I was working at the US Patent Office and considering going back for my PhD, talked to some potential supervisors, met up with them at their lab, talked about their projects (III-V semiconductor processing, back in the mid 80s). Decided to stay at the Patent Office and go to law school at night, worked for me. Examining patent applications is enjoyable and talking to inventors about their inventions is great without my having to do any of the hard research leading to the inventions. Also I get to see many more fields of tech than I ever would have had I gotten my PhD. No regrets almost 40 years later.
Me too...in the orientation, the professor was like, "you know, you could go look for a jobs and build a successful life than coming here to do a PhD that you may not even finish, so think twice.
The bit about "becoming your project" hit hard. During my Ph.D., I had months-long cycles where I felt incredibly depressed because nothing was working and the only thing that made me feel better was when I had a good research day. Having a life & hobbies outside of your Ph.D. (and work in general) is so incredibly important.
So true about them wanting it to be your everything! I refused to abandon critically ill family members and my Chair and department head were baffled and angry at why I lagged in my work. I will always put famil first.
My colleagues and I describe it as a "hazing ritual". Friends/colleagues doing PhDs seem to get stuck towards the end of their PhD and I will always tell them "Let it go. Just do whats required and submit. Its not a part of you. Its just a thesis." So far helped everyone I've given that advice to.
I'm still in Academia as a full-time full professor at a state college. I love my job, but one of the saddest things to me is how many professors and deans seem unhappy. They don't smile. They don't take an interest in other people. They complain almost constantly when they do speak. It seems more pronounced in R1 universities.
Yes! I did undergrad and masters at a state school and had a wonderful experience. Then decided to go for a PhD 8 yrs later at a R1 institution and OMG was it the worst 5yrs of my life! So much abuse, neglect, and exploitation was too much to bear for me. At the state school, I felt uplifted, growing, supported.... but at the R1, I felt like I was drowning and further being pushed down by "mentors". It was awful.
Teachers are a form of caregiver. And there is this special type of self loathing that caregivers get when they try to take time for themself, cause you know, if you are not giving 110% to your wards you are obviously a selfish and horrible person.
@@staciweaver7801 I had a similar experience as I progressed through my degrees. I was fortunate to work with a great dissertation advisor, but I saw more misery at that program than at my BA and MA institutions (though there was certainly some of it at my MA school). Many professors in my Ph.D. program seemed to actively discourage their students. They were downright mean for no reason. And most chairs, deans, provosts, etc. I've come across seem fairly unhappy too.
@@scurvofpcp You may be right. The unhappiness I've observed seems more tightly tied to inflated egos, trivial projects, and strained relationships. I've met very few grad professors at the R1 level who fit the caregiving profile. In fact, most professors in R1s teach very few classes each year. Some of them only teach 1 or 2 courses per semester and often talk about teaching as if it's a bother that prevents them from doing their "real" work of researching and publishing.
Many of these things just make me cringe. It’s been almost 5 years since I left academia, but every once in a while, a professor will comment on my socials or I'll bump into one on the street. They still think I'm part of their world and talk like it... but it just sounds weird now. I can't believe it all seemed so normal to me when I was still in it!
Einstein for relativity, Perelman for the Pointcare conjecture, Wiles for Fermat’s last theorem, Newton for everything .. all recluses from academia for freedom of thought.
"You are your project" -- I love this. It just inspired me. I am not an academic. I have only recently started contemplating about taking up a master's degree, and the thing that keeps bothering me most is, "what if I fail?". I like the practicality of your videos, and it is nice to know your insights. Keep it up!
I was a late-life PhD (musicology, not the sciences) who had so few expectations of what I would achieve in academe, that anything which I *did* achieve in academe automatically became a pleasant surprise. And none of the obvious horrors which afflict PhD candidates ever befell me: I had a supervisor at once friendly, competent, and punctual (I've heard plenty of alarming tales from other PhD candidates about supervisors who were obnoxious, inept, and slothful). What enabled me to complete the doctorate satisfactorily - within three years, whereas I've encountered several individuals who never completed their own doctorates even within a decade - was my realisation that (a) although getting a scholarship from the federal government was most agreeable, I wouldn't have been heartbroken if I'd failed to get one; (b) I wouldn't have been heartbroken if a PhD more generally had become impossible for me. Therefore there was, I guess, an element of the 'gentleman amateur' about my whole attitude: not that I was at all slack about doing the requisite labour, but neither my economic life nor my spiritual life depended on obtaining the qualification.
There is so much truth in this video... I left the academia 15 years ago, and it was considered by everyone as an existencial crisis, telling me i will be back in short... for years... And the main reason i left it's exactly the next point you mention xd. I wanted to do many things, to learn many things... and while i was in, that was not possible. I'm a biologist, but while i was still in, i assisted to quantic physics conferences, to classic literature reunions, to politics lectures from 90 years sages, and so on... taking a toll in my schedule... and that being a 23 youngster! I loved science, but i don't like how scientifics work nowadays (not aplying correctly the scientific method neither in most cases, because you have to publish), so i was clearly out of it. A pity, but we are not in the times of Einstein, Ramon y Cajal, or similar others, and I'm happy nowadays with my current life
I've just got admitted in my desired PhD program, I've been watching your videos for the last 2 years in and out, but I think I have to watch your videos more often.
I had a young professor just a few years older than me and was working in a new field. We were just trying to figure out how to do the experiments, so I did not have the experience you describe. Also, this was the early 1970s and I had received a letter from the department with my acceptance letter that it was unlikely that I would ever get a job in the field, since times were hard, so I had no expectations. I was going to do something interesting for a few years and then figure out what to do. I would not have put up with any of the browbeating - I would have left. I ended up having a surprisingly great career in physics and never once had to go through the situation you described. I have however seen it, and my only question is why smart students put up with it. And I don't know why the supervisors do it. I always say the most important things you learn in advance education is that most of your ideas are wrong (as are everyone else's) and you learn where the limits of your knowledge and understanding lie, so you know where to tread carefully.
I've been laid off 15 months with no end in sight despite having a PhD in biochemistry and 22 years experience. If wasn't cheated out my lead author publications maybe this wouldn't have happened.
I was thrown in at the deep end in my PhD, as were my colleagues. Criticism came from peers at the weekly seminars we gave (one student per week, so a cycle). I was expecting criticism when I read a paper at a conference at which Max Perutz was an attender. I got none, but incredible support from Max. Major criticism came when we submitted papers. My first accepted, which was also my first submitted, was in _Nature_ . That was in the '70s. I saw things change, with pressure to obtain grants, so was pleased to retire.
It would be an interesting social experiment to have (say) business owners with 10+ years of experience (heck, even just employment outside of education sector) become teachers. I suspect we would see a greater emphasis on real-world skills, self-reliance and entrepreneurism, and less on the 'need' to go to university. A possible result would be less university enrolments with more focus on valuable qualifications, less focus on 'soft' qualifications, and a rise in private business ownership/participation.
