5 ms·

Hedge your bets by doing a start-up in year 2, which will hopefully be followed by the epiphany that a PhD is a poor metric of intelligence and "permanent sabba

by fixxer 14y ago

Hedge your bets by doing a start-up in year 2, which will hopefully be followed by the epiphany that a PhD is a poor metric of intelligence and "permanent sabbatical" has a nice ring to it.

wellboy 14y ago
So true, gave you an upboat. I can seriously try 5 startups in 4 years and I'm a millionaire afterwards, can research on whatever I want and don't have to prove myself to nobody ever again. If you choose to do a PhD, you're still nothing afterwards and you still have to prove yourself to everybody, uargh... Also, when I talk to PhDs, they seem like little kids who don't have an idea of anything in comparison to startup founders. --> Do a startup
- khawkins 14y ago
  Startup founders are usually discussing consumer products which are by neccessity easy to comprehend. Research students usually delve into issues of high complexity for the task of progressing the state of the art. They don't often have to communicate the importance of their work to people like you.
  - tmarthal 14y ago
    The last picture in this article accurately describes what doing a PhD is all about: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1588727 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1588727 Pushing the envelope of human knowledge, one pixel at a time.
  - wellboy 14y ago
    Yeah easy to comprehend in hindsight, obviously. Sorry didn't want to hate against PhD students, but I don't like the institution of a PhD. Most PhD thesises I have seen are just a waste of time of the PhD students. Less in science PhDs, more so in social studies, business...
    - yid 14y ago
      > Most PhD thesises I have seen are just a waste of time of the PhD students I'm curious why you feel qualified to judge the quality of PhD theses, or whether they were worth the authors' time. There's obviously a gradient in quality, but your post is overly dismissive.
- GuiA 14y ago
  > I can seriously try 5 startups in 4 years and I'm a millionaire afterwards, I'm guessing you aren't in the startup world, or haven't been for very long.
  - wellboy 14y ago
    Why not, I'd even up this number to 8 startups in 4 years. Plus, the chance as a first time entrepreneur to have a successful(IPO/exit) startup are 12%: http://fundersandfounders.com/will-i-succeed-with-my-startup-the-odds-of-making-it/ http://fundersandfounders.com/will-i-succeed-with-my-startup...
    - GuiA 14y ago
      How many people in the SF Bay Area are working at startups? How many of them are millionaires? Here's your answer.
      - wellboy 14y ago
        well there's 50,000 startups on Angellist right now. Approx. 5,000 of them are funded so that their founders are millionaires. Here's your answer ;) And if your startup is not on Angellist, you haven't tried really.
- wellboy 14y ago
  Please see this article, which was here on hackernews and which gives you a bit more insight into my point of view "Dear brilliant students. Please consider not doing a PhD." http://liv.dreamwidth.org/389934.html http://liv.dreamwidth.org/389934.html
rayiner 14y ago
Google Glass, Google self driving cars -> made by PhD's. Color app -> not made by PhD's.
- yid 14y ago
  Not sure what you're getting at. Google itself was started by two PhD students who are on semi-permanent "long-term absence".
  - sliverstorm 14y ago
    sure what you're getting at I imagine your parent was commenting on this statement: a PhD is a poor metric of intelligence Making the observation that, whether or not it is a metric of intelligence, PhDs certainly get to work on some pretty cool things.
    - fixxer 14y ago
      The only point I was trying to make was that execution of an idea in the market is so much more impressive (and gratifying) than credentials. PhDs, like MBAs, get more credit than they deserve.
      - rayiner 14y ago
        And my point is that most of those ideas that get executed in the market aren't very impressive. I was a lot more impressed with SRI's machine learning technology, then Summly's execution of that technology in an iPhone app. That's a great case of the "entrepreneur" getting more credit than he deserved when the PhD's were the one that create real value.
        fixxer 14y ago
        "Real value" requires a market, otherwise it is just chalk talk. Summly's execution is far more impressive to me for the simple fact that they actually executed it.

