4 ms·

"Investigating" means taking apart and systematically analyzing, exponentially cutting down the problem space. Making hypotheses, validating them, discarding th

"Investigating" means taking apart and systematically analyzing, exponentially cutting down the problem space. Making hypotheses, validating them, discarding the unconfirmed ones, and navigating further down the causal tree until you find the root cause. What this blog post is all about is called "bitching", pardon my French. And it kinda makes sense given the tremendous pay gap between the academia and industry in Computer Science. So if instead of joining a startup or a corporate research team, you decide to sit in a University job, you are either lazy, or don't like accountability, or both. Sorry.

kragen 4y ago
There are a lot of perqs to academic jobs that aren't provided by industry, some of which can be bought with money (like sabbatical years) and some of which can't (like the freedom to speak your mind, or job security). Some people value them more than money, sometimes correctly. Also, there are a very small number of industry jobs whose metric of fitness is academic; most are looking for people who can get profitable things done, not find novel things out. I would describe this blog post as an initial note on an investigation in progress, rather than a report of a completed investigation. You can see that he did take apart the program and systematically analyze its performance; he just hasn't gotten far enough yet to see if the problem is the C++ compiler or, say, iostream. Since you've put yourself in the position of measuring your dick against Lemire's, what's your most influential research publication?
- matrix_overload 4y ago
  >like the freedom to speak your mind, or job security Nope, it only works as long as you play along with the political games the University administration is playing. Speak out too much and you will find problems getting funding/equipment/people and will be stuck in a basement office working on a 10-year-old laptop. It gets worse, if you refuse to kiss ass to a particular boss in industry, you can always shop around and find another job. As long as you are competent and know how to sell yourself, you will be fine. In academia, one ruined relation can permanently screw up your entire career. I wouldn't call it freedom. I would dare say, a fairly recognizable blog in a relevant area, and a professional network of ~50 people will give you orders of magnitude more freedom than any kind of academic track record. >Since you've put yourself in the position of measuring your dick against Lemire's, what's your most influential research publication? Well, I didn't start it, but since you want to engage in penisometry, I managed to create a product and build a business around it, that pays more than a salaried job would. And I would dare say, comparing academic citations to paying customers is like being paid in monopoly money vs. the real thing. But I realize that the risk/reward ratio of this approach is not for everyone, so I normally prefer to keep my dick in my pants.
  - kragen 4y ago
    It sounds like you're qualified to opine on how to make money, but not to opine on how to do research.

kragen 4y ago

There are a lot of perqs to academic jobs that aren't provided by industry, some of which can be bought with money (like sabbatical years) and some of which can't (like the freedom to speak your mind, or job security). Some people value them more than money, sometimes correctly. Also, there are a very small number of industry jobs whose metric of fitness is academic; most are looking for people who can get profitable things done, not find novel things out. I would describe this blog post as an initial note on an investigation in progress, rather than a report of a completed investigation. You can see that he did take apart the program and systematically analyze its performance; he just hasn't gotten far enough yet to see if the problem is the C++ compiler or, say, iostream. Since you've put yourself in the position of measuring your dick against Lemire's, what's your most influential research publication?

matrix_overload 4y ago
>like the freedom to speak your mind, or job security Nope, it only works as long as you play along with the political games the University administration is playing. Speak out too much and you will find problems getting funding/equipment/people and will be stuck in a basement office working on a 10-year-old laptop. It gets worse, if you refuse to kiss ass to a particular boss in industry, you can always shop around and find another job. As long as you are competent and know how to sell yourself, you will be fine. In academia, one ruined relation can permanently screw up your entire career. I wouldn't call it freedom. I would dare say, a fairly recognizable blog in a relevant area, and a professional network of ~50 people will give you orders of magnitude more freedom than any kind of academic track record. >Since you've put yourself in the position of measuring your dick against Lemire's, what's your most influential research publication? Well, I didn't start it, but since you want to engage in penisometry, I managed to create a product and build a business around it, that pays more than a salaried job would. And I would dare say, comparing academic citations to paying customers is like being paid in monopoly money vs. the real thing. But I realize that the risk/reward ratio of this approach is not for everyone, so I normally prefer to keep my dick in my pants.
- kragen 4y ago
  It sounds like you're qualified to opine on how to make money, but not to opine on how to do research.