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I Regret Quitting Astrophysics

marcelhaas.com

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Re: I Regret Quitting Astrophysics

#121

Post by borroka »

Ar-Curunir wrote: post #116
borroka wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went to work in tech from academia, but I wanted to publish a paper I had started working on during my last months as a researchers. I worked on it during weekends, sometimes snatching hours from work. I sent it out for peer-review and it was published. One year after publication, it collected the astounding number of exactly zero citations.

usually you need to give talks about and more generally publicize your work; if it's interesting people will pick it up, but they need to be aware of it first. Number of citations also depend on the publication venue: better venue => more visibility => more citations.

Yes. I published more than 50 papers before this last one, with wildly variable number of citations.

Re: I Regret Quitting Astrophysics

#122

Post by sidr »

mym1990 wrote: post #10

The mind has a way of tricking us into remembering many of the good things and fewer of the bad ones(or sometimes even rationalizing bad things into good ones). Not to say that the regret here isn't valid, but just to be careful how much stock to put into missing the 'good ole days'. "The people who questioned my decision to become an extronomer were right. I was wrong. It seems too late to get back in." This mindset…

> but to say it is 'too late' is you pouting and trying to let yourself down easy.

I don't think the author is saying he has been out of the field too long, but rather that hiring committees (even postdoc advisors, or fellowship committees) looking for astrophysics faculty candidates are not going to give a second glance to someone who left academia for several years.

Re: I Regret Quitting Astrophysics

#123

Post by z3ncyberpunk »

godelski wrote: post #118
fnord77 wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

capitalism doesn't have much use for professions that don't make someone rich

Research has made a lot of people rich and let average people have luxuries of royalty and royalty have what was unimaginable. The problem is the roi takes awhile and people would rather have their marshmallows now than more later. "Capitalism sucks" is just a nothing statement that is politically charged and doesn't approach the nuance of conversation we come to HN for nor is it helpful in finding a real solution to…

[dead]

Re: I Regret Quitting Astrophysics

#124

Post by mym1990 »

teachrdan wrote: post #26
mym1990 wrote: post #10

The mind has a way of tricking us into remembering many of the good things and fewer of the bad ones(or sometimes even rationalizing bad things into good ones). Not to say that the regret here isn't valid, but just to be careful how much stock to put into missing the 'good ole days'. "The people who questioned my decision to become an extronomer were right. I was wrong. It seems too late to get back in." This mindset…

> You are not wrong because you took a leap in life and it didn't work out perfectly, its a valuable learning experience. The author obviously understands this is a learning experience--that's why they wrote the essay in the first place. The challenge is that, on a practical level, starting over will likely take too many years, with too great a risk of not getting a job in academia. This is hardly "pouting and trying…

Starting over? He literally says "I think I have gained skills and experience that can be very valuable to the astronomical community".

And that is on top of the foundation that he has already built in his earlier years. Unless there is some glitch where you lose all previous experience in life if you decide to backtrack a bit.

I guess ultimately I don't really know what the author's goals would be in academia, and I am not from academia...and that makes it difficult to really explore the situation.

Re: I Regret Quitting Astrophysics

#125

Post by fctorial »

fnord77 wrote: post #114
supernova87a wrote: post #60

Do I miss quitting astrophysics? Hmm, which do I miss? -- The once-per-year job cycle where if you don't find something you like, you have to wait another year to land your next soft money position? -- The lack of perception of fairness or clear criteria for how the top fellowships are awarded? -- The feeling that you're in an endless apprenticeship model like a pyramid scheme where only by the top people leaving do…

capitalism doesn't have much use for professions that don't make someone rich

They should publish a magazine.

Re: I Regret Quitting Astrophysics

#126

Post by mateo411 »

dcl wrote: post #109

> I miss passion and being proud of what I do. The internet says I have ”the sexiest job of the 21st century”, but I think my previous job was more enjoyable to brag about at birthday parties. Hits way too close to home! As a bullshit data scientist, I cry a little inside when people ask me what I do. Whilst I deeply miss academia for the same reasons in that post, I absolutely don't regret leaving. I do however, reg…

Could you get another bank/quant job?

Re: I Regret Quitting Astrophysics

#127

Post by InfiniteRand »

I sometimes regret the road not taken with academia (in my case History), but if I am honest with myself given the frequency of mental breakdowns and depression that marked my college years, there’s a good chance that I would have burned out or died. Pursuing financial stability and then a family life has made my mind overall more stable, even if I don’t get the same mental challenges I might otherwise get. And while I might have been able achieve financial security and family life in academia, there is a good chance it would not happen or would come much delayed.

Not saying that this is the best of all universes but just saying that the road not travelled isn’t necessarily one that would haven ended in success, even though it’s tempting to think of things in that way.

Re: I Regret Quitting Astrophysics

#128

Post by japanuspus »

ramraj07 wrote: post #97
unemphysbro wrote: post #16

I'm a new-isly minted biophysics PhD. The reason I got into physics was because it felt fulfilling and my opinion of industry was shaped by a high-school internship at a defense contractor which was a total slog. During my PhD, I got the full experience, drumming up new ideas, grant/proposal writing, managing and setting project goals, maintaining collaborations and doing the actual work. It was fulfilling and fun es…

There will always be regrets, but at least you'll sleep better and rub your tears with Benjamins if you leave academia and regret that :) Academia will always look like the grass is greener "I can do whatever I want" type. But we shouldn't forget actually you can't, you can only do what others think you're good at, and what the grant review panels think you can feasibly do. My plan is to just use the extra money from…

Good point. The admin and teaching parts of a tenure-track position would likely take way more than your normal working time, so you might end up with more time for doing research.

Re: I Regret Quitting Astrophysics

#129

Post by andi999 »

cbanek wrote: post #18
andi999 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe this is true for your country, but not true here (there is even a limited number of years you are allowed to work in academia by law)

Very interesting, could you tell me where that is? At least in the US, tenure is a really big thing. But there are plenty of people who are paid employees at the university and aren't teaching, and I'd also consider that academia.

It is Germany. Yes there are a lot of paid employees at the university that arent teaching, but almost all of them in admin or maintenance/workshop. Historically there was a problem that there were way too many people who were not professors but working as a scientist at university (well it was called a problem, who knows why it was a problem); now it swung the other way.

Re: I Regret Quitting Astrophysics

#130

Post by Ma8ee »

Kalium wrote: post #89
Ma8ee wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s often hard to get money to fund anything else than PhD students or post docs.

I suspect it may also be hard to swallow the idea that a professional engineer's skills are needed when such a person costs more than the researcher's salary.

I actually don’t think that is the problem. In addition to the shortage of funds, there’s often a culture of doing most things yourself. When I was a PhD student, I did everything from vacuum systems, electronics, high current equipment, plumbing for cooling water, setting up a real time control system for all the equipment, data collection and analysis, and programmed quantum Monte Carlo simulation that was run on a high performance cluster (on top of writing papers and a thesis). Each of these tasks would have probably been done better by someone specialising in it, but there was certainly no money for that. (I had almost forgotten how much fun I had.)
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