Sometimes I stress about the degree of specialization many of us pursuing a PhD feel. This semester I enrolled in a management course, and while it can’t oppose the pressure to specialize, it has already provided an outlet for me to explore other passions and interests, such as psychology, human behavior, human organization, power structures and relations, finance, and more. The teacher, Dr. Harry Wilkins who has a PhD from Harvard Business school, recited the saying that a PhD continued to specialize his whole life until the end of his career as a tenured professor and found he knew everything about nothing. On the flip side, an MBA who ascends to be a CEO of diverse companies finds he has learned nothing about everything. Perhaps through exploring both management and pursuing my PhD I can get closer to my promethean goal of learning everything about everything.
