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Goodbye to academic research

blog.devicerandom.org

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Re: Goodbye to academic research

#71

Post by 108 »

david927 wrote: post #58
jlmendezbonini wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you mind telling us what has happened since?

Sure. The mission was to find a new way to approach how software is constructed. The result is called Kayia and it's here: http://kayia.org/kayia.pdf It hit 'singularity' (everything came down to a graph edge; the system is comprised of nothing else) in 2005. I've had some great advisors and the feedback is consistent, “That it’s unique is not interesting if it's not compelling. Show how it’s compelling.” So I’ve stu…

Is it opensource? Can you also provide a link to the source code?

Is it an RDBMS or a NoSQL? How can I download and use your DB?

Re: Goodbye to academic research

#72

Post by joe_the_user »

david927 wrote: post #58
jlmendezbonini wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you mind telling us what has happened since?

Sure. The mission was to find a new way to approach how software is constructed. The result is called Kayia and it's here: http://kayia.org/kayia.pdf It hit 'singularity' (everything came down to a graph edge; the system is comprised of nothing else) in 2005. I've had some great advisors and the feedback is consistent, “That it’s unique is not interesting if it's not compelling. Show how it’s compelling.” So I’ve stu…

I feel for you... creating a better paradigm is a compelling problem but also can be a seductive trap.

It's hard to have new paradigm without compelling "front end" - either a powerful tool or some really simple example code.

Another thought; software development is plagued by a set of "typical problems". Another way to present a new paradigm would be to show a few problems with a discussion of how your approach would get around them.

The world is full of powerful languages. Their problem is that they give you a bigger cannon to shoot yourself in the foot with after a point.

If you want to create a truly "amazing new paradigm", show ways that you would either untangle an existing mess or ways you'd prevent that mess from happening.

Re: Goodbye to academic research

#73

Post by defilade »

retube wrote: post #62

WELCOME TO LIFE. I've worked in academia, industry and finance. It's all a pyramid. Play the game or you'll be passed over.

Exactly. Those of you who think the world is fair or based on merit need to read "Power: Why Some People Have It - And Others Don't" by Jeffrey Pfeffer.

The world isn't fair. This is true whether you're in academia or industry, and accepting this fact isn't a bad thing, nor does it mean you've given in to the dark side. As retube points out, if you don't play the game you're conceding before you even start.

Re: Goodbye to academic research

#74

Post by roadnottaken »

RiderOfGiraffes wrote: post #30

You're only getting one side of this, and before you find yourself in complete agreement ask yourself this: Are you agreeing because it confirms your bias and opinion of the academic system? I got a PhD from Cambridge. Everyone I worked with was helpful to a fault. Everyone shared credit when it was due, and declined offers of credit when they felt they hadn't contributed enough. I got my PhD, got a 3 year post-doc,…

I second this. My experience getting a PhD in grad-school (biochemistry) was a wonderful time in my life where I was surrounded by bright, helpful, passionate people. While I was in that lab I saw lots of people get nice academic jobs and other people get nice jobs in industry. Now I'm in a post-doc in a happy lab full of bright passionate people. I regularly see people around me get good academic jobs. It is not easy, and does require a lot of devotion, skill, and luck (what doesn't?) but no-one should read this article and think that everyone in science is miserable. It works out for some people and not for others... just like everything else.

Re: Goodbye to academic research

#75

Post by david927 »

108 wrote: post #71
david927 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. The mission was to find a new way to approach how software is constructed. The result is called Kayia and it's here: http://kayia.org/kayia.pdf It hit 'singularity' (everything came down to a graph edge; the system is comprised of nothing else) in 2005. I've had some great advisors and the feedback is consistent, “That it’s unique is not interesting if it's not compelling. Show how it’s compelling.” So I’ve stu…

Is it opensource? Can you also provide a link to the source code? Is it an RDBMS or a NoSQL? How can I download and use your DB?

It's not ready yet. It's NoSQL, scales to 4EB on the back-end but handles the relational model. Not open source for varying reasons. It will be a service at first. But it's not ready yet. I'll definitely let HN know when it is, and if anyone wants to be an early user, please contact me.

Re: Goodbye to academic research

#76

Post by 108 »

david927 wrote: post #75
108 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it opensource? Can you also provide a link to the source code? Is it an RDBMS or a NoSQL? How can I download and use your DB?

It's not ready yet. It's NoSQL, scales to 4EB on the back-end but handles the relational model. Not open source for varying reasons. It will be a service at first. But it's not ready yet. I'll definitely let HN know when it is, and if anyone wants to be an early user, please contact me.

It sounded unique that I wanted to experiment with a ML algorithm but our product is GPL so if its not opensource we cannot use it for legal reasons.

Re: Goodbye to academic research

#77

Post by pbiggar »

While I sympathize with the author, I don't think we can generalize from his experience all that much. For a balancing anecdote, here's my life progression to date:

  Bachelors: 22
  Start PhD: 24
  Meet girl: 25
  Get engaged: 27
  Submit thesis: 27
  s/girlfriend/wife/: 28
  Get 6 figure salary working for Mozilla: 28
  Am now: 29
Yes, everything turned out better than expected (though I omitted the bit where I started and folded a company in there), and it could have gone horribly wrong. But you just can't generalize about doing a PhD, or anything really, from his anecdote, or from mine.

Re: Goodbye to academic research

#78

Post by mhartl »

jtbigwoo wrote: post #35

This is how many, many professions work. Musicians, writers, inventors, athletes, research scientists, pilots, and even small business owners all have the same career path. A few really driven, really lucky ones win the lottery and get to be household names. A small minority (maybe 1 - 5%) make an upper middle class living. The other 99% work for poor wages until they give up or get used up. It sucks, but it's hardly…

I also spent half the article thinking that the author's struggles with vocabulary and grammar might explain his/her struggles to get ahead. Perhaps he/she is a non-native speaker and that's adding to the trouble?

I also noticed the many grammatical flaws in this post. I did a little digging, and the author does indeed appear to be a non-native speaker. (He's Italian: http://wiki.devicerandom.org/Who_am_I.)

Re: Goodbye to academic research

#79

Post by mhartl »

marknutter wrote: post #69

When I graduated with my degree in physics, I was introduced to something called Ruby on Rails, and instead of go on to grad school I pivoted into the life of a web developer. Best thing that ever happened to me.

I did go to physics grad school, but eventually I came around. :-) http://railstutorial.org/book#author

Re: Goodbye to academic research

#80

Post by mhartl »

achompas wrote: post #19
rubidium wrote: post #7

Thankfully this guy figured it out when he was only 30. He's still got lots of time to figure out new ways to use and market the skills he has acquired. New thought: academia isn't broken, there are just too many people who want to be academics. What do people think?

New thought: academia isn't broken, there are just too many people who want to be academics. What do people think? Not too much of a new thought, the recent Economist article [0] on academic made a similar assertion. [0] http://www.economist.com/node/17723223?story_id=17723223

Indeed, the OP cites the very same article.
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