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Why the Fuck?

raganwald.posterous.com

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Re: Why the Fuck?

#261

Post by agentultra »

I suspect the rewards of an academic career are not on par with or even close to those of a career on the commercial path. The cost of tuition is prohibitive for most families and the rewards of a teaching/research career are mediocre at best compared to one in on a commercial track.

As well most schools have incentives to place students in commercial careers. It's what parents and students expect these days from an educational institution.

Finally it's extremely easy to get started and learn enough programming to be dangerous and difficult to learn enough to produce real innovation.

Re: Why the Fuck?

#262

Post by ruswick »

mikle wrote: post #70

Is the author of this is currently working on curing diabetes? I think the chances are small he is. What I'm trying to say is that he is a hypocrite.

I don't think so. In order to be a hypocrite, one needs to criticize a group into which one fits. However, the post explicitly referenced our nations "smart people," or whatever phrasing he used. Evidently, he doesn't consider himself sufficiently educated or academically positioned to pursue cures for diabetes, so it's permissible that he criticizes people who are in such a position and choose not to cure diabetes. This is why people who are not professional football players can still criticize a team: they are not members of that team and do not have the capacity to improve the performance of the team, so there is no hypocrisy.

Although this post is arguably bullshit for other reasons, it's not hypocrisy.

Re: Why the Fuck?

#263

Post by polshaw »

justsee wrote: post #72

Elon Musk chose to do PayPal (a rather disliked company on HN) which enabled him to work on Tesla, SolarCity, and SpaceX (which HN rather likes). Isn't it possible that some of these people toiling away in the corporate womb are acquiring capabilities and capital so they can be reborn to do important, but potentially unprofitable 'change the world' projects?

Precisely. Most here are going to be able to benefit society the most by creating the next pinterest or whatever and then using their money to bring forward change in the world, than trying to do some bio-medical-whatever that they don't have any skills in. Basic laws of specialisation/comparative advantage.

Of course, if you can find a relevant area to apply your skills to, then that's great. There is a lot that is less frivolous, too, even in the tech world.

Re: Why the Fuck?

#264

Post by jisaacstone »

I was thinking about this the other (past few months)

Getting into _that_ industry, I mean.

I was wondering specifically if it might be possible to get some existing medical devices to communicate via bluetooth with a central server; to build an adapter so everything that sent out a vital signal was logged on disc and remotely accessible in real time.

I was in a hospital recently, and the vital signs were logged on paper, and abnormalities were signaled by a loud alarm, to be audible at the nearby nurses station.

But I don't know how I can 'weekend hack' this sort of thing. Perhaps I can grab some medical surplus, a bluetooth adapter and start hacking?

Re: Why the Fuck?

#266

Post by glennos »

azernik wrote: post #93
lindowe wrote: post #14

There are a lot of interesting startups right now in the mobile health space, but it is a significantly more difficult space to operate in. It takes years to get FDA approval for new medical devices, the healthcare industry is beholden to several large industry players, and the culture of medicine is resistant to rapid innovation. I understand and echo your frustration that silicon valley often only pays lip service…

As an example, Glooko makes a mobile version of a glucose logbook that reads data straight from a sampling device - useful, but not earthshaking. But to go from that data to automatic reminders and advice about managing glucose levels - what raganwald wishes existed - would require a much more stringent level of approval from the FDA.

I used to work next to the guys from mySugr. They went through the process of having their app certified as a medical device by the European Commission, (the CE or Conformité Européenne mark). Not easy, but doable. I'm not sure whether it gives explicit recommendations, but it let's you identify patterns based on what you're eating and the activities you're doing.

https://mysugr.com/

Re: Why the Fuck?

#267

Post by ruswick »

fredgrott wrote: post #207
raganwald wrote: post #102

My fellow HNers: It does depress me, daily, that I do not have a career in physics or chemistry or biology or medicine where I could work on "big problems." The simple truth is, I'm not smart enough, I don't work hard enough, and I've been napping when opportunity knocked a few times in my life. That being said, sometimes a man in a saloon has a few drinks and yells at the television, telling the coach of some footba…

actually non-educated people solve Big Science problems daily...and most enlightened science people welcome the additional solving power. It is a ,myth that only Science people get the opportunity to solve big science problems.

Any examples?

It just seems intuitive that there is a strong correlation between academic acclaim and occupational success in the sciences, and being classically and comprehensively educated in the sciences.

Re: Why the Fuck?

#268

Post by statictype »

nirvana wrote: post #130

I can't speak to the other companies, though I know google want's "all the worlds info at your fingertips" which is a reasonably high ideal... I can speak to what Apple is doing as someone whose followed the company closely for a couple decades. Apple doesn't care whether you buy the 3.5", 4.0", 7.85", or 9.8" screen. Apple is bringing the personal computer to the 6 billion other people who weren't able to get in on…

Instead, Apple put a $50 computer in peoples hands- the iPod shuffle. Sure, it might not be as full featured as a laptop, but you have to walk before you can run.

This is the type of out-of-touch-with-reality comment that tech nerds make that make people laugh at us.

Re: Why the Fuck?

#269

Post by ihnorton »

jiggy2011 wrote: post #11

I don't have a degree in medical sciences so I have no idea where I would start.

Some suggestions:

Help build better tools for researchers. * Julia (julialang.org) is very promising and could use talented developers to help build the ecosystem. * Numba (http://numba.pydata.org/) looks amazing and should build on the existing strength of SciPy.

Contribute to open-source projects related to medical research; a few favorites in the imaging space: * PLUS (https://www.assembla.com/spaces/plus/wiki) * OpenIGTLink (http://openigtlink.org) * XTK (http://goxtk.org) * NiPy (http://nipy.sourceforge.net/nipy/)

Contributing to an open-source project would give exposure to the problem space while leveraging existing skills and not taking a huge initial risk (school or paycut). If you wanted to make this a full-time pursuit, such contribution could be leveraged: many labs would love to hire a talented programmer. However, expect a ~30-50% haircut (in hospital or university labs you will have a hard time cracking $50k to start and $70k on the high end).

I am familiar with open-source projects in a number of other medically-relevant research areas. If you are interested in some specific area, shoot me an email and I'll see what I can think of.

Re: Why the Fuck?

#270

Post by waterlesscloud »

mattgreenrocks wrote: post #258
clinth wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> there not enough jobs at That One Company That's Changing The World I met some Counsyl devs at PyCon last year, they were wonderful. We talked about meaningful work. There are so many companies and nonprofits trying to change the world. They need help with software. A partial list: Broad Institute: http://www.broadinstitute.org (disclaimer, I work there) JCVI: http://www.jcvi.org Sanger: http://www.sanger.ac.uk 23a…

Thank you for this list! It'd be great if there was a resource somewhere that aggregated these companies so hackers could reference it as they look to switch jobs.

That's an interesting idea.

Whatever anyone thinks of the periodic surfacing of the feeling that Raganwald was expressing, the fact that it does come up with a degree of regularity indicates there's an unfulfilled need here.

What can be done to help people fill it?

It seems one thing that factors in is that people feel helpless to get started on the path to working on "big problems". What can be done to make it not feel so overwhelming? What can help us all find our way to approaching these questions and actively searching for solutions?

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