4 ms·

It's still harder to get a good academic job than a decent job in industry. I left a PhD program when I realized just how bad academia is, in comparison. Sure,

It's still harder to get a good academic job than a decent job in industry. I left a PhD program when I realized just how bad academia is, in comparison. Sure, you have to be good at politics to get a great corporate AI job, but you need political skill to get through academia as well. Politics is just a necessary evil; so just learn it so you can get things done and get back to more interesting stuff. It's not hard compared to category theory. In the corporate world, the failure mode is a crappy job that still pays as well as the AI gig; it's just not as sexy. Then you can slack, learn the skills for your next gig (it's not like you need to be in academe to read papers) and get something better. In academia, the failure mode is being dumped with no money and no reputation in some godforsaken No Country for Old Men reach, being 35 and trying to get an entry-level gig in something.

angersock 12y ago
I'll second this--again, it's not like every second of your 9-5 is micromanaged: in fact, any shop like that is probably run by people that are easy to game with just a little application of intellect. I wholeheartedly support the concept of slackademia...using idle cycles at work to learn about new, exciting things.
- munin 12y ago
  there's a big difference between "if I clock out an hour early, I can read some wikipedia pages before I commute home" and "take the next three weeks and read these 20 papers"
  - angersock 12y ago
    Stop strawmanning. It's entirely possible to leave a paper up in a tab, read it over lunch or just when taking a break from your work, and continue. This isn't rocket science--nobody is >80% all day erry day in their time usage, regardless of what they claim.
    - mercer 12y ago
      I don't think it's a strawman. A lot of academic work is much like creative work. You can't quite plan it in an hour over lunch. I've gone from academia to a very 'free' corporate environment, and in that context I found it hard to do the 'academic' things. To me, it feels much like creative work, where I might need a few days of nothing (leaving whatever it is I'm doing in the back of my head) before i can produce anything. It's really difficult to cram that into an hour here or there, or an evening after spending an entire day at work.
      - angersock 12y ago
        So, I think there is kind of a core disagreement here: either you believe that you can do creative work with your idle cycles, or you believe that you require large blocks of unfettered time to do it. I suggest that both are true, though one or the other may be a bit more efficient for a given situation. What I dislike is this semi-unspoken assertion by academics that, unless you have the long hours of "freedom" provided only within the ivory tower, people in industry cannot be creative or do useful research. It's insulting to everyone who has made continual progress for mankind while working normal jobs.

angersock 12y ago

I'll second this--again, it's not like every second of your 9-5 is micromanaged: in fact, any shop like that is probably run by people that are easy to game with just a little application of intellect. I wholeheartedly support the concept of slackademia...using idle cycles at work to learn about new, exciting things.

munin 12y ago
there's a big difference between "if I clock out an hour early, I can read some wikipedia pages before I commute home" and "take the next three weeks and read these 20 papers"
- angersock 12y ago
  Stop strawmanning. It's entirely possible to leave a paper up in a tab, read it over lunch or just when taking a break from your work, and continue. This isn't rocket science--nobody is >80% all day erry day in their time usage, regardless of what they claim.
  - mercer 12y ago
    I don't think it's a strawman. A lot of academic work is much like creative work. You can't quite plan it in an hour over lunch. I've gone from academia to a very 'free' corporate environment, and in that context I found it hard to do the 'academic' things. To me, it feels much like creative work, where I might need a few days of nothing (leaving whatever it is I'm doing in the back of my head) before i can produce anything. It's really difficult to cram that into an hour here or there, or an evening after spending an entire day at work.
    - angersock 12y ago
      So, I think there is kind of a core disagreement here: either you believe that you can do creative work with your idle cycles, or you believe that you require large blocks of unfettered time to do it. I suggest that both are true, though one or the other may be a bit more efficient for a given situation. What I dislike is this semi-unspoken assertion by academics that, unless you have the long hours of "freedom" provided only within the ivory tower, people in industry cannot be creative or do useful research. It's insulting to everyone who has made continual progress for mankind while working normal jobs.