Can I use my powers for good?
math.stackexchange.com
Can I use my powers for good?
1–10 of 24 posts
Re: Can I use my powers for good?
#2what careers which make a positive contribution to society might be open to academic mathematicians who want to change careers?
Perhaps a few mathematicians might join the fight against innumeracy among programmers?
Re: Can I use my powers for good?
#3It seems to me, bearing in mind my numerous career changes, that honest self-assessment is in order so that you can identify: 1) other (complementary or divergent) strengths you have and 2) what intrinsic drives of yours could be harnessed in a next career.
At times (for me) it has even been helpful to get professional career-counseling to discover careers (or even avocations) whose shape and impact have changed in preceding decade since I last looked at it. There are useful psychological batteries for assessing the fit between fit/vocation that take such assessment far beyond navel-gazing/tea-leaf-reading.
Another approach would be to involve yourself with an organization (vocation or volunteer) with a project that appeals to your vision for a better world - and discover what roles beyond traditional mathematician you find you can make a contribution to. Hope that's some help.
Re: Can I use my powers for good?
#4US universities need to re-think the 'publish or perish' dogma. It produces a lot of uninteresting papers and a lot of discontinued academic careers. The benefit of this system (presumably separating the wheat from the chaff) is questionable.
Re: Can I use my powers for good?
#5The question is incomplete ("contributing something positive or at least not actively doing harm").
Please define "good".
To me, good is where you find something interesting and worth doing.
Financial speculation makes the market more liquid and reduce the spread. You say you find that interesting. I would then call that "good".
If it matches your definition of good, you may want to engage in that.
If it does not match your definition of good, look at international finance, then international macroeconomics - you will see many people are actively looking to find ways to mitigate the effects of speculation.
Also, there are some interesting side problems where your mathematical skills could be applied (should monetary policy be used in a discretionary way?) for similar problems (if you define a stable economy as a "good" thing)
Re: Can I use my powers for good?
#6For most skillsets, the answer is: pick the career that makes the most money, figure out what the best charity is, and give most of your money to that charity. Trying to be philanthropic directly is usually less effective than making money and then paying others to do good on your behalf. On the other hand, maybe you can do more good directly, by working for a charity.
In either case, you need serious research and numbers to figure out what the right path is. 80,000 hours (http://80000hours.org; I am not affiliated) is a charity that's set themselves up to research and give career guidance for people who want to maximize their positive impact. They will probably give a better answer than StackOverflow.
Re: Can I use my powers for good?
#7[deleted]
Re: Can I use my powers for good?
#8this is sort of the same thing i went through, except without 4 years of slogging through an academic position (i applied to two and achieved neither). there are, i think, an untold number of Ph.D.s out there who, like me (and the guy on SE), wound up not liking the realities of their field's practice but enjoyed the study and material.
i changed fields, but for this guy on SE, who enjoys algorithms and complex data, there are a wealth of openings right now to study all sorts of data in fields to "do good", including genomic and life sciences, weather, and much much more.
to anyone considering a Ph.D. in a field, i suggest you look beyond the material and instead look at the day to day of the field you think you want to get into (e.g. academic research) and train for it, and decide if you want to do it. if you don't, consider still getting the Ph.D. and exploring other things to do with it. i'll be honest, i don't think anyone would have given me the time of day in a new field without my Ph.D., so even if you change fields radically you'll still get doors opened to you!
Re: Can I use my powers for good?
#9For most skillsets, the answer is: pick the career that makes the most money, figure out what the best charity is, and give most of your money to that charity. Trying to be philanthropic directly is usually less effective than making money and then paying others to do good on your behalf. On the other hand, maybe you can do more good directly, by working for a charity. In either case, you need serious research and nu…
For the second step, GiveWell (http://www.givewell.org/) does a good job of sorting out some top charities.
Re: Can I use my powers for good?
#10this is sort of the same thing i went through, except without 4 years of slogging through an academic position (i applied to two and achieved neither). there are, i think, an untold number of Ph.D.s out there who, like me (and the guy on SE), wound up not liking the realities of their field's practice but enjoyed the study and material. i changed fields, but for this guy on SE, who enjoys algorithms and complex data,…
Based on my personal experience, that's very true. A PhD is a highly valuable credential - it proves you can create knowledge. It's more a way to look at things that a certification.