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Patrick Collison's Questions

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Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#91

Post by Ologn »

ISL wrote: post #28

On the Chinese research question: Just wait a decade. In all likelihood, I am permanently departing academia in about a month. The underlying reason is structural -- neither our funding agency nor our institution is willing to yield on a fundamental sticking point that is causing all of our young researchers to leave. I am about to join them. There is literally no path forward. In the decade that I have watched my wo…

If we just think of something that is part of the fabric of a prominent university like a university press - MIT Press was formed in 1932. Oxford University press was founded in 1586.

Tsinghua University Press was founded in 1980. The university probably wasn't even open during the cultural revolution. This is where Xi Jinping graduated, it is considered by many to be the best university in Asia, and its press didn't open until 1980. I know a CS professor who published a book via TUP about 15 years ago, and there were all kinds of problems, they just didn't know how to publish a textbook in the manner that MIT Press or some equivalent university press could, the publication process was much more amateurish. But - at the end of the day - the textbook was published, the content was good, and the printing was adequate. I have a feeling that they will get there.

Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#92

Post by actuator »

donw wrote: post #81
actuator wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Few questions, would be glad if anyone can answer these: - Would you know of good companies which have a good work life balance in Japan? - I know among the big tech, Microsoft and Google have offices there. Both seem to pay well as well. Do they have similar WLB as their US offices? - I have heard of racism, like certain apartments being off limits for non Japanese people. Some clubs only allowing white caucasians a…

Of course. :) I'm not sure "work-life balance" is even the right concept in Japan. Japanese companies are structured around the idea that you devote your life to the organization. Overtime and weekend work are common. In exchange, the company will take care of you: you will never be fired, you will be provided with access to a broad social network, a group of friends, a spouse should you desire, and enough salary for…

Hey, thanks for taking the time for answering that. Your answers are realy helpful.

- Definitely an interesting way to look at it, I am not sure whether I would be able to convince myself of this though, based on the cultural difference I have grown up with.

- The US company thing sounds great, even entry level tech roles have $150k+ comps, and I think in Japan that should still be really good.

- I can live with a little bit of racism and I think learning language of the land is kind of a good thing anyway, if I do plan to live long term.

- I think with Covid forcing companies to allow WFH possibly in the long term should definitely make it easier. Japan seems to have beautiful countryside and small towns, so it would be a shame if I don't get to experience that. :)

The culture bit is quite interesting indeed. Other than Buddhism, foreign religions haven't been able to get much foothold there it seems. Even Buddhism lives alongside Shinto and folk religions from what I have read.

I think one more good thing about Japan is their PR is points based and last I checked, I qualified for the fast track one based on points.

A bit worried about the Gaijin bubble thing, I would have assumed even the US company offices would have a lot of Japanese employees.

From one of your remark it seems like you are planning on moving out, are you planning to go back to your home country or some other place?

Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#93

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

andrewstuart wrote: post #25
akirakurusu wrote: post #18

"Why are so many things so much nicer in Switzerland and Japan?" Figuring out why this is without fully attributing it to culture has been of great fascination to me. It really is mindblowing just how _good_ things are in Japan, perhaps they're just highly optimized for tourism? The cleanliness, the service, the great care people place in doing things and in their work is just amazing. Anyone here have more insights…

I visited Japan and was just astounded at how much better the society is run. As a tourist, my obviously naive impression was of a place that is incredibly well organised, that seems to have no trouble investing in its own infrastructure, that is extremely safe and clean and generally prosperous. Where the people seem to have a sense of joy and fun. Just. so. well. organised. I really loved Japan. My favorite country…

> Where the people seem to have a sense of joy and fun.

I'm going to take issue with that one. Of course "a sense of joy and fun" is subjective, but the extreme social conformism of Japan definitely has its drawbacks.

I mean, take one measurable metric when it comes to "joy and fun": sex. Much as been written about Japan's extremely low birth rates, but that also extends to sex and even just romantic relationships. Decent article: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/07/japan-m...

Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#94

Post by lumost »

ISL wrote: post #64
mark4 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your answer resonated with me a lot. Can you elaborate on this? What is that structural reason? > The underlying reason is structural -- neither our funding agency nor our institution is willing to yield on a fundamental sticking point that is causing all of our young researchers to leave.

