4 ms·

It may be worth noting that in many areas of CS, you can still do research and think deeply about hard problems even if you don't go to grad school. You can rea

It may be worth noting that in many areas of CS, you can still do research and think deeply about hard problems even if you don't go to grad school. You can read papers on the internet, which are free in some cases, and use your own computer. It will be a lot harder to publish anything, you won't have a faculty adviser to steer you in the right direction, and you won't get to go to conferences. But nothing stops you from doing research anyway, and if you happen to solve some important problem and can prove it, eventually word will get out and people will notice (one would hope).

chubot 13y ago
A big problem is the lack of publication access though. I happen to have most accounts through work (ACM, IEEE, etc.), but if I didn't, I'd have to find other ways to get about half the papers I read. I think the "unschooled" approach is more appealing for practitioners / systems software. BitTorrent and BitCoin both have had papers, though of course that's wasn't their real point, and not their real impact. If you want to prove results, it seems rare to have the motivation outside the academic community. The environment and feedback is important. But I'd be interested in any examples of people who have done this. I recall seeing some examples of professors without Ph.D.'s a few months back on HN. I think anyone who is proving good theoretical results will be quickly offered an academic job, and take it, since they likely won't have another way of supporting themselves.
- mtdewcmu 13y ago
  Yeah... I wasn't so much suggesting that it's a viable path to a career in research as observing that if you missed your chance to do a PhD, you're not cut off for life from the subjective rewards of research that Dr. Harchol-Balter alluded to, like the satisfaction that comes from working on fundamental problems. You'd need more self-motivation. However, when research isn't your real job, there's no pressure, so you can take your time, and produce results or not, as you wish.
mathattack 13y ago
The real question is "What's the research for?" If it's to advance the state of the art in academia, or to push an academic career, the Phd really is required. (Much of it is the habits and network too) If it's art for art's sake, the Phd is not required. If it's to advance a professional (non-academic) agenda, the Phd isn't required either. In the latter two cases, it can help, but it's an expensive degree when you factor in opportunity cost.
- mtdewcmu 13y ago
  If you find a topic interesting, then you will enjoy reading the papers on it. You will enjoy thinking it through, just to get a strong grasp of the research that's already been done. In the course of turning it over in your head, you may have an idea and want to follow up on it. It might work and actually be novel. That's research. It's probably not the kind that fundamentally alters the field, or could win best paper awards, but if it hasn't been done before and it sheds new light on something that matters in any amount, it's real. In some fields you can post things to newsgroups and web boards where bona fide experts will see it, in lieu of publishing in a journal or conference. You don't have to set out to achieve something worthy of research. If you learn about something you're interested in, and you have an inquisitive mind, you might incidentally have an idea that hasn't been thought of. I think it helps to at least have a B.S. in the subject, preferably at a strong research school where you can see research up close and even do some as an undergrad. Undergrads can take PhD courses as long as the professor approves it, or at least that was true for me.

chubot 13y ago

A big problem is the lack of publication access though. I happen to have most accounts through work (ACM, IEEE, etc.), but if I didn't, I'd have to find other ways to get about half the papers I read. I think the "unschooled" approach is more appealing for practitioners / systems software. BitTorrent and BitCoin both have had papers, though of course that's wasn't their real point, and not their real impact. If you want to prove results, it seems rare to have the motivation outside the academic community. The environment and feedback is important. But I'd be interested in any examples of people who have done this. I recall seeing some examples of professors without Ph.D.'s a few months back on HN. I think anyone who is proving good theoretical results will be quickly offered an academic job, and take it, since they likely won't have another way of supporting themselves.

mtdewcmu 13y ago
Yeah... I wasn't so much suggesting that it's a viable path to a career in research as observing that if you missed your chance to do a PhD, you're not cut off for life from the subjective rewards of research that Dr. Harchol-Balter alluded to, like the satisfaction that comes from working on fundamental problems. You'd need more self-motivation. However, when research isn't your real job, there's no pressure, so you can take your time, and produce results or not, as you wish.

mathattack 13y ago

The real question is "What's the research for?" If it's to advance the state of the art in academia, or to push an academic career, the Phd really is required. (Much of it is the habits and network too) If it's art for art's sake, the Phd is not required. If it's to advance a professional (non-academic) agenda, the Phd isn't required either. In the latter two cases, it can help, but it's an expensive degree when you factor in opportunity cost.

mtdewcmu 13y ago
If you find a topic interesting, then you will enjoy reading the papers on it. You will enjoy thinking it through, just to get a strong grasp of the research that's already been done. In the course of turning it over in your head, you may have an idea and want to follow up on it. It might work and actually be novel. That's research. It's probably not the kind that fundamentally alters the field, or could win best paper awards, but if it hasn't been done before and it sheds new light on something that matters in any amount, it's real. In some fields you can post things to newsgroups and web boards where bona fide experts will see it, in lieu of publishing in a journal or conference. You don't have to set out to achieve something worthy of research. If you learn about something you're interested in, and you have an inquisitive mind, you might incidentally have an idea that hasn't been thought of. I think it helps to at least have a B.S. in the subject, preferably at a strong research school where you can see research up close and even do some as an undergrad. Undergrads can take PhD courses as long as the professor approves it, or at least that was true for me.