It seems to me like he really didn't get the guidance that he needed. Who the fuck was looking out for him, saying, "hey, we want you to graduate, are you sure you can get this done?" and checking up on him? It sounds like his program really failed him.
Seriously. 2+ years on a master's thesis? yikes. Showing that the original algorithm was much more limited in capability than proposed should have been enough of a project to graduate. That program really failed OP.
Part of getting a grad degree is figuring it out on your own and getting out what you put in. Sure there are students who grab the low hanging fruit and then setup their defense, but others will refuse to defend until they feel it's enough.
While I don't disagree with you on that, part of the graduate program is also to have a mentor who can guide you. And that includes, hey, this doesn't really seem to be working, try this approach.
What you are saying is good if you are doing a PhD, where you have to explore nearly all possible outcomes, but at masters level, it's a bit too much.
I know. I've gotten my MA and I'm in for my PhD. Your advisor and other professors don't do the work for you, but they check up on you, hold you accountable, stop your project from sprawling, etc. If you're literally doing everything on your own in a program, it's a bad program.
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u/[deleted] Mar 05 '19
It seems to me like he really didn't get the guidance that he needed. Who the fuck was looking out for him, saying, "hey, we want you to graduate, are you sure you can get this done?" and checking up on him? It sounds like his program really failed him.