Comments on: PhD and Reality

By: Kbir

Kbir — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 02:57:10 +0000

Why do I smell jealousy??

I guess PhD is not limiting. It does not limit you to academic options alone.
It liberates you from the boring routines of just industry work.

Being really knowledgeable in the area you are really passionate about is reward in itself, but the scientific thinking that gets engrained with the PhD process that really enriches your life.

Kbir (PhD)

By: Parthosaurus

Parthosaurus — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:41:48 +0000

Joybabu! I am thoroughly impressed by the points that you have put up. The question that you tried to answer is “Who should do a Ph.D?” There are two contradicting answers possible. Answer1: Only those 1 % slice who are really capable, but they need a creative supervisor. As you said, they don’t exist in good numbers. Shall I say, extinct?
Answer2: Anybody can do a Ph.D because it is all about publishing research paper by changing a minute epsilon of the published result. In changing a minute epsilon, no creativity is required from the side of Research Supervisor.
Unfortunately, Answer 2 seems to be the most prevailent scenario. The whole academic system of the world has become like “that”, i.e., publish gallons of paper, make new academic friend who are editors of some reputed journal so that you send your manuscript to him and he says “Pass”, attend conference or better free country tour. Now, if anybody, who has no rapport with anybody, comes with an honest new innovative idea and sends a manuscript, it get rejected after two months you see the same work being published by some bigshot of your research field. Interesting, isn’t it? Now if somebody somehow manages to get his good work published, then comes a whole gang of “parasites”. What they do? They put their own thought process, figure out a new meaning of the work and publish it.
If somebody tries to change this whole “system at work”, he/she has to abort his/her academic carreer, because the “system” would made him/her do so.
Some more hate words, but I can’t help it. It is the way the whole “system” works.

By: dSetia

dSetia — Fri, 22 May 2009 01:52:14 +0000

Interesting and bold post, Joy.

I think at the end of the day, as you said, one needs to consider if the reward is worth the cost (in time and other resources). Reward for both personal fulfillment and contribution to the world that we live in.

By: Rama

Rama — Fri, 22 May 2009 00:14:57 +0000

Nice post, Joy! All your points are spot on, especially the following:

“In the end, I think life revolves around Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. You can’t measure something if you can’t experience it. And once you experience it, the measurement gets severely altered. But I am also hoping that this should not be the case for everyone, if someone wise enough cares to share some enlightenment.”

One thing I would add. All our decisions are driven by our priorities, and our priorities change with our experiences. At 22, a fresh college grad could be absolutely convinced s/he is capable of doign great research, and is willing to slave a few years in the research paper industry for it, but at, say 30, could have more “normal” priorities like money and career growth in some stable industry. It’s hard to get younger peopel pur themselves in the shoes of older people. Now some might actually do some good innovative research, but getting into a PhD program is overall a low percentage choice.

Also, you mention that building real products for the real world under time constraints is more rewarding. That is definitely true from a financial and (maybe even personal development) standpoint. By the same token, being a professor or a researcher is a less rewarding career option, period. Only, some people may value freedom and the opportunity to advance the boundaries of thought in a given field more than money. Money though obviously not unimportant, is less important to people who choose a PhD/academic/research career path. Now even these objectives may not be fulfilled, given the nature of the research paper industry that academia has turned into (I completely agree with your characterization here), but maybe it’s worth something to society and to the individual fields to have a lot of people slaving away at a topic just so we see that one innovative idea emerge. Industry encourages quick fixes and shortcuts, which is perfectly appropriate for that kind of work, but innovation is not necessarily encouraged. It’s ultimately about what makes people happy, and the better each individual measures up to his/her priorities, the more he/she will be satisfied.

Sorry to ramble. Have fun,
Rama

By: Anasuya

Anasuya — Thu, 14 May 2009 00:07:32 +0000

Did you ask your mother why did she take trouble to teach you alphabets? Did you ask your teacher what did he/she get when you got a “real job” ? Not everything can be thought in terms of GDP dude!

By: Anasuya

Anasuya — Wed, 13 May 2009 23:30:43 +0000

I understand your frustration, but don’t forget,”a great teacher is a great artist and teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.” So teaching is not an easy profession, you have to pay for it!

By: Speakbnidas

Speakbnidas — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:27:48 +0000

Loved reading thanks.

By: Paul

Paul — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 16:21:11 +0000

A PhD is hard and it’s far from being the most rewarding option for many aspects (social and financial). I cannot include the technical development reason there because that is arguable (depends very much on the field that one works in; for instance, web development is much better done in industry, while logic is studied extensively in academia). Sometimes, people like that technical aspect of certain fields studied in academia or they want to get into academia (you are right that a PhD degree is a requirement for any academic job).
For other reasons, for example, long distance relationships or financial reasons, it is not optimum to do a PhD. In my case, I think I fully paid my toll in doing it (just ask my wife about that
I don’t regret my decision in choosing the PhD path, but I do agree that the industry path might have been more rewarding for me. I only hope that, in time, academia will get closer to industry because a middle path seems to be the best solution. Industry can always use research done in academia, while some research could be better done in a mixed environment.

By: therider

therider — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 05:47:13 +0000

Dude, I in fact mentioned that being a professor is cool and if you want to be that, by all means do the PhD.

By: Francesco Gallarotti

Francesco Gallarotti — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 05:37:33 +0000

While I understand the frustrations and bullshit you talk about, saying that being in academia is not a real job is pretty silly. If I only had the time and money to invest in a PhD, I would have loved to be a college professor. Where else you find a job that gives you so much for so little effort? Plus it allows you to play with the cutting edge technology and experimenting with things that regular industry people can’t even imagine…