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I'm quitting my PhD

blog.derhagen.eu

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Re: I'm quitting my PhD

#61

Post by andreilys »

dahart wrote: post #40
hardware2win wrote: post #6

Why higher edu institutions are so disappointing and mediocre? I dont think ive ever heard good things about phd except the chance to work in cool places like e.g microsoft research

FWIW, I’m surrounded by PhDs who love research, loved their time doing PhDs, and some of whom loved working at Microsoft Research. I work in computer graphics. One good thing about a PhD is you get several years to explore a topic of interest to you in great depth. (As long has you have a decently good advisor.) Another good thing about a research PhD is that in addition to getting experience publishing papers, you g…

another good thing about a PhD is that people who have advanced degrees earn on average 50% more than (1.5x) people without advanced degrees

This is bad statistics 101.

The confounding variable in a lot of these cases is wealth (or social class). Someone who grew up upper class and got their PhD is of course going to earn more than someone who grew up in a trailer park never graduated high school.

The reality is that for a lot of people getting advanced degrees leads to nothing but wasted time and a lifetime of debt that they can't discharge.

Re: I'm quitting my PhD

#62

Post by pessimizer »

pm90 wrote: post #49
sdfhdhjdw3 wrote: post #20

I'm someone who finished a PhD, here's my perspective. You don't believe your supervisor or your research group and so you quit, great. It's great that you have the critical thinking abilities and confidence in yourself to make such a decision. However, I think it's extremely unprofessional to write a blog post saying that your supervisor is superficial or your research group is performative art. I don't say this bec…

This is terrible advice (also from a smurf account). Yes unsubstantiated claims can be harmful, but that doesn’t mean that no such claims should ever be made. The author is not just bad mouthing their research group, but presenting their perspective of what took place.

> presenting their perspective of what took place.

I know this is the age of oversharing, but just because something is from a perspective doesn't mean that people should be interested in it, or that is wise or fair to share. Making it specific and detailed is a way to make it fairer and more productive.

edit: also, to appeal to self-interest, people respond to detailed argument with attacks on the supports of that argument. People respond to vague accusations with ad hominem (which may be very specific) because there's no argument to attack. Vague accusations are almost always eventually more damaging to the accuser than to the accused.

Re: I'm quitting my PhD

#64

Post by RobertRoberts »

JackFr wrote: post #41
sdfhdhjdw3 wrote: post #20

I'm someone who finished a PhD, here's my perspective. You don't believe your supervisor or your research group and so you quit, great. It's great that you have the critical thinking abilities and confidence in yourself to make such a decision. However, I think it's extremely unprofessional to write a blog post saying that your supervisor is superficial or your research group is performative art. I don't say this bec…

Exactly. Giving the OP the benefit of the doubt -- that he is completely correct in his assessment of the group -- he is certainly doing himself no favors publicly throwing them under the bus. I imagine other prospective advisors, in any field, might be reluctant to take him on if this is a pontential outcome.

This can go both ways. While he may be hurt by this, light needs to be shed on systemic failure.

I know a few people who have PhD's that had fantastic support, counselors and teachers, and they still had questions on the validity of their degrees and processes. Here, this person's experience seems to be a money grab by a school unqualified to provide him a PhD in his area.

Going public though, maybe a hard decision, and may hurt him, but who knows? Maybe there are people out there that want someone that is willing to stand up like this publicly?

Re: I'm quitting my PhD

#65

Post by andreilys »

uniqueuid wrote: post #24
hardware2win wrote: post #6

Why higher edu institutions are so disappointing and mediocre? I dont think ive ever heard good things about phd except the chance to work in cool places like e.g microsoft research

A PhD arguably gives you the opportunity to run very fast into one particular direction. Much longer than you would be allowed to run in any commercial setting. Whether or not that is a good idea is an open question. Societies, institutions and supervisors clearly benefit from individuals taking this huge risk (and often failing). One of the main problems is that we communicate very badly what a PhD is about.

A PhD arguably gives you the opportunity to run very fast into one particular direction. Much longer than you would be allowed to run in any commercial setting.

It seems like most cutting edge research (and the ability to run fast) in machine learning is done in commercial settings these days, not academia.

Re: I'm quitting my PhD

#66

Post by chrisseaton »

im3w1l wrote: post #55
chrisseaton wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PhD is an apprenticeship to do research. If we left it until later in life, we wouldn't have anyone trained to do research.

There are way more PhD's then there are research positions, so we are very far from the deficit you fear.

> There are way more PhD's then there are research positions

Nonsense. Look at how many job openings there are for PhDs - people can't hire them fast enough. I was in a call the other day saying how hard it is to even find PhDs to interview, let alone get them to accept your offer.

Re: I'm quitting my PhD

#67

Post by adamsmith143 »

pvaldes wrote: post #37

What I see here is mostly fear to failure. Fear about "not keeping the high standard level that should define myself". Fear about being perceived as a mediocre scientist saying incorrect things. This is wrong. Let me tell you a thing. Nobody will cares. Not-one-single people will care about your mind image. 1-Feeling depressed or having doubts in some point of the process of writing your thesis is more common than yo…

If a PhD is mostly a research apprenticeship and there's no one who actually does that type of research you are in kind of a pointless situation

Re: I'm quitting my PhD

#68

Post by tarentel »

AnotherGoodName wrote: post #47
radus wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't make sense for careers that require the additional training before you can be useful in your field.

Masters degrees are the way to learn something that exists in depth though. This is different to a PhD.

Sort of. From my experience a master's degree was like getting an accelerated undergrad degree without a lot of the hand holding or extra courses. While I did learn a lot I don't think I learned a whole lot in depth. I studied one thing somewhat in depth but that was really the tip of the iceberg for the whole sub-field/topic really. People would likely get a PhD in something way more specific that I probably never even learned about in said field.

Re: I'm quitting my PhD

#69

Post by travisgriggs »

It’s almost like he was saying that without some real world measurement he just couldn’t function, just felt like he was waving around at the fringes, and not producing a singular result.

Re: I'm quitting my PhD

#70

Post by ryzvonusef »

I am sorry but... if PhD are such a scam as the comments under such topics often devolve to... then how does one go about setting up a structure where research can be conducted on a PhD scale, for topics that are either not "profitable" at all, or not profitable on the short term enough for commercial organizations to fund them in house?

Really curious to what the alternate should be.

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