Against all odds, the PhD thesis itself is both approachable and extremely interesting to read, even for someone who has never written in Julia (and in all likelihood never will): https://github.com/JeffBezanson/phdthesis/blob/master/main.p...

came here to make the same comment. extremely readable and interesting thesis. proves that academic writing doesn't have to be unapproachable.

The only PhD defense I've seen with standing room only. Congrats!

Why was the PhD defense standing-room only?

There was an off-by-one error in calculating the required number of chairs.

Caused by Julia using 1-origin indexing. (I kid, I kid)

Congrats to the creator of Julia for completing his PhD on it :)

I note that the Acknowledgements page is empty. You goddamn did it on your own eh? ;)

That can be somewhat private, but is probably a result of the template he used.

(The thesis itself isn't quite complete yet)

"I can't reproduce this issue locally" hahaha

I am on my way of getting my Master's afterwards I want to pursue a PhD, however, I have this feeling that my PhD will never be as great as this work. How do I get over this fear?

Besides that, this is obviously huge for Jeff, congratulations!! :)

>I am on my way of getting my Master's afterwards I want to pursue a PhD, however, I have this feeling that my PhD will never be as great as this work. How do I get over this fear?

By aknowledging that whether it would be "as great as this work" doesn't matter at all?

What would be the consequences to you and your loved ones if you were to do a PhD that made a meaningful contribution to human knowledge but wasn't as great as this?

i am doing a phd now and i think of it this way: most likely no one is ever going to read your papers and certainly not your thesis

If you are an aspiring actor, you will probably never become a star, but why is that to keep you from trying?

Getting a PhD...you should only do that if you want to try and make that big discovery (even if you'll more than likely fail), or are happy with standard academic work.

That doesn't mean you have to do that "big discovery" IN your PhD. PhD is just a paper so you can start your academic/research career.

Ya, you don't always get discovered in acting school. But you should have the dream while you are there.

I make a point of reading thesis' on topics relevant to me (Masters and Doctoral) and I'm a college drop out.

What are you working on? Pitch me :)

I don't read many theses, but I do occasionally read random academic papers.

I suppose I should have seen it coming, but I never imagined using git as a method to fling theses.

Good work!