Adam Shostack  1d ago

Academic friends, if a PhD thesis starts with a factually wrong representation of your work, do you

Thesis: "Asset-based modelling in particular has been shown to be advantageous in a number of respects (Shostack (2014)), including its capacity for conducting automated reasoning over a threat knowledge base."

In fact, I say something on the order of: "This is presented to explain why you shouldn't do it."

Ignore it
5.9%
send an email to their professors?
76.5%
subtweet?
17.6%
Poll ended at .
Show threadAdam Shostack  
Generally I just ignore misunderstandings of my work, but here it's mis-used at the very start of section 1 to frame a research problem in a way that's the opposite of what I say.
Apr 5 at 5:29pmWeb
Show threadChris Petrilli1d ago

@adamshostack it seems an indication of a fundamental mistake in research. Which seems fundamental to the purpose of a dissertation. I might try and reach out to the author rather than the professor.

And definitely subtoot

Show threadBrahms1d ago
@petrillic @adamshostack +1 on the author. Then again, this is something the professor should have definitely catched ...
Show threadWendy Nather1d ago
@adamshostack Sounds kinda, idk, like an LLM wrote it
Show threadAdam Shostack  1d ago
@wendynather Couldn't be! My books predate LLMs!
Show threadAdam Shostack  1d ago
@wendynather 😉
Show threadWendy Nather1d ago
@adamshostack The dissertation, silly, not your magnum opus 😂
Show threadPaul_IPv61d ago

@adamshostack

i'd say leave this to their thesis advisors. one of the advidor's jobs is to point out flawed starting assumptions and guide the PhD candidate into more solid footing.