4 ms·

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 cis

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.

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.