> "academia is a lousy place to do novel research"
This hit me. I was focused on getting a Masters in Math, and I had a 4.0 GPA and 40 hours of credit with just a test or thesis preventing me from a credential. Instead, I dropped out to focus on building products with friends.
Best decision ever.
At least for me since I'm 38 and on the verge of retiring.
> academic institutions systemically promote exactly the sort of short-term optimization
The whole publish or perish ideology is teaching people the wrong f'n skills on imaginary problems, so I gave on reading on academic papers years ago because the amount of noise to signal was intolerable.
Like Colin, I do independent research but in a different space. I'm currently writing a programming language for board games ( http://www.adama-lang.org/ ) which I believe could turn into something crazy as I'm inventing a low-cost way of doing "serverless stateful micro services" or "a key to state machine service".
I don't know how I could even get a grant for such work, but it interests me. And, I've reached a nice point in my life where success is measured by whether a task brings me joy rather than external signals.
In a sense, when I decide to retire, I'll have the ultimate freedom of the idealized tenure that I built myself.
This hit me. I was focused on getting a Masters in Math, and I had a 4.0 GPA and 40 hours of credit with just a test or thesis preventing me from a credential. Instead, I dropped out to focus on building products with friends.
Best decision ever.
At least for me since I'm 38 and on the verge of retiring.
> academic institutions systemically promote exactly the sort of short-term optimization
The whole publish or perish ideology is teaching people the wrong f'n skills on imaginary problems, so I gave on reading on academic papers years ago because the amount of noise to signal was intolerable.
Like Colin, I do independent research but in a different space. I'm currently writing a programming language for board games ( http://www.adama-lang.org/ ) which I believe could turn into something crazy as I'm inventing a low-cost way of doing "serverless stateful micro services" or "a key to state machine service".
I don't know how I could even get a grant for such work, but it interests me. And, I've reached a nice point in my life where success is measured by whether a task brings me joy rather than external signals.
In a sense, when I decide to retire, I'll have the ultimate freedom of the idealized tenure that I built myself.