I agree. The university system and ita metrics is ridiculous:H index, press releases, publish quantity rather than quality, get as much funding as possible, etc, etc)...And at the end of the day it is important to say that much research is useless or BS* in practice, representing a waste of money from the citizens (who pay it with their taxes) and industry (same). Something new and genuine is needed.
I am happy my experience was better. My PhD was industrially funded and the company was great to work with. Most people in my group went into industry and there was no stigma about it. People even joined our group because of all the industry contacts. I went into industry as soon as I finished.
I would say that it is really hard to get any substantial independence before getting permanent job. Even then, you have many different commitements, thus, very little time to pursue what you are actually interested in.
When I was studying for my doctorate, I learned it was like an ideological reeducation camp. If one didn’t agree with the prevailing theory or model, one was subject to ridicule and condemnation. I had to leave because of health detriments, and I didn’t finish.
2:23 it's just like in a normal job. When I finish a project there's also no fanfare. It's just a job you get money for. The next project starts right away. No one's clinking glasses.
The difference is that in academia you're under the pretense that you're pushing your field forward in exciting new directions. Which is a lie 99% of the time.
Not everyone’s experience. Depends on the supervisor. It’s hard work but so it should be….you’re getting a phd. My supervisor was very encouraging and supportive.
This has never been my experience as a college professor and graduate student. There are good universities out there and going to industry is not frowned upon in agriculture. We are excited to see colleagues go to industry and make much more!
I worked in Ag before my PhD and one thing I noticed is Ag companies have much better relationships with universities probably because there aren't as many Ag programs compared to Pharma? Ag companies had a lot of influence on school programs and worked together more than against each other.
@@staciweaver7801That's kinda weird. Cause, as far as I know, these are chemical companies at their core, with agro chemicals and pharma being large parts of it. Of course, it doesn't apply to all.
Thank God I left academia before it was too late... I was one semester into a PhD, in a discipline where so many already knew going in they wanted to go into industry, and I had a panic attack that made me realize I wouldn't be happy in research...
This is probably more common in Britain where you still have educational standards (I'm in US). I'm 45 and agree old-school professors (I had professors from The Greatest Generation) are the hardest. I studied with tons of professors from Harvard and they said some - mean? but true - things about my writing. It did help me improve.
Right from the start: come on, the criticism etc is not a problem. The problem of academia nowadays is doing too much faking and all the useless stuff. Doing stuff just to present something next week in a collaboration meeting. Avoiding technical experimental work. Trying to plug your research into every passing hype to get a grant. Having 1-2 year long contracts for postdocs, the people who have all of the actual know how in the project. These are basic hard problems that can destroy any field. In such environment you get no accumulation of knowledge, of any asset in fact. Then of course no one will be happy in a stagnant field! A dead end is not a fun a place. Another fundamental problem with academia is that the way it is structured is inherited from the past, when it was an elitist highly merit-based small thing. So, _everything in the structure of academia relies on having truly exceptional people._ If these are not top 1% people, there is nothing to prevent it from failing. And while it's failing the remaining 1% people will be running away fast. Coincidentally, nowadays academia is really not about being an exceptional elitist highly merit-based small thing. It is a mass thing with a spectrum of people somewhere around above mediocrity. So it fails. Criticism and "internalizing" are just snow flake BS. I have worked with PhD students who had 0 skills in Python. In Python! Come on. And the person was very much not aware that it is obviously very needed to take some course of basic Python, when we implement a component of instrumentation in Python. I also frequently work with PhD students and some already postdocs who have this idea that whenever they bump into a problem they can "just ask someone" how to solve it. Because "asking questions is not bad". Asking questions is fine, but if you are a PhD you are supposed to actually answer them at least sometimes. You cannot just "fake it until you make it" to a permanent position. Although, I have seen that too. (Good luck to the students in that country who get professors like that! And condolences to the tax payers.) You need to do real work and solve real problems to gain the ability to develop know how in experimental projects. It's not another pre-cooked test in uni that you submit and forget. There is no "are we done yet?" - we are done when the thing works, not when the class is over.
I love the "condolences to the tax payers". I FELT THAT HARD. I wouldn't give many PIs money to do research after I went through a PhD and saw how limited the talent really is compared to the money rolling in. It's WILD.
I never went to uni, I merely completed my compulsory education. But what I will say, I was bullied for the duration of all my school years. I grew a "thick skin", but I must really question the utility of this thick skin, since in the years since I have been doing everything in my power to pull it off because it stopped me from letting myself getting help with my issues and confronting my problems. It took until a few years like this point of time for instance, and what gave me a thick skin in a positive sense was not through not giving a f, but instead came from learning what the f people actually thought like. Anxiety isn't eased by silencing the input, anxiety is eased by CONTRADICTING the harmful conclusions you held. I did take initiative in so doing. Why do I share this here? Because your advice is generic and honestly kinda lacking in substance. That's not to say that such words hadn't helped you. But I would argue what has helped you more isn't defined by the destination obsessive framing (arriving at station not giving an f, and thick skin station), but instead in your life journey into getting there. Merely my two cents on the matter. I just don't like how alienating those goals are. That's just acceptance of a shitty situation rather than its challenging and overturning. But I guess... Such is life.
I've always wanted to pursue a PhD, but I never aspired to be an academic. My passion lies in doing independent research within my field. However, completing my Master's was an exhausting experience-I had no time for anything else, my supervisor wasn't helpful, and I often felt isolated. I still dream of earning a PhD one day, but now I have a solid career and my own home. I don't want to give that up, and in the UK, I haven't found a way to balance my career with independent research. I'm not looking to work in academia, but I'd love the chance to make a meaningful contribution to my field.
I think how good or bad your PhD experience is very heavily depends on your supervisor. I've heard some proper horror stories, but also heard from people who had great PhD experiences
My dept. Manager was annoyed I didnt show to the Christmas party cause my car wouldn't start. She didnt even mention my research report that was featured on Sky News.
I have to strongly disagree with you about my own experience, I got my PhD in theoretical physics 4 years ago. For theoretical physics, take everything he said in this video, and multiply it by 100,000. Then it’s accurate. Happy in industry right now. People have realistic expectations, they don’t leave you out to dry if you are having problems, and they care about their life outside of work (and I’m in a FAANG, even here is so much better than academia).
After spending three years trying to reproduce data from the previous grad student that eventually turned out to be complete garbage anyway, I was forced to take a masters. I worked and worked all that time, never getting to do my own experiments, constantly being gaslit that it was all my fault. It couldn’t be that the original data was wrong. No way. Honestly, that never even occurred to me until the end when it was staring me in the face. It always had to be my fault. The lasers weren’t aligned properly. I wasn’t getting enough power out of the non-linear crystals. That signal had to be somewhere under that noise. It was never that the reaction was too endoergic or that the room temperature spectrum was simply incorrect. It was always my fault. Eventually, I was just going through the motions, and treating it like a regular job. I was simultaneously devastated and ecstatic when it all ended. I was, however, afraid to tell my family what had happened, so I spent days by myself in my apartment looking for any job so I could avoid starvation. Fortunately, I found one before my depression led me to end it all. I hate academia and I will tell anyone with dreams like I had to be very careful when choosing to go to graduate school, and especially with what advisor they choose. Even the respected ones with stellar reputations for having happy groups will throw you under the bus when you get results that are contrary to what they expect. The scientific method and integrity mean nothing to them when grant money is on the line.
