On Acknowledgments

I often find myself looking at the PhD theses of random people (even researchers outside my area of interest), just for the sake of reading their acknowledgment section. I get disappointed when I do not find such a section. Also, I experience a feeling similar to disappointment when their acknowledgments are very short (say, less than a page). You see, I tend to believe that acknowledgments say a lot about the authors---they provide a unique personal perspective on people who you may not know, or know only at the professional level.

In general, I believe that the way people acknowledge the effect/influence of others (even if minimal) in their own accomplishments is very meaningful. In this sense, I tend to sympathize with those who write long, spontaneous acknowledgment texts. When reading short acknowledgments I imagine the author is a cold minded, somewhat introspective person, unable to recognize people around him/her. (Incidentally, my own acknowledgment section was a bit long, even if people may perceive me, I guess, similarly as I do imagine people who write short acknowledgments. Life is full contradictions.) Of course, writing acknowledgments about a potentially emotional period of your life is not easy, and it's legitimate to try to be brief and concise, acknowledging only the essential ones.

Actually my motivation for writing about PhD thesis acknowledgments is the very common mistake that people do by mentioning there their current girlfriends/boyfriends. Such mentions are perfectly fine if you're married or in an irreversibly serious relationship. Otherwise it may be risky, because relationships sometime do not work, and it should be rather awkward to be reminded of this fact of life every time you skim your beloved PhD thesis. (Not my case, fortunately.)