Why I'm Getting a PhD • Hacker News Board

Re: Why I'm Getting a PhD

#121

Post by cli » Tue, Sep 17, 2013, 4:29 PM UTC

mbreese wrote: post #12

cli wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Suppose that I want to do basic research in, say, physics. How would I do so without a PhD?

If you were doing that, you'd likely either be a professor (of some kind), or on that track post-doc, etc... or the national laboratory equivalent. I don't know how many PhD-level "staff" positions there are on the big physics experiments. It's probably more accurate to say "unless you want to be an academic" as opposed to "unless you want to be a professor", but since becoming a professor is usually the goal of an a…

Thank you for the reply. So the only, or at least best, way of doing science research is to be an academic, or work at a national laboratory (does that count as academia?)? Thus, the statement "only reason to do a PhD is to be an academic" is isomorphic to the statement "only reason to do a PhD is to do basic science research"?

Re: Why I'm Getting a PhD

#122

Post by cli » Tue, Sep 17, 2013, 4:32 PM UTC

tmarthal wrote: post #77

cli wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Suppose that I want to do basic research in, say, physics. How would I do so without a PhD?

You can definitely get a job as a staff researcher at a national lab or small applied-science company (there are a ton of companies doing DARPA research). Note that due to the way the world is, you may not be able to be the prime scientist on a contract, but that does not stop you from doing basic research via collaboration. If your contributions become noteworthy in the field, then along with the relationships that…

Thank you for the reply. Do you mind if I ask some more questions? Suppose that I am financially independent and do not care about being paid, then would that open up more paths for me?

Re: Why I'm Getting a PhD

#123

Post by fixxer » Tue, Sep 17, 2013, 5:55 PM UTC

arethuza wrote: post #63

fixxer wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I started my PhD as a fun learning experience. I didn't (and still don't) care about credentials. As I've gotten further into the degree, I've realized that academic research is as plagued by corporate-style politics as any other venture. The fun started to die. As it is, I'm looking for the door (dissertation to be completed while working).

My experience of 6 years in academia is that I thought the politics there was far worse than anything I've found in the years since then. As Wallace Stanley Sayre famously said: "Academic politics is the most vicious and bitter form of politics, because the stakes are so low".

That is just a beauty of a quote and exactly how I feel.

Re: Why I'm Getting a PhD

#124

Post by omnisci » Tue, Sep 17, 2013, 6:01 PM UTC

_delirium wrote: post #98

omnisci wrote: post #81

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[bill lumbergh] I'm gonna have to go ahead and disagree with you on that. [/office space] (My PhD is in behavioral neuroscience, so YMMV) I've found that if people want to learn, then they will learn. You don't need a PhD for that, and the process of going through a PhD doesn't really teach you anything more than you couldn’t have gotten yourself. Passion drives someone to learn, not getting accepted into a PhD progr…

In theory I agree, but I very rarely run into people who actually do so on their own. Even fewer who do something recognizable as contributions to a research field, in the sense of writing up something of peer-reviewed paper quality, which indicates the author is familiar with existing research, appropriately explains how the new contribution relates to concepts and techniques that already exist, and presents the res…

Hey Delirium, very well put. I’m curious about your experience (phd program, country etc) as I have a different perspective and I frequently wonder if it’s just my experience in the biology side of academics.

“In theory I agree, but I very rarely run into people who actually do so on their own” This board is full of people who actually learn on their own:) People learned to code, people learned how to run businesses and people have learned how to build purely based on their passion to learn/build and contribute to the world. The reason why this is less so in science is that the resources are behind a paywall. I recently left my academic life to start a business and as such, I don’t have access to scientific papers anymore….this limits my ability. This is also the major motivation for my startup which will bring raw academic scientific data to the public…but I digress. The fact is that you are surrounded by those people, but they aren’t bringing their ideas to science because the process by which science is done doesn’t allow for it…and that is a problem.

Re: peer-review papers/quality: ahha, I’m not sure I agree. Peer review in theory is great, in practice it’s BS/politics/$$$$. Also, in my experience (YMMV), a lot of references in intros/discussions are “oh shit, you have to reference Joe Schmoe’s 2008 paper here because he is on the editorial board.” Not to discredit your point, I agree that peer review papers, citations and the like are important, but they are being abused now (at least in bio).

This is long winded, but my point is that we don’t see a lot of people contributing to science because they don’t have the resources to do so. I think that needs to change soon and I’m working to make that happen.

Re: Why I'm Getting a PhD

#125

Post by GuiA » Tue, Sep 17, 2013, 6:53 PM UTC

blah32497 wrote: post #110

GuiA wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was a PhD student (I stopped to move to SF and work on startups- although now after 2 years I'm thinking of going back), and fwiw I enjoyed TA'ing. Grading papers was the worst part (but with a glass of beer and some motivating music it's not that bad), but I found everything else to be fairly rewarding.

You're right. I would just guess that most people are there there to learn and do research. And TA'ing takes away from that. But plenty of people do from PhD to teaching positions - in which case a TA'ship is perfect and gets your feet in the water.

I wouldn't necessarily agree that TA'ing takes away from teaching and learning. Many of the top researchers are also, in my experience, fantastic teachers.

I like to refer to Feynman's writings on this matter: http://www.pitt.edu/~druzdzel/feynman.html