Andy, can you direct me to some of your videos on academic mumbo jumbo, and why it is 'needed'? Why is there no importance attached to writing in accessible language? As an example, I have had to take my own health seriously recently, and, as well as a little bit of exercise, I have had to eat sensibly. I personally did not want to go from 'pre-diabetic' to 'diabetic'. I learned that diabetes (type two) is simple, I just had to go on a whole food, plant based diet to cook my own food. After a while I got to a sensible BMI and I found exercise came to me naturally. I hopped on my bicycle and just started going further. With no fat lurking in my arteries, everything came together. According to my doctor, my blood pressure and BMI is 'perfect' so no meds needed. Clearly I am an n=1 autodidact, however, I could summarise what I did in words that a layman could understand, maybe to inspire others to get rid of their own paunches, with no science mumbo jumbo needed. If I wanted to go all sciency, I could run a slow cookery club and get one group cooking whatever they want with another group cooking just plants. I am reasonably sure that just cooking would get both groups somewhere, however, I would expect the latter group to be able to self report the more impressive health gains. I have a friend studying diabetes and doing a PhD. This friend eats the garbage food, meatballs, burgers, ice cream and much else that, according to my own experience, is not good for the arteries, fat in the cells and insulin response. This friend also believes that too much fruit is bad and that physical activity means lifting weights in front of a mirror in the gym. I worked in science myself for a year and I appreciate that some jargon is needed at times. But, this friend writes utter gobbledygook regarding diabetes research, it is such a pity, as, due to my own health journey, I am actually very interested. This makes me think it is all one big lie, and that it is one big 'displacement activity'. Type two diabetes is simple, just eat sensibly with no animal products or processed food. It should be a solved problem but people like their burgers, don't want to take personal responsibility and trust in the science. But the science is nonsense, bamboozlement with big words is all that is going on. It irks me slightly as funding for writing piffle comes easily whereas nobody would ever fund me for running a slow cookery course with a control group to show how simple this important health problem can be solved. Is the majority of university science makework for middle class kids where daddy pays? What am I missing? Should science papers that make no sense whatsoever be seen for what they are? Carl Sagan is one of my great heroes and he could write popular science as well as understand tricky things like Gauss' Theorem, where no mere mortals understand it. Please help me understand why the need for making science impossible for the layman to understand, even if they are genuinely interested because their health provides a vested interest.
I think there should be a stigmatization of people who DON'T leave academia. Profiles of College-Bound High School Seniors by Leonard RACIST and Solomon Arbeiter had SATs for students as higher if they said they only intended to go through college compared to those who also wanted to go to grad school as well (I'm not making this up, I was surprised too). The time period was the late 1970s and early 1980s.
There are some subfields in STEM where it's already happening, like experimental condensed matter. Maybe I can see it happening in some biomedical fields, however.
System as such is toxic. You heard about Geffen records and Nirvana where producers searched band that will be new Beatles, and they found they sucked life out if it. Nurture and nurture you must nurture artistic creative personality, they are very sensitive hypersensitive people, look all people needed, blacksmith to painter. Society without diversity where everyone is engineer minded cannot survive. Soviet Union create scientific-atheism and it collapse. All science was applicable mainly for high-tech weapons. And is right but I still want be scientist nothing in in the world, I sleep and my dreams about science, how toxic this academia environment is I still want to be scientist.
@@biner01 . Delivering masters programs is their role so they are doing their function. It’s the same in every area, less people at each level; worker bee, manager, head of dept. Creating jobs is not their function. Less people complete study at each level anyway; undergrad, masters, phd. Not everyone wants a job in academia, some want the education as a thing in itself or to support work elsewhere. Teaching programs bring in revenue and fund the department. Lots of other reasons no doubt.
@@biner01 because a phd has to have value otherwise it’s not a PhD, a PhD would not be a PhD without having tough challenges, that’s how you earn it, otherwise you are just doing stuff and not passing tests. Also, It’s not training for work it’s academic. It’s just an academic cult. And They need loads of people for this numbers game so they can find the clever ones and then the Nobel prize winners, and also to pay fees to keep the department going. I’m so bored of this now. How old are you? If you are under 25 i forgive you because your frontal lobe is not complete yet. But do learn about the world away from the comments section.
Yep. It's trash. Recently rescued a data engineer from a bio marine post PhD program, and her situation was of utter stagnation. Most people in there tho doublethink themselves into ascribing a special sense of self importance to the rehearsal of peer review crunching. Which is permutations of the same thing over and over again and publishing until you reach 'the next' level of academic privileges. In Mexican case, the fucking SNI. Dropped out very soon of an advanced program within my own bachelors (luckily) the moment I was told I had to live off a glorified pension.
I went to study Engineering physics in the most prestigious university in my country. I wanted to become an engineer. Everyone wanted to become a scientist and a lecturer and pressured me to do so. I said no. I left. They got mad 🤣 P.S. They didn't lime the fact tht I was there when I was bad at learning. When I git good they told me that I was good for nothing but to be a scientist. And then they got mad I gave up 🤣
The problem is , a paper is a paper. It does not mather if its good content or pure shite. All you need to do is shit out as many papers as possible. Subject and quality makes zero difference.
Just a job for bright people, like any other (although bright not necessarily needed). And you know what they say - occupational habit. As an engineer by trade, I do find myself over-analysing and looking for solutions. There you go - I'm brainwashed too.
Supervisors will also go out of their way to destroy your future and career when they want to. And they'll tell you this as a threat and promise. And proceed to carry it out even if you leave academia.
A PhD student has so much time for hobbies than a grown up adult with a permanent job/position and social obligations (from family to sci. society). My students are still playing computer games overnight. Or they appear late because there was an important basketball game on TV. They can make pause during the day to play basketball themself. No one stops PhD from taking language courses for free at the uni - well that might be different as well as the reimbursement of your training ... I want to say that PhD experience can be different from what Andi says.
Man, those are the type of hobies that are time sinks ans that you do when you can't find fulfillment in anything else cause you don't have time. I am not sayinv all PhD students are depressed...but it is the norm, not the exception, and it is silly to denny it. Personally I don't know a single person workinh kn a PhD that is/was mentally ok, nor do they.
@@alicianieto2822 statistics say one third of PhD students have depression. That is a lot, but still not a norm. So, stop overheating the problem. The general tendency in Europe is informing OhD students on ways to resolve problems: responsible research, gender balance, equity, career consultations, seminars on work-life ballance. Supervisors can also train in aligning expectations. ... what Andy says is his personal unprofessional opinion ...
