4 ms·
The analogy about the Porsche is really telling. This guy isn't a Porsche. This guys is a Kia that costs as much as a Porsche and so therefore is convinced it's
by benihana 13y ago
The analogy about the Porsche is really telling. This guy isn't a Porsche. This guys is a Kia that costs as much as a Porsche and so therefore is convinced it's a Porsche. A Porsche doesn't need to tell you how fast it can go, how well it's engineered, how beautiful it is. A Porsche can speak for itself. A Kia can't - it needs to be proven, and the only way it'll get a chance to prove itself is if it's cheap and the risk of it sucking is mitigated. John Carmack is a Porsche. Donald Knuth is a Porsche. This guy is not.
- joelgrus 13y agoThis. It doesn't surprise me at all that someone with this attitude has trouble getting job offers.
- auggierose 13y agoLol. I bet you 1000 to 1 that you don't have a PhD.
- joelgrus 13y agoI dropped out of my PhD program when I realized that 1. I didn't want to be an academic, and 2. Having a PhD wasn't going to help me get a non-academic job, and 3. Grad school kind of sucks. But, as a result, I have a lot of friends who finished their PhDs, and the idea that they are metaphorically "Porsches" compared to the many talented non-PhD developers and data scientists I've worked with is laughable.
- batguano 13y agoThat was my gut reaction too--but I'm not sure that it's a fair one. It may very well be true; but it's too harsh to say he's incompetent just because he found trouble finding the right job. Sadly, even the tech world isn't as much of a meritocracy as we might like. I found his story valuable, and even if it is just anecdotal, it's a useful anecdote. He deserves credit for sharing it, because it certainly doesn't help your career to have an "I wasn't wanted" stigma attached to it. Don't forget that the article is part of a blog about PhD's placement experiences--it's not just idle carping. Reading the authors responses to the comments, he sounds like a stand-up guy.