A PhD should be about improving society, not chasing academic kudos

Re:A PhD should be about improving society, not chasing acad... by dagw on Thursday August 09, 2018 @11:39AM (#17725113)

I'm surprised that STEM research doesn't attract more "freaks" and free-thinking people.

At least when I was at university, those people generally didn't have the focus to graduate with good grades (or graduate at all for that matter). It's one thing to sit around and talk about all the 'out there' implications of quantum physics. It's an entirely different thing to get your quantum physics course work in on time and study enough to pass the exam.

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Re:A PhD should be about improving society, not chasing acad... by WalterSear on Thursday August 09, 2018 @12:04PM (#17725389)

I think I'm one of the freaks in question. I'm not one to sit around pipe dreaming, but I've found a vastly better fit writing code at startups than I ever did in grad school.

I get to invent, experiment, learn, and at a vastly faster pace. I'm even working in the same field, solving similar problems to the ones I worked on in school.

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Re:A PhD should be about improving society, not chasing acad... by vkou on Thursday August 09, 2018 @02:49PM (#17727234)

This is great if the problems you want to solve have direct business applications with a turnaround time of tomorrow.

There aren't very many startups funding basic research, though.

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Re:A PhD should be about improving society, not chasing acad... by WalterSear on Thursday August 09, 2018 @03:47PM (#17727808)

I know. That's why I went back to grad school in the first place. Big mistake :)

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