About MSN and PhD

Me being online in MSN has been an antiquity among my friends. Yesterday night I was online again without putting "busy" or "away" sign. In fact I dropped by in almost all available pages to greet Merry Christmas. Some replied earnestly hence we started the conversation. One even said that the last time I was online and available was in June. I am completely lagging in emoticon-craze and started copying some of them.

Oh, wait... I think one thing should I do to make this moment more holidayish... a nice cup of coffee.

I'm back!! With a red cuppa. Steaming hot. Asoy...

Yesterday night, I chatted with a friend in Japan. He spent only one semester in NTU then got a more prestigious scholarship in Tokyo University. Talking about my self-labeled "hot topic" recently: PhD and research. I am unsure why but just realized that that is my favourite topic with people around me recently. With my project partner, my colleagues, my supervisor at work, my ex lecturers in NTU with whom I still keep close contacts, my ex-FYP supervisor who is now in Oman (see my previous post about fish eagle robot), my parents, siblings, friends... basically everybody who want to discuss it with me.

Well, we start comparing plans and wishes. About PhD and research in Singapore, Japan and US. What are their respective pluses and minuses. About how research has now been diverted more into commercialism. How sometimes research has been abused to "satisfy" industrial demand and not hitting right to the core of research. Well, in my opinion it may create procrastination of the actual research nascency as the actual parturition process of next generation's science and technology is hindered by many glitches from industrial demand.

Competition has become "a big thing" in Japan with the implication that many research institutes just follow one direction. One pattern and one mould as they only focus the the leading research center and taking it as their "role models" without realizing that it curbed their own creativity which should be essential to the research activity itself. Do they realize that they have brought research to a saturation? What with all the potential that Japan has in its country, it is just such a pity.

Or is it true that research is no longer important and commercialism top it over?

But think about the past, research has indeed never become a rosy path for all scientists. They are condemed as "freak" until their brainchild are widely used (and praised).

Or is it because everything has been invented by our ancestors that now we are left with nothing much to do research about?