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Another point that contributes to academia as "perfect storm", in addition to the points mentioned before, is that in many countries the chances of having a car

by zwaps 8y ago

Another point that contributes to academia as "perfect storm", in addition to the points mentioned before, is that in many countries the chances of having a career are slim for the median student. Not everyone can gain a top position in any field. But in most industries, there are plenty of positions where you can make meaningful contributions. We know that most humans need to feel useful for mental health. In academia, there are increasingly few viable career paths where you are not required to beat out everyone. The further you progress, the harder it becomes to switch to industry. Implied in this is that the further you go, the more risk you must be willing to take, and the more stress you are under. In my country, the system for selecting professors is not very meritocratic. Older professors frequently would not have an ounce of success if they were required to prove themselves in the current situation. In addition, there are very few positions to do research below a professor level, and these positions are precarious and do not offer a lot of options for meaningful contribution. This places extreme stress on graduate students - in addition to everything being said here. As you progress in your PhD, you are either at the very top, or you have to fear that your career will go nowhere. Remember, this is a group of people that already selected on wanting to do research, seeing research as their goal in life. This is a systemic pressure of extreme magnitude. If you fail, which is statistically likely, then you will be in a (comparatively) bad position to go after other careers. In addition, you are most likely a person who does not care primarily about money and wealth. Thus, options for a meaningful life decline as risk increases. The success or failure is determined by many factors our of your control. Like your advisor's behavior, how the network is utilized, if you are lucky to work on a hot subject, if your contribution is recognized and so forth. The locus of control is far out of your reach, more so than in other industries. And if you fail, all the options you set for yourself in your life vanish. It doesn't take a lot of thought to realize this has an extreme effect on the psyche of graduate students. It's more than publish or perish. It's publish or face the void.

woah 8y ago
This seems strange. In industry, it seems that great cachet is attached to academic experience. In AI, there are a lot of positions paying a half million per year and up that are only available to PHD's. In blockchain, there have been many projects that have had little to show besides a powerpoint and the letters after the founder's name but still raised tens of millions of dollars in funding from big name VCs. For a time, this was so prevalent that projects like this were given the joking name "professorcoins". Are you talking about the experience of students whose subjects are not used in industry? In that case, it seems that they would have a difficult time regardless of whether or not they were in academia, since they would simply not be working on their subject at all in the private sector.
- grigjd3 8y ago
  Certain fields have an easy path to the private sector, like computer science, but a lot of academic research is done by academics because the private sector would never pay for it. Certainly when I left academics, I didn't see many employers looking to study initial data for the binary black hole problem. ;)
- zwaps 8y ago
  No, in fact I would classify AI as a special case, because there is a high premium on experience, and even more on theoretical knowledge - rare as it is. It is a new field. In many other fields, PhDs are too expensive and specialized relative to other candidates. This is also relatively speaking. PhDs will certainly find some sort of job, but given how much income they forgo during their studies, the starting position is often relatively underpaid.

by zwaps 8y ago

woah 8y ago

This seems strange. In industry, it seems that great cachet is attached to academic experience. In AI, there are a lot of positions paying a half million per year and up that are only available to PHD's. In blockchain, there have been many projects that have had little to show besides a powerpoint and the letters after the founder's name but still raised tens of millions of dollars in funding from big name VCs. For a time, this was so prevalent that projects like this were given the joking name "professorcoins". Are you talking about the experience of students whose subjects are not used in industry? In that case, it seems that they would have a difficult time regardless of whether or not they were in academia, since they would simply not be working on their subject at all in the private sector.

grigjd3 8y ago
Certain fields have an easy path to the private sector, like computer science, but a lot of academic research is done by academics because the private sector would never pay for it. Certainly when I left academics, I didn't see many employers looking to study initial data for the binary black hole problem. ;)
zwaps 8y ago
No, in fact I would classify AI as a special case, because there is a high premium on experience, and even more on theoretical knowledge - rare as it is. It is a new field. In many other fields, PhDs are too expensive and specialized relative to other candidates. This is also relatively speaking. PhDs will certainly find some sort of job, but given how much income they forgo during their studies, the starting position is often relatively underpaid.