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I am a webdev nowadays but a physicist by trade and wrote my master thesis on quantum circuit synthesis using machine learning about 2.5 years ago. Whenever I s

I am a webdev nowadays but a physicist by trade and wrote my master thesis on quantum circuit synthesis using machine learning about 2.5 years ago. Whenever I see quantum computing news come up here I kind of want to get back into the field and preferably not purely in academia. However I am also not willing to relocate so it will probably remain a pipe dream. But I digress, I am happy to see google continuing their investment in the field and that a lot of cool research will come of it.

randmeerkat 5y ago
It pains me whenever I come across people with specialized educations that traded out fields in science for jobs in tech both for cultural and economic reasons. The opportunity loss caused by how society values dev work over science is something I think about frequently.
- Escapado 5y ago
  I am sometimes ashamed about my choice really since it seems like taking the easy route instead of pursuing something more meaningful. But almost 4 times the net income and a lot less anxiety and pressure are hella compelling when you want to start a family some day. I even saved up money for pursuing a PhD without feeling like I have to compromise financially all the time but remembering the stress academia caused me I am not sure anymore.
  - kkylin 5y ago
    I'm an applied mathematician, and faced with the same choice years ago I stuck with academia. I have no regrets, but don't think I would have regretted (too much) leaving either. For me personally, the money hasn't been a hard thing to let go. (Professors in the US get paid relatively well compared to academics in other countries, even places with much higher cost of living.) Nor the stress. The thing that's been hardest is not being able to pick where you live. But even if academic jobs were more plentiful, fact is there just aren't that many cities with multiple research universities.
- zvrba 5y ago
  I took a PhD in CS and after observing the work conditions of myself and my supervisors at close range for 4.5 years, I decided I did not want to get involved any further with academia. Because - Teaching obligations... which is fine with me, I _love_ teaching, but it earns you zero credits. Listening to other profs complaining about teaching is tiresome and goes completely against my view of universities: places to build next generations of good people. - A lot of time spent on acquiring funding, it doesn't matter whether you're employed at a research institute or university. University profs probably don't get fired if they fail to acquire funding, but the pressure is there. - A lot of time spent on reviewing the work of your subordinates: master and doctoral students' theses. (OK, it doesn't go into the teaching quota, but it's part of teaching as I see it.) - Publication pressure and inflation. Count earns you points, not quality or impact. This encourages authors to publish multiple partial papers instead of one "complete" paper. It's also devastating for the field as searching for relevant papers (on any topic) is way harder. This leaves you with little time for actual _research_ in the work hours. Most part of your official working hours are spent on administrative tasks and (co-)authoring papers. It is not environment for someone like me who likes to _build_ stuff as well. Income was only secondary to my choosing industry over academia.
- zepto 5y ago
  I agree with the concern but is it society ‘valuing’ it, or is it a structural defect is resource allocation?
  - JohnJamesRambo 5y ago
    Or are we in a tech bubble and dev jobs will be paid more reasonably when the market assigns the true value to the companies doing the hiring?
    - whitepaint 5y ago
      Devs are creating insane amount of value. Software is eating the world by making it much more efficient.
      - zepto 5y ago
        Efficient at what?
        whitepaint 5y ago
        Producing the goods.
        zepto 5y ago
        What goods?
- FabHK 5y ago
  > It pains me whenever I come across people with specialized educations that traded out fields in science for jobs in tech Or finance (or “crypto”)
- freshmintsauce 5y ago
  hahaha, I have a PhD in physics too, also focusing on optics in a quantum computing adjacent research area and I abandoned science to spend a week reading a cisco book and get a CCNA. The pay is much much better. Work life balance is waaay better. Career prospects are better.... My biggest regrets in life are...getting a PhD, and going to university at all, in that order. The opportunity cost for not just reading a few basic books and getting entry level tech certs and instead getting an education are on par with owning a house outright where I live, and not having a decade of unbelievable stress and pressure to succeed in academia. :)
  - aswegs8 5y ago
    Did two Masters, one in genomic medicine. Basically spent most of my adult life up to now in academia. Then moved into industry, from bioinformatics to business management and web dev. At every step I basically went more and more practical and further away from theory and science. I think the problem here is that studying complex stuff is glorified in our society. We naively think that every problem can be solved by studying it hard enough and that productivity is at least linear. I mean, it is true that we need science, but there is a universe of well-paying existing jobs (and those yet to be created) that are way easier and provide a decent payoff for workers and society. I am convinced only a small fraction of people are suited for the lonely grind of academia. Most others would be better off getting more practical experience. Smart people end up studying, so university degrees are associated with smart people. But the chance that they would have been successful without a science degree is pretty high for a lot of them.
    - freshmintsauce 5y ago
      The glorification of complex stuff in our society is a class specific distinction. The social status in professional circles given to scientists does not help pay rent. What signal this sends to me is that science is, and excepting a cold war arms race level of public funding always will be, nothing more than two broad groups: those without external material demands ( no need to pay rent, etc) the rare insane genius ( driven by lifelong obsession) Everyone else leaves for a real job once they realise they have bills to pay imho. Science is not part of our society, it is a fringe luxury indulged in by an elite social class that fuels itself with the pyramid scheme esque hordes of naïve young grad students, who are swiftly forced to choose between poverty and abandoning what they have wasted their youth training to become experts in. Or in other words, higher education is the greatest waste of human capital since the world wars.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

randmeerkat 5y ago

It pains me whenever I come across people with specialized educations that traded out fields in science for jobs in tech both for cultural and economic reasons. The opportunity loss caused by how society values dev work over science is something I think about frequently.