But my worth IS tied to my project! Everyone in my cohort and department told me so! Nice try 😏 I'm too smart to fall for this... Good thing I got that PhD
But is this an "academy problem" only? Because the way i see it (and live it) is that this lovely system we all live on has this same problems outside academy. Not recongizing effort or time invested is exactly what large corporations do with their employees. They milk your life for profits and then give the bare minimum in return. Shaming quitters is a common tactic that the same corps apply. Even Amazon shame it's workers for retiring, instead of accepting that they left because awful working conditions. This entire system love to convert people onto shells of themselves. Levels of stress, depression and anxiety are peaking through the western world even while not even half the population is doing/have a PhD. The problem is that academia should be a space free from those problems, where people go to furrher their knowledge so science can keep advancing in every field. Now it's just another step on the capitalist ladder to get a somewhat decent job. Add to that the classic problem of ego on academy and we have an exact copy of the machine that breaks workers but made for minds that only want to improve/make a change. Tldr, it's a problem of academy? Yes. But it's a problem that permeated from the system we currently live on.
0:21 Please correct cristicism to criticism. Please take it not as critic 😅. Joking aside, thank you for your video, lately I have been wandering how it would be if I had better qualifications and had opted for a PhD.
Okay I'm going to be fair to both sides. Yes having a sister who has a PHD has shown me that people who don't need a PhD it can be harmful but for someone like me who needs a PhD for a various reasons I won't get into and that is needed for certain things that are very dire and could even be life threatening. Basically there are certain laws that say okay you have to get a certain amount of education or else we're going to like take away your rights and whatnot play too much further into that but again if you need them to say okay I'm not dumb and I'm also like don't take away my rights please then perhaps it's like I don't necessarily want nor do I need nor do I care about having a PhD as I don't think it necessary things you 100% smart but it's better than losing all my rights and winding up in jail or whatever for the rest of my life also certain medical things that having an extreme amount of education can fix how about my sister did it because she wanted to have a better brain or whatever the same reason most people have it and that's not the reason to have it it's kind of like if you take medicine for cancer and you don't have cancer well then you make yourself sick but if you actually have cancer then it'll make you better eventually see what I mean
Academia a lot of times the teams are extremely small if not just one person. So you specifically become your project more than this being the teams project or the companies project it really is your project that becomes very tied to you
I tent to read research about Stirling engines And other research papers. Aside of way it is written that is another can of worms I'd not be able to reproduce research of majority of papers ive seen, results are normalized, often dont see raw results or method of production of given element Like i literally have like 5% of practical use of that research because things were not explained good enough for people not from the academy And from youtube videos of chemists using research papers, even they have to make educated guesses what author did in the background to achieve results
Nah, hardship gives you grit💪🏼. Only the strongest thrive, this is how you separate the weak. This applies to ALL areas in life. If you want something bad enough, NOTHING will stop you. It’s about how hungry you are. I came from nothing and I achieved all that I set out for. Awards feel better when they are earned like a warrior.
If PhD research is an important contributor to the society and future of humanity, I see no reason why they shouldn't have a good work life balance and the respect and wealth other people have in jobs when they contribute to the society.
I'm glad I never got an advanced degree. University was a clusterf*ck. If you wrote a paper, almost every professor looked for the tiniest excuse to give your paper a bad grade. Your sources weren't cited well enough. You said the year 2009 was recent. Recent compared to what? The constant criticism that messes with your mind you're talking about in the video is all too real.
Oof. The criticism culture and becoming your work shows up in healthcare too. People start out passionate, and then either leave quickly or stay as shells of themselves
Im 28 with a bachelors and I own tech consulting companies that employ people with bachelors, masters, and PhD’s. Once you get outside of academics into the real world, your degree doesn’t really mean shit. You’re judged according to skills, ownership of responsibilities, and earnings, not the piece of paper hanging on your wall. People seem to forget the whole point of school is to increase earnings. Only losers spend their whole life in school, never applying anything they learned out in the market
Bro: succesfully gets PhD * Proceeds to list every reason why it is a bad decision and how miserable one's life's is in 100s of vids* Joke aside, I feel the same way about my humble bachelor's degree
I started to follow this channel when I started my PhD but in fact the content is most of the time toxic as fuck. I do not recommend following this channel if you do a PhD. However if you failed your phd or got rejected, all this negativity can help you think it was actually good for you.
What do you mean by toxic content? What he says are some dark truth about academia. Maybe you dont agree with his perspective that doesn't mean its toxic 😑
@HellRaiZOR13 they're trying to protect a toxic culture by going after anyone who shines a light on the reality. Expect it to increase as more people work on increasing the transparency. Academics in the institution try to keep the public out and the money flow to them.. accountability means less money for bad behavior.
Keep upholding that ponzi scheme and calling your students lazy video game playing slackers. Screwing them out of poorly compensated labor in the prime years of their lives is what your careers depend on. Get that cheap labor now and put them on welfare and then shit on the people who raise awareness of your bad behavior and exploitation.
A degree after all..! Doesn't necessarily make you a superior person ? Unfortunately the degree per se..is enough to scare the less educated. The consequences ? The world will think ten times.. before accusing a "PhD" for a possible crime. Bringing this up because I had , I can say the worst experience of my life..by wrongly placing my trust in one such academic in India. The woman in question, happens to be a Professor of English in one of the most reputed institutes. What is less known.. is that SHE HAPPENS TO BE ONE OF THE ACE CYBER CRIMINALS OF THE COUNTRY (Could even be the world!) So much I had to put up with.. simply because.. I UTTERLY MISJUDGED..ONE SUCH PhD. (It's not only me that she attacked with her Cyber skills, the list is endless..of the victims who paid a heavy price..for placing their trust in a wrong person. BEWARE !
There's a reason Einstein did his best work as a Patent Clerk far away from Academia.
Not possible when you need a lab
I was working at the US Patent Office and considering going back for my PhD, talked to some potential supervisors, met up with them at their lab, talked about their projects (III-V semiconductor processing, back in the mid 80s). Decided to stay at the Patent Office and go to law school at night, worked for me. Examining patent applications is enjoyable and talking to inventors about their inventions is great without my having to do any of the hard research leading to the inventions. Also I get to see many more fields of tech than I ever would have had I gotten my PhD. No regrets almost 40 years later.
It'd the exception to the rule tbh.
@@erbiumfiberMust have been a very fulfilling life!
Heard a very similar talk in my first PhD course - “you should seriously reconsider what you are doing with your life” - no argument there
Me too...in the orientation, the professor was like, "you know, you could go look for a jobs and build a successful life than coming here to do a PhD that you may not even finish, so think twice.
lmao
Yeah. A professor gave us the same warning. Should have listened
The bit about "becoming your project" hit hard. During my Ph.D., I had months-long cycles where I felt incredibly depressed because nothing was working and the only thing that made me feel better was when I had a good research day. Having a life & hobbies outside of your Ph.D. (and work in general) is so incredibly important.
Every PhD student should go rock climbing
So true about them wanting it to be your everything! I refused to abandon critically ill family members and my Chair and department head were baffled and angry at why I lagged in my work. I will always put famil first.
