A Grad Student's Day(philip.greenspun.com)
philip.greenspun.com
A Grad Student's Day
http://philip.greenspun.com/humor/graduate-student-emotion-check-list.text
9 comments
tsally, I'm don't see how 10:31 and 10:35 correlate. Starting a business has very little to do with being intellectually curious. Relevance, added value, business savvy, determination, good idea plus excellent execution, etc... all apply to starting a business. Intellectual curiosity in a startup, hm... certainly makes for a better office environment, but necessary for success?
You can live an intellectually curious life anywhere with a decent library and enough time to pursue it. It helps, but isn't necessary, to have others around who are pursuing it too. It's why almost all the early scientists were from families of rich people. They had the free time to pursue their curiosity. If a grad school is willing to pay you to have the free time to do that, it's a good place for it. It's what you make of it (as others have said).
Now, on Vally startups. Very little software today will change the world; in fact, most is just incremental improvements, and all will fall by the wayside. We have no idea what the internet/computers will be like in the future, but I guarantee you it won't have a trace of web 2.0 left (except for the designers who then decide to go "web 2.0 retro").
The great thing about being intellectually curious is being able to look toward the future and bring something from there to the present.
My prediction? HTML, CSS, Django etc... are temporary placeholders for what the web will be. Things like neural computation, quantum computing, etc... will be game changers. Such things will first find a niche application, but then someone will bring them to the broader world and it will change.
You can live an intellectually curious life anywhere with a decent library and enough time to pursue it. It helps, but isn't necessary, to have others around who are pursuing it too. It's why almost all the early scientists were from families of rich people. They had the free time to pursue their curiosity. If a grad school is willing to pay you to have the free time to do that, it's a good place for it. It's what you make of it (as others have said).
Now, on Vally startups. Very little software today will change the world; in fact, most is just incremental improvements, and all will fall by the wayside. We have no idea what the internet/computers will be like in the future, but I guarantee you it won't have a trace of web 2.0 left (except for the designers who then decide to go "web 2.0 retro").
The great thing about being intellectually curious is being able to look toward the future and bring something from there to the present.
My prediction? HTML, CSS, Django etc... are temporary placeholders for what the web will be. Things like neural computation, quantum computing, etc... will be game changers. Such things will first find a niche application, but then someone will bring them to the broader world and it will change.
Intellectual curiosity and startups? Derisive laughter.
My implication was going to grad school for the wrong reasons. It wasn't about intellectual curiosity having anything to do with startups. But as long as we're on the subject, your understanding of intellectual curiosity as it relates to startups is flawed. It's a better essential element of a great hacker, and great hackers are essential elements of successful startups.
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On a related note, if you had the option to attend a pretty good grad school for free, taking two grad classes a semester, (and on top of that, get paid a half-time stipend for 20 hours a week as Teaching Assistant or Research Assistant, which should be enough to live on), would you? Should I do it? I would be finishing a B.S. in Computer Science and Mathematics next Spring. It sounds like it would be a great way to challenge my mind while trying to create shareware apps or web apps. Should I do it?
I am quitting my job right now to go to graduate school. I finally realized that the conventional wisdom is true: money doesn't buy happiness.
Don't listen to people to tell you that you will be missing out on money. You only have one life to live. You shouldn't give money much heed.
Don't listen to people to tell you that you will be missing out on money. You only have one life to live. You shouldn't give money much heed.
IMHO it is what you make of it. I'd recommend understanding what type of problems are reasonable to be solved in the time you're given, find someone who's working on ones your interested in and see if they need help.
Also, you'll be passing up a lot of potential $$ going to grad school so make sure you understand why your doing it..
Also, you'll be passing up a lot of potential $$ going to grad school so make sure you understand why your doing it..
I'm enjoying my master's degree quite a bit. My peers are brilliant and my class work is interesting. Also, I am quite impressed by the kinds of companies that came to our career fair and that are giving me a call back. It would be even sweeter if I weren't paying for it.
However, I am not interested in pursuing a PHD. Working on one problem for three years sounds... tedious. Also, I've noticed that my dating market value and social life have declined quite a bit since I left my job. Two years of that ain't bad, but five would be tough.
However, I am not interested in pursuing a PHD. Working on one problem for three years sounds... tedious. Also, I've noticed that my dating market value and social life have declined quite a bit since I left my job. Two years of that ain't bad, but five would be tough.
A PhD is an apprenticeship to become an academic. If you aren't planning to take your career in that direction it's hard to see a reason to do one. It's a negative in the non-academic job market.
Not true in hardware. Look at any job board. All the cool jobs require PhDs or many years of experience. It is very hard to get that experience because not many companies want to take a risk on someone with just a bachelors.
I knew I wanted to go back to grad school during my senior year, but got a job first to rack up some money and experience. There is so much depth to electrical engineering that sometimes even senior level classes feel like they are barely scratching the surface.
I knew I wanted to go back to grad school during my senior year, but got a job first to rack up some money and experience. There is so much depth to electrical engineering that sometimes even senior level classes feel like they are barely scratching the surface.
If you're talking about a PhD:
As the typical advice goes with this sort of question: make sure you know what you're getting into. It sounds like you have a pretty good deal in terms of funding, but remember that regardless you need to write a dissertation. Now, you could take the funding and leave after you get your masters, but you'd have to decide if you're morally comfortable with misleading the University.
As the typical advice goes with this sort of question: make sure you know what you're getting into. It sounds like you have a pretty good deal in terms of funding, but remember that regardless you need to write a dissertation. Now, you could take the funding and leave after you get your masters, but you'd have to decide if you're morally comfortable with misleading the University.
I have actually talked to many professors about this. There is no contract. There is no implicit agreement. People leave all the time for various reasons. Sure, it is kind of crummy to apply for a PhD program knowing you only want a masters, but that is life.
If you leaving early had such a terrible impact on the university, they would make you sign a contract.
If you leaving early had such a terrible impact on the university, they would make you sign a contract.
1) This special program is for students interested in pursuing the Masters Degree, though it would be completed alongside students pursing a PhD or MS/PhD, and one could switch to the PhD track if they wanted to.
2) Applying to grad schools as a PhD candidate is standard advice given by professors, so that wouldn't be an embarassing thing to do.
2) Applying to grad schools as a PhD candidate is standard advice given by professors, so that wouldn't be an embarassing thing to do.
ah, the phdcomics style of 'oh god life is so terrible as a grad student yet also strangely appealing'.
it's not really like that.
it's not really like that.
I don't know... I watch my Ph.D candidate boyfriend (in a non-science discipline, mind you) and it's close minus the coming in to the office bit.
More time on facebook, less time on tetris. Update for 2009 as necessary.
More time on facebook, less time on tetris. Update for 2009 as necessary.
Where did you go to grad school?
Agreed. It's what you make it.
Is that what grad students do? I'm doing that right now! Dang.
Note to self: don't go to grad school. You're likely to fail.
Note to self: don't go to grad school. You're likely to fail.
The eternal procrastinating grad student. Only now there are even more ways of wasting time on the internet.
That's older than the internet.
Awesomely written.
Last-Modified: Fri, 23 Jun 2000 00:51:40 GMT
Somethings dont change. So much true even today :)
This is hacker news?
10:31 Realize that you went to grad school because you're intellectually curious, not because you want to incrementally increase Man's knowledge.
10:35 Web drop yourself from all your courses and buy a plane ticket to the Valley to start a startup.