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Ask HN: Is a phD a good way to focus & motivate you?

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Re: Ask HN: Is a phD a good way to focus & motivate you?

#41

Post by ehsanul »

TheEzEzz wrote: post #30

My two cents (take with salt, as I'm a math Phd student, not CS): A grad program absolutely CAN motivate you, IF you are motivated by failure and feelings of inadequacy. In math there is a real divide between being book smart and being able to do research (to put it mildly, it's more like a chasm). Most students have been validated their whole lives by being better than the rest, and finally coming to an obstacle tha…

Just curious as another mech eng guy (just bachelors though), what's this open source library?

Re: Ask HN: Is a phD a good way to focus & motivate you?

#42

Post by profgarrett »

I just finished up a PhD in Information Systems & Technology, which is related to CS, but much more user-land/application-land oriented. Be careful which type of program you apply to, if you go CS, it takes a lot of math. Look to see if the degree department is part of a business school.

Your real focus is the dissertation; the rest of the courses essentially act as a MA/MS. Make sure your dissertation is marketable (biological stuff is probably the best bet to be hot in 5 years, security and games are hot now, but I'm not sure how much longer).

However, I'd really recommend against a PhD unless it (a) directly helps you in in a major way in your existing career, or (b) you want to become an academic. The latter is a tough field to make it in; go to a high-level university or don't bother. You'd better like submitting grants as well, and relocating is pretty much a requirement. I've enjoyed it, but it's incredibly stressful.

Re: Ask HN: Is a phD a good way to focus & motivate you?

#43

Post by profgarrett »

T_S_ wrote: post #24

I left a career to do a PhD at age 42. It definitely helped me take on challenges that require much more technical knowledge than if I had stayed on the "tinkering" path. The distilled version of my lessons learned: 0) Hard to do a PhD part-time. Consider "retiring" for a while. 1) Your advisor will be focused on cranking out publications to advance their career. Not always the same as increasing the amount of knowle…

Re: age. This is a big deal. Younger (50, your odds of a full-time teaching appointment are not good.

Re: Ask HN: Is a phD a good way to focus & motivate you?

#44

Post by profgarrett »

nagrom wrote: post #35
throwaway1 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow another overwhelming "no don't do it"! From someone who's been there and done it. So, genuine questions: why did you do it? and what were your reasons? And finally if you could go back in time, would you decide to do it again?

I did it because I had a degree aged 20, and my options were a PhD including international travel, freedom and the chance to stay (nominally) at Uni - or take a general management job or jump into a consultancy. I lacked imagination ;-) If I could go back in time, I would...hah! So I just sat here for 5 minutes. I honestly don't know. I jumped in head-first and gave up everything at home for my PhD. Doing my PhD allo…

Re: part-time. I was able to finish part-time, but did a ton of work full-time for the first couple of years. My research suffered, but because my job linked with the research, it worked out well.

One thing that's not well known is how much you'll be working while in school on grant-funded projects. You'll be working no matter what, it's just a matter of getting a good one to work on.

Re: Ask HN: Is a phD a good way to focus & motivate you?

#45

Post by elblanco »

It sounds like the OP is asking "is a PhD a good way for me to actually accomplish something in my hobby area?" In which case the answer is no.

A PhD is a way to obsess about a highly particular part of some field to the point that you can finally gain entry to academia where you can continue to obsess about particulars while balancing teaching students for the rest of your career.

If that's what you want, more power to you, the world is a better one because of people like that, but that doesn't sounds like where you want to go.

Re: Ask HN: Is a phD a good way to focus & motivate you?

#46

Post by elblanco »

nagrom wrote: post #26

This sounds harsh, but I'd rather be honest and risk that. I have a PhD in physics and work supervising doctoral students and early stage post docs. A PhD will not help you personally unless: a) You want to prove to yourself that you can do something original AND b) You are incredibly fascinated by a certain field, to the point of obsession AND c) You are capable of continuing to work, unaided and unsupervised for up…

> join a well-run open source project (not-so-commercial).

This sounds like the best advice here that answers the question.

