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That's an argument against going into postdoc academia, not getting the Ph.D. Getting the degree typically costs you nothing except for the time invested.
by TillE 10y ago
That's an argument against going into postdoc academia, not getting the Ph.D. Getting the degree typically costs you nothing except for the time invested.
- btilly 10y agoEconomics tells us that an activity that takes time costs the opportunity cost of that time. Whatever else you could have done with that time, you now can't. This puts people behind where they could have been on career, savings, family relationships, and so on. If I could live my life over, I would never have gone to grad school. And I'd have probably had kids 10 years earlier than I did.
- hammock 10y agoWhy kids earlier?
- eru 10y agoDon't know about btilly. Here are some general reasons: - more overlap of your lifetime with the kids lifetime (so, see more of your kids) - get the scary parts over earlier, and enjoy more of the rest - if female, easier time conceiving
- endemic 10y agoBeing an older parent is no fun. Your kids run circles around you and you're _always_ tired. Or maybe that's just parenting in general.
- btilly 10y agoSo I'd have more energy to enjoy them, have more of a window between them growing up and being old, and so I'd have better odds of living long enough to get to know my grandchildren. Let's put some numbers on that. My first child was born when I was 35. I turn 48 this year, and will not have all my children in college until I'm nearly 60. I'm not looking forward to figuring out college when I'd like to retire. Moving on, my family health history sucks - I do not have a male relative who has reached 60 without a heart attack and/or stroke. That includes 2 brothers that I know of. I'm working to take care of myself with diet+exercise, but already have hypertension. If my children have children as late as I did, there won't be a grandchild until I'm in my 70s. I have very few male relatives who survived to 70, and none arrived there with their minds intact. There is reason to believe that I could do better, but realistically there is a good chance that I won't. I was aware of most of these facts in my 20s. They just didn't seem relevant to the life choices that I was making then. In retrospect, I wish I'd chosen differently. I won't push my children towards any particular life decisions, but I hope to give them tools to make choices that better reflect what they want in the long term than I did.
- hammock 10y agoThanks. Interesting to see the similarities across the answers here. Some things as a younger person I hadn't thought of.
- jfindley 10y ago"... except for the time invested" Fundamentally, as individuals, time is all we have. Using it wisely is important.