You did the right thing
At work you will always be replacable, in your family you will never be replacible. So I am happy you have these priorities right :)
My colleagues and I describe it as a "hazing ritual".
Friends/colleagues doing PhDs seem to get stuck towards the end of their PhD and I will always tell them "Let it go. Just do whats required and submit. Its not a part of you. Its just a thesis." So far helped everyone I've given that advice to.
I'm still in Academia as a full-time full professor at a state college. I love my job, but one of the saddest things to me is how many professors and deans seem unhappy. They don't smile. They don't take an interest in other people. They complain almost constantly when they do speak. It seems more pronounced in R1 universities.
Yes! I did undergrad and masters at a state school and had a wonderful experience. Then decided to go for a PhD 8 yrs later at a R1 institution and OMG was it the worst 5yrs of my life! So much abuse, neglect, and exploitation was too much to bear for me.
At the state school, I felt uplifted, growing, supported.... but at the R1, I felt like I was drowning and further being pushed down by "mentors". It was awful.
@@alexanderlyon is that in the US?
Teachers are a form of caregiver.
And there is this special type of self loathing that caregivers get when they try to take time for themself, cause you know, if you are not giving 110% to your wards you are obviously a selfish and horrible person.
@@staciweaver7801 I had a similar experience as I progressed through my degrees. I was fortunate to work with a great dissertation advisor, but I saw more misery at that program than at my BA and MA institutions (though there was certainly some of it at my MA school). Many professors in my Ph.D. program seemed to actively discourage their students. They were downright mean for no reason. And most chairs, deans, provosts, etc. I've come across seem fairly unhappy too.
@@scurvofpcp You may be right. The unhappiness I've observed seems more tightly tied to inflated egos, trivial projects, and strained relationships. I've met very few grad professors at the R1 level who fit the caregiving profile. In fact, most professors in R1s teach very few classes each year. Some of them only teach 1 or 2 courses per semester and often talk about teaching as if it's a bother that prevents them from doing their "real" work of researching and publishing.
Many of these things just make me cringe. It’s been almost 5 years since I left academia, but every once in a while, a professor will comment on my socials or I'll bump into one on the street. They still think I'm part of their world and talk like it... but it just sounds weird now.
I can't believe it all seemed so normal to me when I was still in it!
Einstein for relativity, Perelman for the Pointcare conjecture, Wiles for Fermat’s last theorem, Newton for everything .. all recluses from academia for freedom of thought.
Paul erdos and terrance tao are highly social. Different types of ppl on there do whatever works for them. Math is mostly collaborative.
After watching this video, I realize that I have to prepare my mental and commitment before taking a PhD. Thank you for your advice.
Ask yourself, do you really want to ?.
"You are your project" -- I love this. It just inspired me. I am not an academic. I have only recently started contemplating about taking up a master's degree, and the thing that keeps bothering me most is, "what if I fail?". I like the practicality of your videos, and it is nice to know your insights. Keep it up!
I was a late-life PhD (musicology, not the sciences) who had so few expectations of what I would achieve in academe, that anything which I *did* achieve in academe automatically became a pleasant surprise.
And none of the obvious horrors which afflict PhD candidates ever befell me: I had a supervisor at once friendly, competent, and punctual (I've heard plenty of alarming tales from other PhD candidates about supervisors who were obnoxious, inept, and slothful).
What enabled me to complete the doctorate satisfactorily - within three years, whereas I've encountered several individuals who never completed their own doctorates even within a decade - was my realisation that (a) although getting a scholarship from the federal government was most agreeable, I wouldn't have been heartbroken if I'd failed to get one; (b) I wouldn't have been heartbroken if a PhD more generally had become impossible for me.
Therefore there was, I guess, an element of the 'gentleman amateur' about my whole attitude: not that I was at all slack about doing the requisite labour, but neither my economic life nor my spiritual life depended on obtaining the qualification.
Love that attitude! Knowing who you are
Awesome perspective
Nice
There is so much truth in this video...
I left the academia 15 years ago, and it was considered by everyone as an existencial crisis, telling me i will be back in short... for years...
And the main reason i left it's exactly the next point you mention xd. I wanted to do many things, to learn many things... and while i was in, that was not possible. I'm a biologist, but while i was still in, i assisted to quantic physics conferences, to classic literature reunions, to politics lectures from 90 years sages, and so on... taking a toll in my schedule... and that being a 23 youngster! I loved science, but i don't like how scientifics work nowadays (not aplying correctly the scientific method neither in most cases, because you have to publish), so i was clearly out of it. A pity, but we are not in the times of Einstein, Ramon y Cajal, or similar others, and I'm happy nowadays with my current life
This is probably one of the best videos I've seen on this channel.
I've just got admitted in my desired PhD program, I've been watching your videos for the last 2 years in and out, but I think I have to watch your videos more often.
All of this is true for most jobs/careers in the STEM industries as well. It's all driven by the voracious markets that control everyone's life.
I had a young professor just a few years older than me and was working in a new field. We were just trying to figure out how to do the experiments, so I did not have the experience you describe. Also, this was the early 1970s and I had received a letter from the department with my acceptance letter that it was unlikely that I would ever get a job in the field, since times were hard, so I had no expectations. I was going to do something interesting for a few years and then figure out what to do. I would not have put up with any of the browbeating - I would have left. I ended up having a surprisingly great career in physics and never once had to go through the situation you described. I have however seen it, and my only question is why smart students put up with it. And I don't know why the supervisors do it. I always say the most important things you learn in advance education is that most of your ideas are wrong (as are everyone else's) and you learn where the limits of your knowledge and understanding lie, so you know where to tread carefully.
I've been laid off 15 months with no end in sight despite having a PhD in biochemistry and 22 years experience.
If wasn't cheated out my lead author publications maybe this wouldn't have happened.
Also this was my experience of MSC but I’m doing an MA in history now and there is more room for positive feedback and positive experiences
I was thrown in at the deep end in my PhD, as were my colleagues. Criticism came from peers at the weekly seminars we gave (one student per week, so a cycle).
I was expecting criticism when I read a paper at a conference at which Max Perutz was an attender. I got none, but incredible support from Max.
Major criticism came when we submitted papers. My first accepted, which was also my first submitted, was in _Nature_ .
That was in the '70s. I saw things change, with pressure to obtain grants, so was pleased to retire.
Well glad I'm too dumb to be a Phd lol, already felt insane in undergrad. Man I really hope I can just escape societial norms period.
It would be an interesting social experiment to have (say) business owners with 10+ years of experience (heck, even just employment outside of education sector) become teachers. I suspect we would see a greater emphasis on real-world skills, self-reliance and entrepreneurism, and less on the 'need' to go to university. A possible result would be less university enrolments with more focus on valuable qualifications, less focus on 'soft' qualifications, and a rise in private business ownership/participation.
I agree. The university system and ita metrics is ridiculous:H index, press releases, publish quantity rather than quality, get as much funding as possible, etc, etc)...And at the end of the day it is important to say that much research is useless or BS* in practice, representing a waste of money from the citizens (who pay it with their taxes) and industry (same). Something new and genuine is needed.