by fixxer 14y ago

Hedge your bets by doing a start-up in year 2, which will hopefully be followed by the epiphany that a PhD is a poor metric of intelligence and "permanent sabbatical" has a nice ring to it.

wellboy 14y ago

So true, gave you an upboat. I can seriously try 5 startups in 4 years and I'm a millionaire afterwards, can research on whatever I want and don't have to prove myself to nobody ever again. If you choose to do a PhD, you're still nothing afterwards and you still have to prove yourself to everybody, uargh... Also, when I talk to PhDs, they seem like little kids who don't have an idea of anything in comparison to startup founders. --> Do a startup

khawkins 14y ago
Startup founders are usually discussing consumer products which are by neccessity easy to comprehend. Research students usually delve into issues of high complexity for the task of progressing the state of the art. They don't often have to communicate the importance of their work to people like you.
- tmarthal 14y ago
  The last picture in this article accurately describes what doing a PhD is all about: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1588727 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1588727 Pushing the envelope of human knowledge, one pixel at a time.
- wellboy 14y ago
  Yeah easy to comprehend in hindsight, obviously. Sorry didn't want to hate against PhD students, but I don't like the institution of a PhD. Most PhD thesises I have seen are just a waste of time of the PhD students. Less in science PhDs, more so in social studies, business...
  - yid 14y ago
    > Most PhD thesises I have seen are just a waste of time of the PhD students I'm curious why you feel qualified to judge the quality of PhD theses, or whether they were worth the authors' time. There's obviously a gradient in quality, but your post is overly dismissive.
GuiA 14y ago
> I can seriously try 5 startups in 4 years and I'm a millionaire afterwards, I'm guessing you aren't in the startup world, or haven't been for very long.
- wellboy 14y ago
  Why not, I'd even up this number to 8 startups in 4 years. Plus, the chance as a first time entrepreneur to have a successful(IPO/exit) startup are 12%: http://fundersandfounders.com/will-i-succeed-with-my-startup-the-odds-of-making-it/ http://fundersandfounders.com/will-i-succeed-with-my-startup...
  - GuiA 14y ago
    How many people in the SF Bay Area are working at startups? How many of them are millionaires? Here's your answer.
    - wellboy 14y ago
      well there's 50,000 startups on Angellist right now. Approx. 5,000 of them are funded so that their founders are millionaires. Here's your answer ;) And if your startup is not on Angellist, you haven't tried really.
wellboy 14y ago
Please see this article, which was here on hackernews and which gives you a bit more insight into my point of view "Dear brilliant students. Please consider not doing a PhD." http://liv.dreamwidth.org/389934.html http://liv.dreamwidth.org/389934.html

rayiner 14y ago

Google Glass, Google self driving cars -> made by PhD's. Color app -> not made by PhD's.

yid 14y ago
Not sure what you're getting at. Google itself was started by two PhD students who are on semi-permanent "long-term absence".
- sliverstorm 14y ago
  sure what you're getting at I imagine your parent was commenting on this statement: a PhD is a poor metric of intelligence Making the observation that, whether or not it is a metric of intelligence, PhDs certainly get to work on some pretty cool things.
  - fixxer 14y ago
    The only point I was trying to make was that execution of an idea in the market is so much more impressive (and gratifying) than credentials. PhDs, like MBAs, get more credit than they deserve.
    - rayiner 14y ago
      And my point is that most of those ideas that get executed in the market aren't very impressive. I was a lot more impressed with SRI's machine learning technology, then Summly's execution of that technology in an iPhone app. That's a great case of the "entrepreneur" getting more credit than he deserved when the PhD's were the one that create real value.
      - fixxer 14y ago
        "Real value" requires a market, otherwise it is just chalk talk. Summly's execution is far more impressive to me for the simple fact that they actually executed it.