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Academia is a cult?

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Academia is a cult?

#21

Post by prions »

yoler wrote: post #2

Are PhD degrees required to do machine learning research? Or can someone be completely self-taught and contribute to the field as much as those with PhDs?

I'm about to finish my masters in CS, where I focused in machine learning. While I don't research at my school, my current job is a software/ML engineer in a machine learning focused team; I consider my role between a software engineer and data scientist.

While I don't do academic research, I spend a non-trivial amount of time reading papers and keeping abreast of new research that is relevant to my job. If the research seems relevant enough, I'll dig deeper and implement the research into a workable model. The software engineering portion really kicks in when I productionize this model and make it a usable product.

So in regards to your question, if you want to do fundamental, academic research then go for your PhD. For the kind of work I do currently, then it's more about the group you work with in industry.

Re: Academia is a cult?

#22

Post by whatshisface »

>It’s not unusual for academic job seekers to spend 10 percent of their annual income — the amount of a tithe — attending a single conference for an interview (including airfare, lodging, registration fees and incidentals).

You can tell the author legitimately knows humanities academia from the inside because they are experts at pointing out unrelated coincidental facts as if their simultaneous truth meant something.

Re: Academia is a cult?

#23

Post by SeanLuke »

yoler wrote: post #2

Are PhD degrees required to do machine learning research? Or can someone be completely self-taught and contribute to the field as much as those with PhDs?

Is vocational training and an apprenticeship necessary to be a master carpenter? No, it is not: but it makes it far easier to become one.

And that's what a PhD is: it's a vocational degree coupled with an apprenticeship. It's not like a BS or MS: it's ultimately not about courses or grades. Rather, you are attaching yourself, like a barnacle, to a researcher -- the professor -- so that you can learn how to be a researcher yourself. Eventually you step out from under her wing and do some research on your own, and that forms your thesis work.

You could learn to do research in a specialized field without going through this process -- and I know several who have -- but you'll probably discover along the way that science or engineering research is an apprenticeship field for a very good reason.

Re: Academia is a cult?

#24

Post by daenz »

>It should come as no surprise that the professor who made that demand is a white male alumnus of the Ivy League, and the student an immigrant from a working-class background.

I'm getting really tired of these kinds of racial and ethnic generalizations. If you substitute "asian" or "jew" in and you find it's racist, it's still racist if it says "white."

Re: Academia is a cult?

#25

Post by closeparen »

_hardwaregeek wrote: post #14

Seems like this should be titled "Humanities Academia is a cult". Which is a conclusion with which I don't necessarily disagree. Frankly, the job numbers are out there. If you choose to get a PhD in history even after seeing them, you're probably delusional in some form. I'm not so certain about STEM however. While cults can pop up anywhere there is a leader with a non trivial power dynamic, I'd say that a fair porti…

Science and math are as unemployable as the humanities. When people use "STEM" in this way they really only mean engineering.

Re: Academia is a cult?

#26

Post by infinity0 »

whatshisface wrote: post #22

> It’s not unusual for academic job seekers to spend 10 percent of their annual income — the amount of a tithe — attending a single conference for an interview (including airfare, lodging, registration fees and incidentals). You can tell the author legitimately knows humanities academia from the inside because they are experts at pointing out unrelated coincidental facts as if their simultaneous truth meant something…

bro, correlation causes causation

Re: Academia is a cult?

#27

Post by BadassFractal »

closeparen wrote: post #25
_hardwaregeek wrote: post #14

Seems like this should be titled "Humanities Academia is a cult". Which is a conclusion with which I don't necessarily disagree. Frankly, the job numbers are out there. If you choose to get a PhD in history even after seeing them, you're probably delusional in some form. I'm not so certain about STEM however. While cults can pop up anywhere there is a leader with a non trivial power dynamic, I'd say that a fair porti…

Science and math are as unemployable as the humanities. When people use "STEM" in this way they really only mean engineering.

I've seen math / physics majors make an easy transition into software development. I bet that is much easier to pull off than switching to programming from say, sociology.

Re: Academia is a cult?

#28

Post by closeparen »

BadassFractal wrote: post #27
closeparen wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Science and math are as unemployable as the humanities. When people use "STEM" in this way they really only mean engineering.

I've seen math / physics majors make an easy transition into software development. I bet that is much easier to pull off than switching to programming from say, sociology.

Okay, but the employable activity there is still software development and not science or mathematics.

Re: Academia is a cult?

#29

Post by [deleted] »

ixtli wrote: post #17
pacifist wrote: post #7

Washington Post is a cult.

You’re gonna get downvoted because this is HN but really this article is clickbait designed to exploit a growing epistemological crisis in the west. The author is just describing a group with a history and traditions. While cults are also groups with tradition and sometimes history it’s well disingenuous to say THAT is their defining feature. EDIT: I’d just like to be clear that Academia has definitely got serious is…

[deleted]

Re: Academia is a cult?

#30

Post by SeanLuke »

ixtli wrote: post #17
pacifist wrote: post #7

Washington Post is a cult.

You’re gonna get downvoted because this is HN but really this article is clickbait designed to exploit a growing epistemological crisis in the west. The author is just describing a group with a history and traditions. While cults are also groups with tradition and sometimes history it’s well disingenuous to say THAT is their defining feature. EDIT: I’d just like to be clear that Academia has definitely got serious is…

> You’re gonna get downvoted because this is HN

I think he's getting downvoted because the Washington Post is, almost unquestionably, not a cult.

Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence, and he provided none.

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