Perfect! Hollow of network! Gatekeeper to overuse students under their control!
Many of these things are not PHD specific. Many times in Bachlors the CGPA becomes your worth as well.
I am happy my experience was better. My PhD was industrially funded and the company was great to work with. Most people in my group went into industry and there was no stigma about it. People even joined our group because of all the industry contacts. I went into industry as soon as I finished.
I would say that it is really hard to get any substantial independence before getting permanent job. Even then, you have many different commitements, thus, very little time to pursue what you are actually interested in.
When I was studying for my doctorate, I learned it was like an ideological reeducation camp. If one didn’t agree with the prevailing theory or model, one was subject to ridicule and condemnation. I had to leave because of health detriments, and I didn’t finish.
2:23 it's just like in a normal job. When I finish a project there's also no fanfare. It's just a job you get money for. The next project starts right away. No one's clinking glasses.
The difference is that in academia you're under the pretense that you're pushing your field forward in exciting new directions. Which is a lie 99% of the time.
Not everyone’s experience. Depends on the supervisor. It’s hard work but so it should be….you’re getting a phd. My supervisor was very encouraging and supportive.
This has never been my experience as a college professor and graduate student. There are good universities out there and going to industry is not frowned upon in agriculture. We are excited to see colleagues go to industry and make much more!
You are the outlier, not the normal.
I worked in Ag before my PhD and one thing I noticed is Ag companies have much better relationships with universities probably because there aren't as many Ag programs compared to Pharma? Ag companies had a lot of influence on school programs and worked together more than against each other.
@@staciweaver7801That's kinda weird. Cause, as far as I know, these are chemical companies at their core, with agro chemicals and pharma being large parts of it.
Of course, it doesn't apply to all.
You could not be more accurate than this! I hope this criticism changes.
If it brainwashes you then it fails to teach you the most important skill there is. Critical thinking.
True
Thank God I left academia before it was too late... I was one semester into a PhD, in a discipline where so many already knew going in they wanted to go into industry, and I had a panic attack that made me realize I wouldn't be happy in research...
Ah, now you see what young Asians face with their tiger mums constantly. 😂
Your channel is really important to us, Andy. Thank you once more.
This is probably more common in Britain where you still have educational standards (I'm in US). I'm 45 and agree old-school professors (I had professors from The Greatest Generation) are the hardest. I studied with tons of professors from Harvard and they said some - mean? but true - things about my writing. It did help me improve.
Spot on... again.
Right from the start: come on, the criticism etc is not a problem. The problem of academia nowadays is doing too much faking and all the useless stuff. Doing stuff just to present something next week in a collaboration meeting. Avoiding technical experimental work. Trying to plug your research into every passing hype to get a grant. Having 1-2 year long contracts for postdocs, the people who have all of the actual know how in the project. These are basic hard problems that can destroy any field. In such environment you get no accumulation of knowledge, of any asset in fact. Then of course no one will be happy in a stagnant field! A dead end is not a fun a place.
Another fundamental problem with academia is that the way it is structured is inherited from the past, when it was an elitist highly merit-based small thing. So, _everything in the structure of academia relies on having truly exceptional people._ If these are not top 1% people, there is nothing to prevent it from failing. And while it's failing the remaining 1% people will be running away fast. Coincidentally, nowadays academia is really not about being an exceptional elitist highly merit-based small thing. It is a mass thing with a spectrum of people somewhere around above mediocrity. So it fails.
Criticism and "internalizing" are just snow flake BS. I have worked with PhD students who had 0 skills in Python. In Python! Come on. And the person was very much not aware that it is obviously very needed to take some course of basic Python, when we implement a component of instrumentation in Python. I also frequently work with PhD students and some already postdocs who have this idea that whenever they bump into a problem they can "just ask someone" how to solve it. Because "asking questions is not bad". Asking questions is fine, but if you are a PhD you are supposed to actually answer them at least sometimes. You cannot just "fake it until you make it" to a permanent position. Although, I have seen that too. (Good luck to the students in that country who get professors like that! And condolences to the tax payers.) You need to do real work and solve real problems to gain the ability to develop know how in experimental projects. It's not another pre-cooked test in uni that you submit and forget. There is no "are we done yet?" - we are done when the thing works, not when the class is over.
I love the "condolences to the tax payers". I FELT THAT HARD. I wouldn't give many PIs money to do research after I went through a PhD and saw how limited the talent really is compared to the money rolling in. It's WILD.
What is this life if full of care if we have no time to stand and stare?
Me (PhD) seeing the title card for the first item: "You've misspelled 'criticism'!"
And then once you finish your PhD you get to go be a postdoc. Thats when things really get dark (at least it did for me)
Can you tell us more?
Andy, you are amazing!!
1. Grow a thick skin
2. Stop giving a f what people think
3. Take initiative by yourself, let points 1 and 2 carry you
You do realise peer review is an essential part of STEM
I never went to uni, I merely completed my compulsory education. But what I will say, I was bullied for the duration of all my school years.
I grew a "thick skin", but I must really question the utility of this thick skin, since in the years since I have been doing everything in my power to pull it off because it stopped me from letting myself getting help with my issues and confronting my problems.
It took until a few years like this point of time for instance, and what gave me a thick skin in a positive sense was not through not giving a f, but instead came from learning what the f people actually thought like.
Anxiety isn't eased by silencing the input, anxiety is eased by CONTRADICTING the harmful conclusions you held.
I did take initiative in so doing.
Why do I share this here?
Because your advice is generic and honestly kinda lacking in substance.
That's not to say that such words hadn't helped you. But I would argue what has helped you more isn't defined by the destination obsessive framing (arriving at station not giving an f, and thick skin station), but instead in your life journey into getting there. Merely my two cents on the matter.
I just don't like how alienating those goals are. That's just acceptance of a shitty situation rather than its challenging and overturning. But I guess... Such is life.
I've always wanted to pursue a PhD, but I never aspired to be an academic. My passion lies in doing independent research within my field. However, completing my Master's was an exhausting experience-I had no time for anything else, my supervisor wasn't helpful, and I often felt isolated.
I still dream of earning a PhD one day, but now I have a solid career and my own home. I don't want to give that up, and in the UK, I haven't found a way to balance my career with independent research. I'm not looking to work in academia, but I'd love the chance to make a meaningful contribution to my field.
I think how good or bad your PhD experience is very heavily depends on your supervisor. I've heard some proper horror stories, but also heard from people who had great PhD experiences
Great. Video
My dept. Manager was annoyed I didnt show to the Christmas party cause my car wouldn't start. She didnt even mention my research report that was featured on Sky News.
I have to strongly disagree with you about my own experience, I got my PhD in theoretical physics 4 years ago.
For theoretical physics, take everything he said in this video, and multiply it by 100,000. Then it’s accurate.
Happy in industry right now. People have realistic expectations, they don’t leave you out to dry if you are having problems, and they care about their life outside of work (and I’m in a FAANG, even here is so much better than academia).
