Re:Math Overflow users resolve PhD thesis crisis
by musicale on Tuesday August 04, 2020 @08:51PM
(#24056118)
It's easy to forget that grad school is the start of a career rather than the summit, so the work just has to be publishable, not earth-shattering.
Most nobel/turing/fields level work doesn't happen while the researcher is still in graduate school, because a) it usually benefits from additional experience, knowledge, and resources and b) it can sometimes take years to complete.
It also might not be obvious to a dissertation committee (or anyone else) how field-changing certain work actually is until many years have passed, and they might dismiss it early on. Consider Tim Berners-Lee, who was actually a Physicist but received the Turing award because the web (and HTTP/HTML) turned out to have much greater impact than predecessors like FTP, NNTP, PLATO, HyperCard, Director, Xanadu, Intermedia, Gopher, AOL, etc..
Another reason that more mundane research tends to work better is that groundbreaking work is often hard to publish (and get support/funding for), particularly if it isn't completely solid and seems to contradict or supersede established theory or practice.
However, if you are choosing between multiple projects that all seem doable within the allotted time frame, picking the one with higher positive impact on the field (and/or elsewhere) may be a good approach.
Most nobel/turing/fields level work doesn't happen while the researcher is still in graduate school, because a) it usually benefits from additional experience, knowledge, and resources and b) it can sometimes take years to complete.
It also might not be obvious to a dissertation committee (or anyone else) how field-changing certain work actually is until many years have passed, and they might dismiss it early on. Consider Tim Berners-Lee, who was actually a Physicist but received the Turing award because the web (and HTTP/HTML) turned out to have much greater impact than predecessors like FTP, NNTP, PLATO, HyperCard, Director, Xanadu, Intermedia, Gopher, AOL, etc..
Another reason that more mundane research tends to work better is that groundbreaking work is often hard to publish (and get support/funding for), particularly if it isn't completely solid and seems to contradict or supersede established theory or practice.
However, if you are choosing between multiple projects that all seem doable within the allotted time frame, picking the one with higher positive impact on the field (and/or elsewhere) may be a good approach.