3 ms·

I'm doing my M.Sc in Software right now. I want to do a startup right after this is finished (August cannot come soon enough). The one glaring omission from y

by beilabs 16y ago

I'm doing my M.Sc in Software right now. I want to do a startup right after this is finished (August cannot come soon enough). The one glaring omission from your post is that there is no thesis! My thesis is in something I am genuinely interested in, I'm doing "proper academic" research in a field that I can see myself working in full time after this is complete. My classes are all just preparation for the thesis and using what I have learned in them to research & write something which can be given back to the academic and professional community.

nekopa 16y ago
Up-voted even though I don't think you are 100% correct. Its not so much a thesis that is needed, but something similar. For example, I am embarking on an intensive self-study course, in a lot of different subjects. Instead of a thesis, I have given myself a bunch of objective, observable outcomes. These are 'things' that can be observed and/or measured objectively. Due to the fact that I have a lot of varied subjects I want to learn/understand more about, I decided the best way to make my learning more efficient is to combine subjects as much as possible into these OO outcomes. Here are a couple of the outcomes I am working on, with the subjects that relate to them. Herb Garden: Biology, chemistry(making own fertilisers etc) agriculture history, hydrology, genetics, molecular gastronomy, design and geometry Risk-like game of different time eras: Military history, python, databases, data visualizations, dashboard design, social network design, math- probability and statistics, cartography skills, 2D artificial intelligence(bots), application of a few books on mil strategy: Art of War, Book of 5 Rings, Warfighting, and On War. I am hoping that by having concrete things to build, it will force me not only to learn the subjects needed, but to really get a proper understanding of them. I have taking this path because I realized recently that I have been starting to become a "Cargo-Cult Programmer". I can build software and get results, but not really understand why the results are what they are. I would like to change that. Edit: typo
- msg 16y ago
  At least in my master's program, I was advised that an MS without a thesis was essentially a terminal degree. If you want a research job at Google, you need the PhD, and if you want the PhD, you must do the thesis.
  - nekopa 16y ago
    I was talking about 'rolling your own' degree. Of course if you are in university then you should do what is required. But if you are studying for knowledge sake, then the 'thesis' can take a very different form.

by beilabs 16y ago

nekopa 16y ago

Up-voted even though I don't think you are 100% correct. Its not so much a thesis that is needed, but something similar. For example, I am embarking on an intensive self-study course, in a lot of different subjects. Instead of a thesis, I have given myself a bunch of objective, observable outcomes. These are 'things' that can be observed and/or measured objectively. Due to the fact that I have a lot of varied subjects I want to learn/understand more about, I decided the best way to make my learning more efficient is to combine subjects as much as possible into these OO outcomes. Here are a couple of the outcomes I am working on, with the subjects that relate to them. Herb Garden: Biology, chemistry(making own fertilisers etc) agriculture history, hydrology, genetics, molecular gastronomy, design and geometry Risk-like game of different time eras: Military history, python, databases, data visualizations, dashboard design, social network design, math- probability and statistics, cartography skills, 2D artificial intelligence(bots), application of a few books on mil strategy: Art of War, Book of 5 Rings, Warfighting, and On War. I am hoping that by having concrete things to build, it will force me not only to learn the subjects needed, but to really get a proper understanding of them. I have taking this path because I realized recently that I have been starting to become a "Cargo-Cult Programmer". I can build software and get results, but not really understand why the results are what they are. I would like to change that. Edit: typo

msg 16y ago
At least in my master's program, I was advised that an MS without a thesis was essentially a terminal degree. If you want a research job at Google, you need the PhD, and if you want the PhD, you must do the thesis.
- nekopa 16y ago
  I was talking about 'rolling your own' degree. Of course if you are in university then you should do what is required. But if you are studying for knowledge sake, then the 'thesis' can take a very different form.