> Because this article received somewhat more attention than I expected/feel comfortable with, I’ll take it down for a moment.
I don't think that's fair, considering you submitted it to HN. If you don't want attention, why submit it?
I'm quitting my PhD
151–160 of 382 posts
Re: I'm quitting my PhD
#152Re: I'm quitting my PhD
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
I interact very heavily with academics (though am thankfully no longer one myself) and one thing I can't stand is that all of them will complain endlessly about the horribly abusive and broken system that academia has become, then without hesitation turn around and flog the next person in line when it's their turn to continue the process from the abusing side. As someone who once held the title of assistant professor…
> I interact very heavily with academics (though am thankfully no longer one myself) and one thing I can't stand is that all of them will complain endlessly about the horribly abusive and broken system that academia has become, then without hesitation turn around and flog the next person in line when it's their turn to continue the process from the abusing side. Completely agree. > The amount of bullshit being produc…
The HN crowd generally hates academia with a passion and will welcome any criticism of it, regardless of how vague it is.
Re: I'm quitting my PhD
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
In Physics it's not unusual to start a PhD in a sub-discipline that you've got little experience in (I realize the author works more on the information theory side of things). When I started my PhD in experimental quantum computing I had experience with superconductivity and low-temperature physics but none with qubit design or high-frequency RF system design. It's the point of a PhD to learn about these things and g…
Yeah, but at least your PI should know about your field. This is a really weird article and weird PhD experience.
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Re: I'm quitting my PhD
#155I 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.
The comment pool on HN is massively over enriched for people who bombed out and have a chip on their shoulder about it. The overwhelming majority of the people I know who did a PhD regard it as one of the happiest and most intellectually stimulating periods of their life. Not everything is about money.
Perhaps the research group and the culture plays a part on people taking out a good experience out of the PhD. The problem is to find the right place at the right time for you, matching your interests, and having people pursuing research with a reasonable amount of ego (note that I didn't say 'no ego').
Re: I'm quitting my PhD
#156I'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…
> If you can't be specific enough to be scientific about it, just keep it to yourself Why? What you're doing right now is telling other people how to live their lives. Is that ok, or should you be scientific about it, or keep it to yourself?
They do justify why they believe what they are saying.
Re: I'm quitting my PhD
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not exhausting, you're just refusing to understand the other side of the argument. Criticizing in a vague way is precisely appropriate in a situation where you don't want to make the criticism specific to a single circumstance but are instead trying to make a broader point about a systemic issue.
>It's not exhausting, you're just refusing to understand the other side of the argument. Do you also accept the "other side" of the argument that the author of the blog post could be wrong?
I don't accept either side of the argument as true, my point is simply that telling someone to keep their story to themselves unless they can present an argument that satisfies a scientific standard is missing the point being made. People make arguments that are purposely vague to avoid causing undue harm both to themselves and, believe it or not, to the people they are accusing. Usually you do this because you're not interested in bringing to light the specifics of one particular instance as if this is an isolated case, but rather to let others who may find themselves in a similar circumstance know that they aren't alone.
Re: I'm quitting my PhD
#158I'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…
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Re: I'm quitting my PhD
#159I find that many of the PhD students who struggle are not prepared for the mostly self-driven nature of the pursuit, and have not had enough work experience to know how to choose a supervisor. The statistics support this: a majority of the PhD dropouts are students straight from undergrad who performed well academically, but have never had work experience. Finishing a PhD is as much about selecting a good PI as it is…
I second this. I found it extremely difficult to finish my PhD 12 years ago. It wasn't because the subject was difficult or complicated but because I came directly from a Bachelor's degree into a UK MPhil/PhD programme. I remember at the beginning being sited in front of my desk asking myself: What do I do now? And every time I had a meeting with my supervisors and I asks them whether what I was doing was right/wrong, their answer was "that is great, you are doing great".
Nevertheless, I had great supervisors: After about a year of work, we decided that my work was more oriented towards what my secondary supervisor was doing, so my main supervisor took a step back and let us do our work; he still watched closely although more about "form" rather than substance. In retrospective it was an amazing experience.
Now, with regards to the (now deleted) article. I blame the supervisors but from another point of view: They should have used their network to contact people that knew about Quantum Computing. They all (including the PhD student) already had the most difficult thing: The grant. They just needed to use it.
If I were the PhD candidate, I would have looked for who were the main Quantum Computing researchers, and ask my supervisors to contact me with them. If they didn't want to, then I would contact them directly and start having an "informal" mentorship with them. Professors salivate at the prospect of having a "free" PhD student working on some of their projects, so I'm sure he would have been welcomed by some of them.
I feel that the main problem with the student was his inexperience, and his supervisor's inability to support him.
Re: I'm quitting my PhD
#160I find that many of the PhD students who struggle are not prepared for the mostly self-driven nature of the pursuit, and have not had enough work experience to know how to choose a supervisor. The statistics support this: a majority of the PhD dropouts are students straight from undergrad who performed well academically, but have never had work experience. Finishing a PhD is as much about selecting a good PI as it is…
There's a world of a difference between doing a PhD with an expert supervisor (in the field) and bootstrapping it completely on your own.