4 ms·

> Especially in some industries, people are widely aware that higher education is desperately in need of reform, have had genuinely bad experiences in school, o

> Especially in some industries, people are widely aware that higher education is desperately in need of reform, have had genuinely bad experiences in school, or are just plain anti-academic. In fact, the notion of "signaling" is a symptom of these problems. Can you speak a bit more to this, and what your experience with this has been like?

analog31 6y ago
Graduate education is quite risky. You spend many years, at the mercy of one advisor, many things can knock you off your horse, and the process has minimal oversight. There is very high attrition, and unlike a regular job, you're left with little or nothing to show for your time if you drop out. There are a lot of horror stories. This is the bit about needing reform. A lot has been written about this -- I'm barely scratching the surface, but giving you some flavor. It's almost like a business incubator, where they provide you with basic infrastructure, and perhaps some training, but you end up with a growing business or you don't. And in fact a lot of PhDs, at least in my field, end up becoming entrepreneurs. You're supposed to be able to turn yourself into an independent researcher, but this is far from guaranteed. While you assume these risks, there's also the risk of getting the degree and regretting it, if the expectations (being in a leadership role, possibly directing other people) don't match with what you actually want to do, and the people skills needed for those things. And then, in some fields, you're competing with people who went straight to work after college, and have developed their careers on the job while also putting away some nice money. Okay, enough of that. The other thing is, you can pick it up after a few months of HN, that a lot of people are really down on academia and academics. Again, this varies by field. In my field, physics, the PhD is almost the default -- there are relatively few people with masters or even bachelors degrees to be compared with, and we're also rare enough that many people have just not formed an opinion about us. ;-) Plus we do the work that most people hate, such as math intensive stuff, and we don't demand as much money. ;-) I suggest this is an issue worth just observing for a while. There are debates among my friends about whether HN is really representative of the hive mind of the tech industry, or computer programmers, or whatever,

analog31 6y ago

Graduate education is quite risky. You spend many years, at the mercy of one advisor, many things can knock you off your horse, and the process has minimal oversight. There is very high attrition, and unlike a regular job, you're left with little or nothing to show for your time if you drop out. There are a lot of horror stories. This is the bit about needing reform. A lot has been written about this -- I'm barely scratching the surface, but giving you some flavor. It's almost like a business incubator, where they provide you with basic infrastructure, and perhaps some training, but you end up with a growing business or you don't. And in fact a lot of PhDs, at least in my field, end up becoming entrepreneurs. You're supposed to be able to turn yourself into an independent researcher, but this is far from guaranteed. While you assume these risks, there's also the risk of getting the degree and regretting it, if the expectations (being in a leadership role, possibly directing other people) don't match with what you actually want to do, and the people skills needed for those things. And then, in some fields, you're competing with people who went straight to work after college, and have developed their careers on the job while also putting away some nice money. Okay, enough of that. The other thing is, you can pick it up after a few months of HN, that a lot of people are really down on academia and academics. Again, this varies by field. In my field, physics, the PhD is almost the default -- there are relatively few people with masters or even bachelors degrees to be compared with, and we're also rare enough that many people have just not formed an opinion about us. ;-) Plus we do the work that most people hate, such as math intensive stuff, and we don't demand as much money. ;-) I suggest this is an issue worth just observing for a while. There are debates among my friends about whether HN is really representative of the hive mind of the tech industry, or computer programmers, or whatever,