21–30 of 85 posts
whoa i'm astonished people have the attention span to read this on a friday night :) here's an HTML version too ... http://pgbovine.net/PhD-memoir.htm
Hey, sorry for scooping you if that messed something up :) I heard you'd graduated, so I wandered over to your site today. Didn't realize you'd put up this article so recently.
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I've been out for 7 years now (ended about the same time this guy started). I actually had some experience working at Dawson's bug finding startup a bit at the end, which was an interesting experience, but not what I was interested in, so I went to EPFL to work on Scala for my post doc. I can sympathize with the author's struggles! I'm only halfway through this, but everything is true, especially about research agend…
oh thanks for reminding me ... i should forward this to your advisor!
While you are at google, you might consider continuing to engage with the academic community to a limited extent. Onward! is very different with a new/improved community that is interested in bridging gaps between PL/HCI/systems and isn't so concerned about the publishing rat race.
The part that hit home for me was his description of the Prof's frustration with the speed at which he was implementing the enhancement to Klee and the fact that most grad students are not as smart as their advisors. Most grad students are exhilarated to work with a brilliant researcher but it can crushing when one learns his or her own limitations. Like the author says, probably 1 in 100 are the equal of their advis…
"He was an ardent pragmatist who cared more about achieving compelling results than demonstrating theoretical 'interestingness'..." Are those people actually rare in academia?
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oh thanks for reminding me ... i should forward this to your advisor!
Ah, you MIT guys all know each other :) While you are at google, you might consider continuing to engage with the academic community to a limited extent. Onward! is very different with a new/improved community that is interested in bridging gaps between PL/HCI/systems and isn't so concerned about the publishing rat race.
re: Onward! yes, i've heard good things about it; will keep a look-out.
-Frank
While not a Clancy thriller, I appreciate the well-written insights from this paper. I don't know the author yet, but thanks to him for taking the time to write this.
thanks ... wow i hope my Ph.D. didn't have the body count of a clancy thriller
Wonderfully written and a page turner. Bookmarked it but ended up devouring the thing in one sitting. Deserves widespread publication. Guo is a remarkable dude, and brutally honest. It's a tale of perseverance and canny self-promotion from a guy who is spectacularly good at learning from failure. I felt an almost parental joy upon reading the outcome. Publish this on Kindle, Mr. Guo!