2 ms·

Man, I just read through the memoir (it's a pretty engrossing read) and it's a ride. I really want a sequel though. Why/how did he end up back in academia? What

Man, I just read through the memoir (it's a pretty engrossing read) and it's a ride. I really want a sequel though. Why/how did he end up back in academia? What do the other parties, e.g. Dawson, Margo, etc. think of these recollections? How far has he shifted his research? How different is it now that data science is such a pronounced field? I definitely feel like his tools anticipated stuff like Docker and data science tooling. Maybe he would have had better success in industry with these ideas.

papeda 6y ago
Not quite a sequel, but he recently gave more details on the post-phd transition here: http://pgbovine.net/one-weird-year.htm http://pgbovine.net/one-weird-year.htm.
- saeranv 6y ago
  Interesting that he doesn't seem to debate or reconcile how painful he found working on his PhD, with his decision to rejoin academia. He makes the persuasive point that he doesn't have the freedom to pursue long-term research in the industry, but he documented all the trade-offs inherent in that freedom in 'The PhD Grind'. Is it just that he's on the other side of the advisor-student power-balance? Or that he has the experience and skills to negotiate them better?
  - papeda 6y ago
    IIRC, one reason his PhD was so hard is he spent a bunch of time working in a grind-it-out field (automated bug-finding) with an advisor who was sort of an outsider in the field. That's a recipe for a ton of hours spent on the wrong stuff with little agency. He only pivoted toward his current focus on HCI, learning, visualization, etc incidentally near the end of his PhD. Since he's now familiar with and known in his chosen area, he may honestly be able to say to his students "I can help you do meaningful and rewarding research". (Of course, I dunno what the actual story is.)
    - saeranv 6y ago
      That seems right, the advisor/subject-matter/interest mismatch seems to be at the core of a lot of his struggle.
  - _hardwaregeek 6y ago
    I kinda viewed it as a "the grass is grayer on the other side". Like he tried the other side, realized it wasn't that great either and went back.

papeda 6y ago

Not quite a sequel, but he recently gave more details on the post-phd transition here: http://pgbovine.net/one-weird-year.htm http://pgbovine.net/one-weird-year.htm.

saeranv 6y ago
Interesting that he doesn't seem to debate or reconcile how painful he found working on his PhD, with his decision to rejoin academia. He makes the persuasive point that he doesn't have the freedom to pursue long-term research in the industry, but he documented all the trade-offs inherent in that freedom in 'The PhD Grind'. Is it just that he's on the other side of the advisor-student power-balance? Or that he has the experience and skills to negotiate them better?
- papeda 6y ago
  IIRC, one reason his PhD was so hard is he spent a bunch of time working in a grind-it-out field (automated bug-finding) with an advisor who was sort of an outsider in the field. That's a recipe for a ton of hours spent on the wrong stuff with little agency. He only pivoted toward his current focus on HCI, learning, visualization, etc incidentally near the end of his PhD. Since he's now familiar with and known in his chosen area, he may honestly be able to say to his students "I can help you do meaningful and rewarding research". (Of course, I dunno what the actual story is.)
  - saeranv 6y ago
    That seems right, the advisor/subject-matter/interest mismatch seems to be at the core of a lot of his struggle.
- _hardwaregeek 6y ago
  I kinda viewed it as a "the grass is grayer on the other side". Like he tried the other side, realized it wasn't that great either and went back.