The National Science Foundation (for good reasons) will not fund more than a month or two of a Principal Investigator's annual salary. They'll fund many other types of position, but not that one. Our University (for good reasons) is reticent to hire into faculty positions, where the state/university would fund a PI's salary. Furthermore, any research professors must fund themselves through grants. NSF is the only ser…

What changed in ~1999 in your Dept? I've heard similar stories too many times and I'd be curious what the solution was before.

Also do you have any insight into the NSF's resistance to funding PI's?

Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#95

Post by AnimalMuppet »

apsec112 wrote: post #36
ISL wrote: post #28

On the Chinese research question: Just wait a decade. In all likelihood, I am permanently departing academia in about a month. The underlying reason is structural -- neither our funding agency nor our institution is willing to yield on a fundamental sticking point that is causing all of our young researchers to leave. I am about to join them. There is literally no path forward. In the decade that I have watched my wo…

If academia is structured the same way in China as it is in the US, that situation won't be sustainable for long there, either. If each professor produces ten new PhDs, the only way for them to all find academic jobs is through very rapid growth in faculty size, which can't be sustained for that long.

I recall reading here, within the past month, that China had blown up its' academic institutions, and they were considerably behind the rest of the world as late as 1990, and perhaps even later. They may in fact have lots of room to grow. They can't grow exponentially forever, but maybe they can for a while.

Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#96

Post by geofft »

bawolff wrote: post #72
actuator wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am sometimes baffled at how the leaders at NK can't have a look at just down the DMZ and see what they could have. The difference in social indicators is magnitudes better. Their ideology has been proven so wrong. I wonder what will take them to just give up. If they are worried about punishments for what they have done, they could just cut a deal to let them have a lot of assets and be immune from judgement agains…

I'm sure the leaders enjoy their position in north korea quite a lot. Better to be a king in somewhere like North Korea than to be an ordinary person somewhere else.

Really? I mean, think of the story of Boris Yeltsin visiting a grocery store.

Is the life of the average North Korean government official actually better than my life as an SRE in Brooklyn? I think I have way more access to luxuries than they do.

Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#97

Post by paxys »

The infrastructure one really stands out to me, and I'm always astounded by it. Adding yet another example - The Golden Gate Bridge was built in 4 years for $1.6 billion (inflation adjusted), under budget and ahead of schedule. 11 workers died during construction, a safety record matching or surpassing most modern projects.

In contrast, a project to install suicide nets around the bridge has been under development for 12 years. It was recently delayed for another 2 years, and is estimated to cost ~$250 million.

Where/when did we go wrong, and how do we fix it?

Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#98

Post by paxys »

donw wrote: post #11

It is interesting that the real cost of medical care and hospital services didn't see any sort of inflection change with the introduction of the ACA. One the key reasons for implementing the ACA -- which I supported, mind you -- was to control rising healthcare costs. Costs might still rise, but the rate of rise should be lower than before. This graph doesn't seem to show that. What am I missing?

The key reason for ACA was to get more people insured. In fact the biggest criticism against it was that it would cost too much. No one expected overall healthcare spending to decrease.

Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#99

Post by dbcurtis »

thundergolfer wrote: post #52
dbcurtis wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think that takes a lot of effort? I suspect it would not be hard to find a tutor at readonable rates. (Speaking as a former home-schooling dad. We used math toturs for 1:1 instruction at various times. )

I'd be looking for a tutor in graduate mathematics, and particularly the subjects that I can most readily apply to my work. In Sydney I don't think there'd be that many available, and it would take time to find the right 'fit'. I don't think you can assume that once a reasonable rate is settled that the partnership would be a success.

No local uni with math PhD students?

Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#100

Post by tempsy »

akirakurusu wrote: post #18

"Why are so many things so much nicer in Switzerland and Japan?" Figuring out why this is without fully attributing it to culture has been of great fascination to me. It really is mindblowing just how _good_ things are in Japan, perhaps they're just highly optimized for tourism? The cleanliness, the service, the great care people place in doing things and in their work is just amazing. Anyone here have more insights…

homogenous societies are inherently more efficient? the reality is the beauty of America is that we are a heterogeneous one, but there are of course some downsides to that.
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