Escapado 5y ago
I am sometimes ashamed about my choice really since it seems like taking the easy route instead of pursuing something more meaningful. But almost 4 times the net income and a lot less anxiety and pressure are hella compelling when you want to start a family some day. I even saved up money for pursuing a PhD without feeling like I have to compromise financially all the time but remembering the stress academia caused me I am not sure anymore.
- kkylin 5y ago
  I'm an applied mathematician, and faced with the same choice years ago I stuck with academia. I have no regrets, but don't think I would have regretted (too much) leaving either. For me personally, the money hasn't been a hard thing to let go. (Professors in the US get paid relatively well compared to academics in other countries, even places with much higher cost of living.) Nor the stress. The thing that's been hardest is not being able to pick where you live. But even if academic jobs were more plentiful, fact is there just aren't that many cities with multiple research universities.
zvrba 5y ago
I took a PhD in CS and after observing the work conditions of myself and my supervisors at close range for 4.5 years, I decided I did not want to get involved any further with academia. Because - Teaching obligations... which is fine with me, I _love_ teaching, but it earns you zero credits. Listening to other profs complaining about teaching is tiresome and goes completely against my view of universities: places to build next generations of good people. - A lot of time spent on acquiring funding, it doesn't matter whether you're employed at a research institute or university. University profs probably don't get fired if they fail to acquire funding, but the pressure is there. - A lot of time spent on reviewing the work of your subordinates: master and doctoral students' theses. (OK, it doesn't go into the teaching quota, but it's part of teaching as I see it.) - Publication pressure and inflation. Count earns you points, not quality or impact. This encourages authors to publish multiple partial papers instead of one "complete" paper. It's also devastating for the field as searching for relevant papers (on any topic) is way harder. This leaves you with little time for actual _research_ in the work hours. Most part of your official working hours are spent on administrative tasks and (co-)authoring papers. It is not environment for someone like me who likes to _build_ stuff as well. Income was only secondary to my choosing industry over academia.
zepto 5y ago
I agree with the concern but is it society ‘valuing’ it, or is it a structural defect is resource allocation?
- JohnJamesRambo 5y ago
  Or are we in a tech bubble and dev jobs will be paid more reasonably when the market assigns the true value to the companies doing the hiring?
  - whitepaint 5y ago
    Devs are creating insane amount of value. Software is eating the world by making it much more efficient.
    - zepto 5y ago
      Efficient at what?
      - whitepaint 5y ago
        Producing the goods.
        zepto 5y ago
        What goods?
FabHK 5y ago
> It pains me whenever I come across people with specialized educations that traded out fields in science for jobs in tech Or finance (or “crypto”)
freshmintsauce 5y ago
hahaha, I have a PhD in physics too, also focusing on optics in a quantum computing adjacent research area and I abandoned science to spend a week reading a cisco book and get a CCNA. The pay is much much better. Work life balance is waaay better. Career prospects are better.... My biggest regrets in life are...getting a PhD, and going to university at all, in that order. The opportunity cost for not just reading a few basic books and getting entry level tech certs and instead getting an education are on par with owning a house outright where I live, and not having a decade of unbelievable stress and pressure to succeed in academia. :)
- aswegs8 5y ago
  Did two Masters, one in genomic medicine. Basically spent most of my adult life up to now in academia. Then moved into industry, from bioinformatics to business management and web dev. At every step I basically went more and more practical and further away from theory and science. I think the problem here is that studying complex stuff is glorified in our society. We naively think that every problem can be solved by studying it hard enough and that productivity is at least linear. I mean, it is true that we need science, but there is a universe of well-paying existing jobs (and those yet to be created) that are way easier and provide a decent payoff for workers and society. I am convinced only a small fraction of people are suited for the lonely grind of academia. Most others would be better off getting more practical experience. Smart people end up studying, so university degrees are associated with smart people. But the chance that they would have been successful without a science degree is pretty high for a lot of them.
  - freshmintsauce 5y ago
    The glorification of complex stuff in our society is a class specific distinction. The social status in professional circles given to scientists does not help pay rent. What signal this sends to me is that science is, and excepting a cold war arms race level of public funding always will be, nothing more than two broad groups: those without external material demands ( no need to pay rent, etc) the rare insane genius ( driven by lifelong obsession) Everyone else leaves for a real job once they realise they have bills to pay imho. Science is not part of our society, it is a fringe luxury indulged in by an elite social class that fuels itself with the pyramid scheme esque hordes of naïve young grad students, who are swiftly forced to choose between poverty and abandoning what they have wasted their youth training to become experts in. Or in other words, higher education is the greatest waste of human capital since the world wars.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]