In Defense Of The PhD
soundandcomplete.com
In Defense Of The PhD
1–10 of 46 posts
Re: In Defense Of The PhD
#2After weeks of PhD bashing here is one article which successfully defends it against a lot of arguments against a PhD.
I especially like the comparison of an academic career with the startup track.
Re: In Defense Of The PhD
#3I completely agree with this. I've just gotten my PhD, and could have gotten some commercial job with a higher paying salary. Yet I've chosen to stay in academia, doing something I love, travelling all over the world and having fun doing it.
I should also note that, at least in the Netherlands, young researchers will be on a temporary contract for quite some time. Circumstances (laws, funds, budget cuts, etc.) are against us and unfortunately create a very bad situation for us.
Re: In Defense Of The PhD
#4 Normal people don’t study philosophy, and if they’re into computer science,
they don’t care whether P!=NP — they just learn Java, Objective-C, Python or
whatever else they find useful for becoming a successful software engineer.
Re: In Defense Of The PhD
#5As it happens, I'm defending my dissertation tomorrow (neuroscience, U.S.) and this post pretty well sums up my sentiment.
I particularly agree with the ending:
Oh you’re saying I’m a dreamer, and that simply never
happens? Well what about those thousands of internet
start-up companies? They waste their time as well, trying
to become another Facebook or another Google. Yet they
still do it, because it’s their dream to pursue.
And so is academic career ours.
Anyway, enough HN procrastination, I need to practice my talk!
Re: In Defense Of The PhD
#6I completely agree with this. I've just gotten my PhD, and could have gotten some commercial job with a higher paying salary. Yet I've chosen to stay in academia, doing something I love, travelling all over the world and having fun doing it. I should also note that, at least in the Netherlands, young researchers will be on a temporary contract for quite some time. Circumstances (laws, funds, budget cuts, etc.) are ag…
Same here. I recently started a PhD after working in consulting for a few years. It's less money, but I'm much happier.
Re: In Defense Of The PhD
#7Normal people don’t study philosophy, and if they’re into computer science, they don’t care whether P!=NP — they just learn Java, Objective-C, Python or whatever else they find useful for becoming a successful software engineer. I resent that. Most programmers I've met find theoretical CS interesting, and learn things simply for the intellectual value of it. They just want to build things people use.
From my anectotal experience, they might find it interesting, but would only rarely go in-depth and pursue it with the needed diligence to further the state of knowledge (cf. P!=NP).
Re: In Defense Of The PhD
#8The comparison between startups and PhDs is not esp. appropriate. The entrepreneur often is willing to assume greater risk for greater pecuniary reward, whereas the PhD often is not assuming any greater risk but willing to accept likely lesser pay to do what he loves.
Which isn't to say that there is a class of entrepreneurs that start companies simply because they love starting companies, but that this isn't unique to entrepreneurs (e.g. there are lawyers who love doing lawyerly things).
Re: In Defense Of The PhD
#9I am also doing a PhD in Norway, but in the humanities (ABD now). I agree with a lot of what is said here: PhD students in Europe, and especially in places like the Netherlands and Scandinavia, have it unbelievably good (not that you'd believe it if you followed the debate here, with "PhD oversupply" and "temporary contract abuse" a prominent topic; to be fair, most graduates from my program have found academic jobs both in Norway and elsewhere, though there is a tendency for people who have spent over ten years in temporary positions to call it quits). However, places like the Netherlands and Scandinavia, even if they punch above their weight in many fields, are not too big in the grand scheme of things. Again, I don't know that the situation is like in the hard sciences or in CS, but certainly in my field the fact that Europe has well-funded PhD programs and jobs does not help the pretty dire (as far as I can see) situation in the US. There are relatively few people who go on to positions in Europe after US grad school, and even fewer the other way around.
Re: In Defense Of The PhD
#10Normal people don’t study philosophy, and if they’re into computer science, they don’t care whether P!=NP — they just learn Java, Objective-C, Python or whatever else they find useful for becoming a successful software engineer. I resent that. Most programmers I've met find theoretical CS interesting, and learn things simply for the intellectual value of it. They just want to build things people use.
That's exactly the difference the author means. Programmers like to know about this as a means to better achieve things or purely as a hobby, exercise for the mind. People who pursue a PhD go beyond that, and are simply interested in the absolute truths (in the Platonic sense).