Re: Ask HN: Is a phD a good way to focus & motivate you?

#47

Post by elblanco »

Aaronontheweb wrote: post #2

Although I'm not pursuing a PhD nor do I ever plan on pursuing one, my father has one in Theoretical Chemistry from UCLA. He tried to raise venture / angel funding for a desktop computing startup in the early 1980s a few years after he graduated and got his green card, and one of the things that really got in his way was, in fact, his PhD. The reason is that his potential investors and perhaps investors in general ho…

In most environments I think there's definitely a bias against PhDs as impractical eggheads. In terms of business, I think most investors will look at PhDs as somebody looking for a large personal research grant rather than somebody looking to start a business -- a reputation I think is often well earned having seen a number of businesses run by PhDs go under simply because they thought the key to the success of the business was more researchy things rather than more customer focused things.

Re: Ask HN: Is a phD a good way to focus & motivate you?

#48

Post by throwaway1 »

T_S_ wrote: post #37
throwaway1 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some great tips here. I am 30 this month, having been working in industry for the last 6 years. If I were to take this on and were to make good progress, I would consider "retiring" for a year or so to finish things off. The point you make in 1) and 2) echoes a lot with what others are saying about finding the right adviser. I will certainly pay a lot of attention to this.

Oh, you're still a youngster :-). Married? Spouse gets at vote. I minimized risk by having three advisors, whom I ended up relying on for different purposes. This was unusual in my school, but I found it worked well for me. One had a lot of experience and was great at dealing with paperwork and people problems. One turned out to be absolutely brilliant at idea generation and horrible at everything else. One was great…

I am married. Would it be insane if I just became a father for the first time a few weeks ago?! I wouldn't be looking to formally start something until early next year though.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that my spouse would have a big say in this too.

Re: Ask HN: Is a phD a good way to focus & motivate you?

#49

Post by throwaway1 »

timwiseman wrote: post #33
nagrom wrote: post #26

This sounds harsh, but I'd rather be honest and risk that. I have a PhD in physics and work supervising doctoral students and early stage post docs. A PhD will not help you personally unless: a) You want to prove to yourself that you can do something original AND b) You are incredibly fascinated by a certain field, to the point of obsession AND c) You are capable of continuing to work, unaided and unsupervised for up…

Well made points and they make sense. Perhaps, if the OP does not already have one, a Master's Program is a good way to start? Is does not require a dissertation and many have a non-thesis option if you do not want to do original research. Of course, you do need a fair degree of motivation to finish even a masters, but it is a much lower bar than a PHD. While your direct advisor may or may not pay you much attention,…

I already hold a masters.

I would not be doing this for career advancement, and it would not be something that is the opening gambit on my CV either as there are far more relevant points to be made.

I AM looking to do original research, and - he says romantically - it would be nice to do something that directly contributes to society on top of this.

Re: Ask HN: Is a phD a good way to focus & motivate you?

#50

Post by throwaway1 »

nagrom wrote: post #35
throwaway1 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow another overwhelming "no don't do it"! From someone who's been there and done it. So, genuine questions: why did you do it? and what were your reasons? And finally if you could go back in time, would you decide to do it again?

I did it because I had a degree aged 20, and my options were a PhD including international travel, freedom and the chance to stay (nominally) at Uni - or take a general management job or jump into a consultancy. I lacked imagination ;-) If I could go back in time, I would...hah! So I just sat here for 5 minutes. I honestly don't know. I jumped in head-first and gave up everything at home for my PhD. Doing my PhD allo…

Your first paragraph alone is a great advertisement for a phD! But you are right in what you say in the third paragraph. The qualification is the last reason why I want to do it.

I do see it as a potential way to transition into a different lifestyle - a startup maybe? But I guess I haven't got the guts to go all in at this stage and risk so much (a disadvantage I have), and I see this as a safer way of entering that arena. If (and most likely) it doesn't get that far I guess I will have 'accomplished' a body of work.

Oh and my brother has completed a phD part-time in the biomedical sciences. I will consult him on his views too.

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