing:

A lavish pesco-vegetarian dinner awaits my partner-in-crime Lim Yew Jin, seemingly the only other person interested in intellectual games research in the whole of Singapore. My initial thesis idea stemmed from him, and even though it eventually metamorphosed beyond recognition, Yew Jin was always available as a sounding board for ideas and a sympathetic ear as a fellow PhD student. Almost makes me forgive him for being 6 years younger and 6 times smarter.

Yes Wee-Chong, woe to all of those who dare to study something academic on something with no immediate financial reward in Singapore. The important thing is that we survived and can walk away as free men. Thanks for being modest and saying that I am smarter than you - I can only honestly claim to have actually played (a lot) less board games than you during our candidature, which, mind you, can be viewed as a bad thing given the our subject area. And while I cannot deny that I am younger, there's also the issue of life expectancy. If I die 6 years before you, it all evens out.

Cheers!

Not Doctor Doctor

I received the official notification for the conferment of the PhD degree yesterday, and my parents, a family friend and my wife were commenting and joking how it is so nice to have a fake doctor in the house.

Because you know, I'm not a Doctor Doctor. :)

The Fake Doctor -- Useful only for service and reservations.

Defence

Today I had my PhD defence. Actually, it was relatively pain-free, and was over after approximately one and a half hours (basically a seminar and a few questions).

Verdict: Passed - but with minor amendments.

Awesome, but somehow I am too zoned out to work currently. Too much excitement for one day.

Removed 4 Aug due to (potential) copyright issues (with images) Added 9:51pm - defence slides