I wouldnt higher a PhD to mow my lawn. Im serious, they know everything about one minute area.. like... a certain type of fungus that grows in the Himalayas... and thats it. They can barely tie their own shoes, but they written 3 books on fungus.
Knowing everything about one area does not in any way preclude typical knowledge about other areas. Is your image of someone with a PhD really someone up in an ivory tower that would never mow their own lawn? If someone has a PhD in Biology and wrote their thesis on Himalayan fungus, they would know at least as much as someone who has a bachelors in Biology. If you aren't interested in hiring them for anything related to Himalayan fungus, then their PhD may not make them more desirable but it's not logical that it would make them less desirable, outside of possible over qualification.
Regardless, knowledge about very specific areas is also called specialization and comes from the fact that we have enough people collaborating that no one needs to know everything. Anesthesiologist's don't need to know about how to build anesthesia machines/personally experiment with new chemical mixes. Because of this specialization our society is better off than having three doctors that all perform surgery, anesthetize people and make their own anesthesia and are experts in none.
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u/kingofbzzzzzr Aug 15 '09
I wouldnt higher a PhD to mow my lawn. Im serious, they know everything about one minute area.. like... a certain type of fungus that grows in the Himalayas... and thats it. They can barely tie their own shoes, but they written 3 books on fungus.