5 ms·

The thing that always infuriated me about computer science (my field), is that I don't actually need the big research grant. There are people who do, of course,

by deong 10y ago

The thing that always infuriated me about computer science (my field), is that I don't actually need the big research grant. There are people who do, of course, but I could do most of what I found interesting and useful with a high-end desktop PC and some free time. But universities don't operate that way anymore. It doesn't matter that all I need is $5K and some time -- the university needs their 40% cut of a multi-year, multi-million dollar collaboration. And so the entire system is set up to fund those projects and those projects only.

Cyph0n 10y ago
But you can only have so much free time, which means you eventually will have to "buy" time. Grants help you do this by allowing you to fund grad students and postdocs.
- dasmoth 10y ago
  Not everyone who is a good independent researcher is a good man-manager. For some people, researching independently -- or perhaps collaborating with a few other independents -- might be a better route than being forced to spin up a research group (and more-or-less-inevitably finding themselves with limited time to do the hands-on stuff themselves).
arcanus 10y ago
> 40% cut of a multi-year 40%?!? I would kill for overhead that low. Most places are over 50 now. I've heard of 70% at the absolute top.
- deong 10y ago
  I've been out of academia for a few years now, but I think my university took 40%, and the department took some more on top. The total was probably 60% or so.
flamedoge 10y ago
I can do research with a thinkpad and being a part-time barista...
- deong 10y ago
  Indeed you can. It's much harder though. If you have a full-time job unrelated to your research, you need to self-fund a lot of expenses. You need to convince your boss to let you take time off to go to that conference to present your work. You need to foster connections to other researchers through activities like reviewing for journals, etc. Of course, you can bypass all that and just publish straight to the internet. Personally, I find that to be enormously difficult. The interactions with my peers -- the conversations over beers in the evenings during conferences -- are so useful. Losing those hurts your ability to do good work.
  - flamedoge 10y ago
    I get that we're all humans and feel better if we converse face to face sometimes. I certainly appreciate people doing research on their own expense and time for the general good.
cr0sh 10y ago
So now that you are out of academia, do you now occasionally pursue those low-cost research ideas in computer science on your own? I mean, while $5k isn't anything to sneeze at, it is still within the realm of DIY research monetary levels (ie - if I wanted to, I could save up such an amount in a few months from my workaday salary). So - unless such research no longer interests you (or you have zero free time to devote to such) - it would seem like that since you don't need to kowtow to the academic whims on getting massive amounts of money for research - you should now be able to pursue these questions...
- deong 10y ago
  I generally stay current in my research field, but that's a different thing than actually contributing. The free time is one aspect of the problem, but there's also the problem of attending conferences regularly. I could pay the expense with the excess salary that industry pays, but unless you work for a research group, it's unlikely that you can make a workable schedule. Not to say it couldn't be done. But there are enough hurdles that I end up mostly just not participating much. That's not ideal to me, but it's where my actions show my priorities to be, I guess.

by deong 10y ago

Cyph0n 10y ago

But you can only have so much free time, which means you eventually will have to "buy" time. Grants help you do this by allowing you to fund grad students and postdocs.

dasmoth 10y ago
Not everyone who is a good independent researcher is a good man-manager. For some people, researching independently -- or perhaps collaborating with a few other independents -- might be a better route than being forced to spin up a research group (and more-or-less-inevitably finding themselves with limited time to do the hands-on stuff themselves).

arcanus 10y ago

> 40% cut of a multi-year 40%?!? I would kill for overhead that low. Most places are over 50 now. I've heard of 70% at the absolute top.

deong 10y ago
I've been out of academia for a few years now, but I think my university took 40%, and the department took some more on top. The total was probably 60% or so.

flamedoge 10y ago

I can do research with a thinkpad and being a part-time barista...

deong 10y ago
Indeed you can. It's much harder though. If you have a full-time job unrelated to your research, you need to self-fund a lot of expenses. You need to convince your boss to let you take time off to go to that conference to present your work. You need to foster connections to other researchers through activities like reviewing for journals, etc. Of course, you can bypass all that and just publish straight to the internet. Personally, I find that to be enormously difficult. The interactions with my peers -- the conversations over beers in the evenings during conferences -- are so useful. Losing those hurts your ability to do good work.
- flamedoge 10y ago
  I get that we're all humans and feel better if we converse face to face sometimes. I certainly appreciate people doing research on their own expense and time for the general good.

cr0sh 10y ago

So now that you are out of academia, do you now occasionally pursue those low-cost research ideas in computer science on your own? I mean, while $5k isn't anything to sneeze at, it is still within the realm of DIY research monetary levels (ie - if I wanted to, I could save up such an amount in a few months from my workaday salary). So - unless such research no longer interests you (or you have zero free time to devote to such) - it would seem like that since you don't need to kowtow to the academic whims on getting massive amounts of money for research - you should now be able to pursue these questions...

deong 10y ago
I generally stay current in my research field, but that's a different thing than actually contributing. The free time is one aspect of the problem, but there's also the problem of attending conferences regularly. I could pay the expense with the excess salary that industry pays, but unless you work for a research group, it's unlikely that you can make a workable schedule. Not to say it couldn't be done. But there are enough hurdles that I end up mostly just not participating much. That's not ideal to me, but it's where my actions show my priorities to be, I guess.