After spending three years trying to reproduce data from the previous grad student that eventually turned out to be complete garbage anyway, I was forced to take a masters. I worked and worked all that time, never getting to do my own experiments, constantly being gaslit that it was all my fault. It couldn’t be that the original data was wrong. No way. Honestly, that never even occurred to me until the end when it was staring me in the face. It always had to be my fault. The lasers weren’t aligned properly. I wasn’t getting enough power out of the non-linear crystals. That signal had to be somewhere under that noise. It was never that the reaction was too endoergic or that the room temperature spectrum was simply incorrect. It was always my fault.
Eventually, I was just going through the motions, and treating it like a regular job. I was simultaneously devastated and ecstatic when it all ended. I was, however, afraid to tell my family what had happened, so I spent days by myself in my apartment looking for any job so I could avoid starvation. Fortunately, I found one before my depression led me to end it all. I hate academia and I will tell anyone with dreams like I had to be very careful when choosing to go to graduate school, and especially with what advisor they choose. Even the respected ones with stellar reputations for having happy groups will throw you under the bus when you get results that are contrary to what they expect. The scientific method and integrity mean nothing to them when grant money is on the line.
Cullage has been a scam for 2 decades ... there are JUST not enough jobs. IMO
Andy, can you direct me to some of your videos on academic mumbo jumbo, and why it is 'needed'? Why is there no importance attached to writing in accessible language?
As an example, I have had to take my own health seriously recently, and, as well as a little bit of exercise, I have had to eat sensibly. I personally did not want to go from 'pre-diabetic' to 'diabetic'. I learned that diabetes (type two) is simple, I just had to go on a whole food, plant based diet to cook my own food. After a while I got to a sensible BMI and I found exercise came to me naturally. I hopped on my bicycle and just started going further. With no fat lurking in my arteries, everything came together. According to my doctor, my blood pressure and BMI is 'perfect' so no meds needed. Clearly I am an n=1 autodidact, however, I could summarise what I did in words that a layman could understand, maybe to inspire others to get rid of their own paunches, with no science mumbo jumbo needed.
If I wanted to go all sciency, I could run a slow cookery club and get one group cooking whatever they want with another group cooking just plants. I am reasonably sure that just cooking would get both groups somewhere, however, I would expect the latter group to be able to self report the more impressive health gains.
I have a friend studying diabetes and doing a PhD. This friend eats the garbage food, meatballs, burgers, ice cream and much else that, according to my own experience, is not good for the arteries, fat in the cells and insulin response. This friend also believes that too much fruit is bad and that physical activity means lifting weights in front of a mirror in the gym.
I worked in science myself for a year and I appreciate that some jargon is needed at times. But, this friend writes utter gobbledygook regarding diabetes research, it is such a pity, as, due to my own health journey, I am actually very interested. This makes me think it is all one big lie, and that it is one big 'displacement activity'. Type two diabetes is simple, just eat sensibly with no animal products or processed food. It should be a solved problem but people like their burgers, don't want to take personal responsibility and trust in the science. But the science is nonsense, bamboozlement with big words is all that is going on. It irks me slightly as funding for writing piffle comes easily whereas nobody would ever fund me for running a slow cookery course with a control group to show how simple this important health problem can be solved.
Is the majority of university science makework for middle class kids where daddy pays? What am I missing? Should science papers that make no sense whatsoever be seen for what they are?
Carl Sagan is one of my great heroes and he could write popular science as well as understand tricky things like Gauss' Theorem, where no mere mortals understand it. Please help me understand why the need for making science impossible for the layman to understand, even if they are genuinely interested because their health provides a vested interest.
If you want real criticism before a PhD, become a Computer Science major💀
I think there should be a stigmatization of people who DON'T leave academia. Profiles of College-Bound High School Seniors by Leonard RACIST and Solomon Arbeiter had SATs for students as higher if they said they only intended to go through college compared to those who also wanted to go to grad school as well (I'm not making this up, I was surprised too). The time period was the late 1970s and early 1980s.
There are some subfields in STEM where it's already happening, like experimental condensed matter. Maybe I can see it happening in some biomedical fields, however.
Soooooo true!
This is why Theodore Kaczynski went on his villain arc
It's sad. Academia sucks and so does the corporate world. I dont know what to do
System as such is toxic. You heard about Geffen records and Nirvana where producers searched band that will be new Beatles, and they found they sucked life out if it. Nurture and nurture you must nurture artistic creative personality, they are very sensitive hypersensitive people, look all people needed, blacksmith to painter. Society without diversity where everyone is engineer minded cannot survive. Soviet Union create scientific-atheism and it collapse. All science was applicable mainly for high-tech weapons.
And is right but I still want be scientist nothing in in the world, I sleep and my dreams about science, how toxic this academia environment is I still want to be scientist.
People have to leave.there is not a job for everyone, it’s a funnel.
@@biner01 . Delivering masters programs is their role so they are doing their function. It’s the same in every area, less people at each level; worker bee, manager, head of dept. Creating jobs is not their function. Less people complete study at each level anyway; undergrad, masters, phd. Not everyone wants a job in academia, some want the education as a thing in itself or to support work elsewhere. Teaching programs bring in revenue and fund the department. Lots of other reasons no doubt.
@@biner01 because a phd has to have value otherwise it’s not a PhD, a PhD would not be a PhD without having tough challenges, that’s how you earn it, otherwise you are just doing stuff and not passing tests. Also, It’s not training for work it’s academic. It’s just an academic cult. And They need loads of people for this numbers game so they can find the clever ones and then the Nobel prize winners, and also to pay fees to keep the department going. I’m so bored of this now. How old are you? If you are under 25 i forgive you because your frontal lobe is not complete yet. But do learn about the world away from the comments section.
Yep. It's trash. Recently rescued a data engineer from a bio marine post PhD program, and her situation was of utter stagnation. Most people in there tho doublethink themselves into ascribing a special sense of self importance to the rehearsal of peer review crunching. Which is permutations of the same thing over and over again and publishing until you reach 'the next' level of academic privileges. In Mexican case, the fucking SNI.
Dropped out very soon of an advanced program within my own bachelors (luckily) the moment I was told I had to live off a glorified pension.
That is general, is not just academia.
Andy, do you have any thoughts on Raygun?
I went to study Engineering physics in the most prestigious university in my country. I wanted to become an engineer. Everyone wanted to become a scientist and a lecturer and pressured me to do so. I said no. I left. They got mad 🤣
P.S. They didn't lime the fact tht I was there when I was bad at learning. When I git good they told me that I was good for nothing but to be a scientist. And then they got mad I gave up 🤣
The problem is , a paper is a paper.
It does not mather if its good content or pure shite.
All you need to do is shit out as many papers as possible. Subject and quality makes zero difference.
Just a job for bright people, like any other (although bright not necessarily needed). And you know what they say - occupational habit. As an engineer by trade, I do find myself over-analysing and looking for solutions. There you go - I'm brainwashed too.
Supervisors will also go out of their way to destroy your future and career when they want to.
And they'll tell you this as a threat and promise. And proceed to carry it out even if you leave academia.
so its a cult....
