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I'm quitting my PhD

blog.derhagen.eu

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Re: I'm quitting my PhD

#241

Post by chrisseaton »

bumby wrote: post #184
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.

> we wouldn't have anyone trained to do research Can you explain this further? I don't follow how, for example, if I wait 10 years to begin a PhD there is somehow no research being conducted. Even if everyone suddenly waited 10 years, there would only be a lag for the first generation.

If you do a PhD at 21, you’ve got 40 years of productive research ahead of you. If you do one at 40 you’ve only got 21 years. Less time to research, so missed opportunity.

Re: I'm quitting my PhD

#242

Post by Osmium »

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…

While you’re not wrong, in the sense that this wouldn’t hold up as a piece of journalism, anyone who’s been in academia will read it differently: this is an emotional, honest account of a problem common enough that even if this one case were not true, we know it is all too plausible.

I feel for this student. Both for what they’ve gone through, and also how this moment of catharsis has probably also caused additional strife for them in all the attention it’s seen. Honestly, I feel for the professor and the rest of the research group too, and all the perverse incentives that have lead otherwise smart people down these unfortunate paths.

Re: I'm quitting my PhD

#243

Post by akjssdk »

dschuetz wrote: post #25

Good for him. Because of this: "My supervisors have a rather superficial understanding of Quantum Computing, and I feel like their idea to start a project in that domain was to a not inconsiderable extent motivated by the prospect of granted research funds , not primarily by their desire to achieve a deeper understanding of quantum stuff." It's always about grant money. Especially with anything that starts with Quant…

Why is no one considering that this PhD student is wrong and that his supervisor does in fact know what they are doing? Starting in a new field is hard, and it takes years to get a broad view of the field in order to understand what directions to take. As a PhD student you are not expected to be able to do this: this is why you have a supervisor who has enough experience. Maybe the supervisor does have a clear vision as to where to take the research, and the student does not yet see this?

Re: I'm quitting my PhD

#244

Post by JanisErdmanis »

holyra wrote: post #237
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 a harsh reply. I also had the same issue as the author: absent supervisions. I had only two meetings during my phd and they never reviewed my papers (I tried everything to motivate them and I finally gave up). I did everything on my own. It was very hard. I learned the hard way (try and fail... do it again...). I finally finished my phd with great appreciations from the jury. However this ends with a consider…

> I had only two meetings during my phd and they never reviewed my papers

This sounds unreal. How did your supervisor managed his subordinates so they wound not spend their time in leisure activities?

> However this ends with a considerable cost

I can relate to that. Broken aspirations, depleted ambition and energy and lack of interpersonal relationships sometimes make me feel sad.

Re: I'm quitting my PhD

#245

Post by [deleted] »

justinclift wrote: post #144
noodles_nomore wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At a quick glance the author appears to be anonymous and doesn't name anyone.

The author's "About" page links to both their GitHub profile (full name, partial photo), and that in turn links to a more complete profile listing their location, current employer, previous employers + education, etc. Not at all anonymous. :/

[deleted]

Re: I'm quitting my PhD

#246

Post by zekrioca »

tomatowurst wrote: post #92

> Because this article received somewhat more attention than I expected/feel comfortable with, I’ll take it down for a moment. Sorry. I’ll leave the disclaimer: Here's the original: Just a bit over half a year ago, I started my PhD in Quantum Computing. Even though I basically didn’t have any previous knowledge about it, I thought Quantum Computing was an interesting challenge to get into. What should I say? Quantum…

Why couldn't you simply respect the author's wish to leave the text private?

Re: I'm quitting my PhD

#247

Post by SantalBlush »

buitreVirtual wrote: post #224
SantalBlush wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The HN crowd generally hates academia with a passion and will welcome any criticism of it, regardless of how vague it is.

The HN crowd hates bullshit, which is different.

Well yeah, everyone thinks they hate bullshit. That doesn't mean they're good at identifying it.

Re: I'm quitting my PhD

#248

Post by matthewdgreen »

Kranar wrote: post #128
JackFr wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I don't think he's trying to do himself any favors. If anything he's trying to do others a favor by expressing a very common problem within academia.

Academia is full of mechanisms to negatively judge your research work. In fact judgement is pretty much the only constant in the field: every single piece of work you do will be under constant scrutiny, will be torn apart both before and after publication, and your entire (research) value will be harshly judged by outsiders on a more or less constant basis.

The one positive of this environment that when you see someone who has succeeded in publishing a substantial amount, it's safe to presume that their work is not entirely without merit. That's not a 100% guarantee, but it's a good heuristic. A post like this implies that the author's personal judgement is more insightful than a process that I know to be enormously thorough and harsh, and yet it provides only vague assertions and no details on methodology. At the same time it's hard to ignore that the post is written by someone who is (understandably) a bit bitter and probably isn't being entirely objective in their evaluation.

In general it's not my impression that this sort of post produces reliable feedback that outsiders should rely on, and (unless it's very carefully anonymized, which it isn't) it also leaves bitterness in its wake.

Re: I'm quitting my PhD

#250

Post by Qem »

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…

> I don't say this because I think we should just take the venerable professor's word for it, but because accusations in general, if they're vague enough, are impossible to defend against.

I have my doubts on this, because widespread use of sealed recommendation letters already make blackballing/indefensible accusations sort of the norm in academia, but in this case biased against students. When a student gets the courage to complain in the open, I tend to see it as making the playing field more even.

I think a Glassdoor-like site, but for academic advisors and research groups would be quite popular.

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