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Physics PhD student here. Yeah, we're all playing the lottery for the dream of a life studying the universe. It's the exact analogue of how serious student ath
by knzhou 6y ago
Physics PhD student here. Yeah, we're all playing the lottery for the dream of a life studying the universe.
It's the exact analogue of how serious student athletes throw away their whole undergrad education for a shot at a pro career, usually to end up injured and useless a couple years later.
- CamperBob2 6y agoI don't know about that. If you fall short of your aspirations at the PhD or postgrad level, there's always quantitative finance or any number of other lucrative careers where your background will at least get you in the door for an interview. For the athlete, it's literally all or nothing.
- knzhou 6y ago> there's always quantitative finance From the perspective of understanding the universe, that is nothing. Decent consolation prize though.
- kevin_thibedeau 6y agoStudent athletes could go to class, engage in scholarship, and learn something.
- defterGoose 6y agoExcept, for so many of us who have studied hard science, the idea of a career in quantitative finance is the exact analog of the purebred racehorse who breaks his leg on the track and gets taken out back for an acute brain-scrambling.
- wutbrodo 6y agoAs the example originating this subthread shows, quantitative finance isn't even close to the only option for a lucrative career available to those educated in the hard sciences.