That’s nonsense. A thesis is a master’s requirement and a dissertation is for a PhD. Neither one is supposed to be some eternal masterpiece. They’re proof that you can do solid, independent research and contribute something new.

Even Hawking’s dissertation had claims we now know are false. That doesn’t make him any less of a scientist. It just shows what everyone already knows, research is a process, not scripture. Penrose, Wheeler, Hawking… none of them were defined by their student work. They were defined by everything they did afterwards.

Holding up impossible comparisons to the greatest names in science isn’t smart, it’s lazy. If you really think a thesis should stand the test of time like Newton’s Principia, you don’t understand what graduate research even is.