Sorry to be a jerk, but quickly rule out professors like this. Go listen to Maria Konnikova's interview on the Longform podcast here https://longform.org/posts/

Sorry to be a jerk, but quickly rule out professors like this. Go listen to Maria Konnikova's interview on the Longform podcast here https://longform.org/posts/longform-podcast-400-maria-konnikova https://longform.org/posts/longform-podcast-400-maria-konnik... about her working with an advisor that was skeptical about the academic system. It's largely a racket and I say that having gone to an Ivy League and having worked in an elite lab in high school before working for Google. I would also listen to Thiel's talk on YouTube "Competition is for Losers" -- about creating genuine value and side-stepping, to the greatest degree possible, competition on metrics that a lot of people care about but just don't matter. I want to appreciate the academic system, but unfortunately so much of it is prestige and credential games. It's best to step outside of that and work with others that are beneficiaries of these systems as opposed to slaves to them. It took me years of finding a degree of independent success in spite of hating the Ivy League I went to (thinking it was my fault for years) to get over this mentality. If the last 5 years of working hard as an IC at a startup that had a 1B+ acquisition -- and watching others, too -- it's that you need to (a) be dedicated (b) work hard (c) work with others that believe in you (and only care so much about credentials) to accomplish great things. So many are precluded from accomplishing great things due to a sense of miserliness and scarcity that academic systems create (avoid individuals with this mentality/do not cultivate this mentality within yourself at all costs). There are wonderful, lovely things going on in academia, but also unconscious yet incredible MLM/Ponzi scheme-like things, too. Chose your path carefully and again, don't get discouraged. That said, perhaps academia isn't right for you, too. And don't get discouraged by that either.