4 ms·
In my humble opinion, the key is to judge oneself accurately. Or get someone to do so. Ramanujan wrote to Hardy: "I am already a half starving man. To preserve
by quarterwave 12y ago
In my humble opinion, the key is to judge oneself accurately. Or get someone to do so.
Ramanujan wrote to Hardy: "I am already a half starving man. To preserve my brains I want food and this is my first consideration. Any sympathetic letter from you will be helpful to me here to get a scholarship either from the university of from the government."
Returning to our world, a tenured university position could provide stability, while a contractual appointment to teach Linear Algebra I & II might end next year - and a journey by stagecoach to the next temporary appointment. In such a situation it may be simpler to write code for a living, while one 'dreamed a dream' on weekends.
The way it normally works, one figures out these answers during the M.A level itself. The trouble starts if one does not & keeps plodding on.
I apologize if this sounds dull & dreary, but I recently gave this advice to a nephew who wanted to study maths after an undergrad degree - he is now safely writing code for a salary & his parents are relieved. Have I stymied the next Ramanujan, perhaps out of a sense of sour grapes at my own inability to prove the Riemann Hypothesis? Both are possible, but unlikely.
- Energy1 12y agoYou know you're being idealistic as well because ideally it's better to have money than not.
- acadien 12y agoI need to comment about going into academia. The end goal being to contribute to math/science in some meaningful way by working on theoretical research full time. I'm in my 6th year of my PhD as a theoretical physicist. I have been rejected for ever prestigious fellowship and tenure track position I have applied for, my academic career is dead. As I finish my PhD I'll start applying for national lab and industry positions and likely end up right next to your nephew writing code somewhere. I will never contribute in any significant way to the world of theoretical physics. Do I regret it? Hell no! At least I tried! I loved so much of my graduate school experience and I got to try my hand at real research, teach huge classes of undergrads about my favorite topics and travel all over the country giving talks at conferences. I imagine going to graduate school is a lot like starting up your own business, its a high risk/reward situation. And if you do succeed you get huge grants, a tenure track position, and wonderful students to work with. Failure means going back to industry with the everyone else (is that so bad?). If I had skipped grad school and moved straight to industry (I've had multiple internships in the valley) I would certainly be much further ahead, both financially and in terms of job security. But I would have missed out on an important life experience and more importantly I never would have made my attempt to contribute to math/science.
- graycat 12y agoLong one reason I have wanted to be successful in business has been so that I could afford to retire and pursue theoretical physics!