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Re:Richard Hamming: You and Your Research by andrepd on Monday May 01, 2023 @05:36PM (#35779531)
Again, it's not about prestige, it's about love of science and research. But yes, you do have a point about working nights and weekends. It's not as if "the grind" is not something which is glorified in the tech industry, though :)
Re:Richard Hamming: You and Your Research by ke88y on Monday May 01, 2023 @05:39PM (#35779566)
I don't think there is any problem with loving science and research.

Deciding to sacrifice your nights, weekends, and financial life to work on science and research is okay. But it's also enormously selfish. Other people who spend time doing "what they love" -- ski bums, for example -- at least recognize their selfishness as such.

Being selfish can be okay. But it's probably not great to be selfish and try to build a life-long partnership. Especially if you don't realize you are being selfish.

I won't tell anyone not to ski bum or not to do a PhD. But I will gut check people when they get confused about the difference between selfish and selfless dedication to a craft. An academic career -- the type where you spend nights and weekends without at least contributing a modicum of financial comfort to those around you -- is selfish.

At the end of the day, most grant-funded projects are born useless. There isn't as much of a difference between ski bumming and PhDing as professors like to pretend.

Re:Richard Hamming: You and Your Research by caddemon on Tuesday May 02, 2023 @02:07AM (#35783934)
Maybe not for you, but it's pretty clearly about prestige for a good proportion of the "rising stars" that will actually get tenure track positions at large research universities. I suppose I can only speak directly for my own field, but I have friends in a few others that do not paint a rosy picture either.

If you think the majority of people in your current field are not optimizing for prestige (and you're past the mid-point of a PhD), I would love to know what field that is - seriously.