100% accurate. It's the most disgusting behavior I have ever witnessed while in my PhD.
Damn! Wtf! Why? 😨
@@danlightened because of egos , unfortunately :(
@@danlightened so much of our US tax dollars get spent promoting egos rather than promoting the quest for truth through sound/robust science
Not me lol. I only did a PhD so I could get an hardward r&d job in tech 😂
the $275k math PhD jobs i see on indeed mystify me as to why anyone would want to stick around in academia
Then, trade school's much more better than Ph.D. 🤭
Yeah...and more better when the PhD becomes an adjunct.
If you wanna be a slave then yeah a trade is great!
I'm a heathen from the country called Heathenland. So you're speaking my language, a bit.
A PhD student has so much time for hobbies than a grown up adult with a permanent job/position and social obligations (from family to sci. society). My students are still playing computer games overnight. Or they appear late because there was an important basketball game on TV. They can make pause during the day to play basketball themself. No one stops PhD from taking language courses for free at the uni - well that might be different as well as the reimbursement of your training ... I want to say that PhD experience can be different from what Andi says.
Sure, it can be different. The question is likely how that it will.
Man, those are the type of hobies that are time sinks ans that you do when you can't find fulfillment in anything else cause you don't have time. I am not sayinv all PhD students are depressed...but it is the norm, not the exception, and it is silly to denny it. Personally I don't know a single person workinh kn a PhD that is/was mentally ok, nor do they.
My PhD emotionally broke me. I was suicidal by the end. I finally got out THANK GOD and am so glad I didn't end up killing myself.
In which area?
@@alicianieto2822 statistics say one third of PhD students have depression. That is a lot, but still not a norm. So, stop overheating the problem. The general tendency in Europe is informing OhD students on ways to resolve problems: responsible research, gender balance, equity, career consultations, seminars on work-life ballance. Supervisors can also train in aligning expectations. ... what Andy says is his personal unprofessional opinion ...
But my worth IS tied to my project! Everyone in my cohort and department told me so! Nice try 😏 I'm too smart to fall for this... Good thing I got that PhD
😅
🕊
But is this an "academy problem" only? Because the way i see it (and live it) is that this lovely system we all live on has this same problems outside academy.
Not recongizing effort or time invested is exactly what large corporations do with their employees. They milk your life for profits and then give the bare minimum in return.
Shaming quitters is a common tactic that the same corps apply. Even Amazon shame it's workers for retiring, instead of accepting that they left because awful working conditions.
This entire system love to convert people onto shells of themselves. Levels of stress, depression and anxiety are peaking through the western world even while not even half the population is doing/have a PhD.
The problem is that academia should be a space free from those problems, where people go to furrher their knowledge so science can keep advancing in every field. Now it's just another step on the capitalist ladder to get a somewhat decent job. Add to that the classic problem of ego on academy and we have an exact copy of the machine that breaks workers but made for minds that only want to improve/make a change.
Tldr, it's a problem of academy? Yes. But it's a problem that permeated from the system we currently live on.
0:21 Please correct cristicism to criticism. Please take it not as critic 😅.
Joking aside, thank you for your video, lately I have been wandering how it would be if I had better qualifications and had opted for a PhD.
Okay I'm going to be fair to both sides. Yes having a sister who has a PHD has shown me that people who don't need a PhD it can be harmful but for someone like me who needs a PhD for a various reasons I won't get into and that is needed for certain things that are very dire and could even be life threatening. Basically there are certain laws that say okay you have to get a certain amount of education or else we're going to like take away your rights and whatnot play too much further into that but again if you need them to say okay I'm not dumb and I'm also like don't take away my rights please then perhaps it's like I don't necessarily want nor do I need nor do I care about having a PhD as I don't think it necessary things you 100% smart but it's better than losing all my rights and winding up in jail or whatever for the rest of my life also certain medical things that having an extreme amount of education can fix how about my sister did it because she wanted to have a better brain or whatever the same reason most people have it and that's not the reason to have it it's kind of like if you take medicine for cancer and you don't have cancer well then you make yourself sick but if you actually have cancer then it'll make you better eventually see what I mean
perfectionism = poverty
"you are your project" - let us believe it is true, how it it different from industry or any other job?
Stop gaslighting. You sound like a dissertation chair
Academia a lot of times the teams are extremely small if not just one person. So you specifically become your project more than this being the teams project or the companies project it really is your project that becomes very tied to you
@@bemtheman1100 in that sense I agree with you -- academy has scaling limits.
I’m studying a BA.
I will survive this with my mild superiority complex.
I tent to read research about Stirling engines
And other research papers. Aside of way it is written that is another can of worms
I'd not be able to reproduce research of majority of papers ive seen, results are normalized, often dont see raw results or method of production of given element
Like i literally have like 5% of practical use of that research because things were not explained good enough for people not from the academy
And from youtube videos of chemists using research papers, even they have to make educated guesses what author did in the background to achieve results
This content was sponsored by chatgpt 😁
Academia is a very toxic space overall
Nah, hardship gives you grit💪🏼. Only the strongest thrive, this is how you separate the weak. This applies to ALL areas in life. If you want something bad enough, NOTHING will stop you. It’s about how hungry you are. I came from nothing and I achieved all that I set out for. Awards feel better when they are earned like a warrior.
If PhD research is an important contributor to the society and future of humanity, I see no reason why they shouldn't have a good work life balance and the respect and wealth other people have in jobs when they contribute to the society.
I'm glad I never got an advanced degree. University was a clusterf*ck. If you wrote a paper, almost every professor looked for the tiniest excuse to give your paper a bad grade. Your sources weren't cited well enough. You said the year 2009 was recent. Recent compared to what?
The constant criticism that messes with your mind you're talking about in the video is all too real.
I didn't miss anything
Who chooses for you the supervisors ?
You do.
But be careful. They are all nice from the first few months!!
Lol lot of these points are applicable to corporate jobs too.
Oof. The criticism culture and becoming your work shows up in healthcare too.
People start out passionate, and then either leave quickly or stay as shells of themselves
I'm not in a PhD, why are you talking about my job?
Im 28 with a bachelors and I own tech consulting companies that employ people with bachelors, masters, and PhD’s. Once you get outside of academics into the real world, your degree doesn’t really mean shit. You’re judged according to skills, ownership of responsibilities, and earnings, not the piece of paper hanging on your wall. People seem to forget the whole point of school is to increase earnings. Only losers spend their whole life in school, never applying anything they learned out in the market
This has kind of an overly provocative title for what your thesis is.
Bro: succesfully gets PhD
* Proceeds to list every reason why it is a bad decision and how miserable one's life's is in 100s of vids*
Joke aside, I feel the same way about my humble bachelor's degree
waoooo,,, really, i mean, are you serious??????
You're just making this video to avoid finishing your PhD. Get back to work!
I started to follow this channel when I started my PhD but in fact the content is most of the time toxic as fuck. I do not recommend following this channel if you do a PhD. However if you failed your phd or got rejected, all this negativity can help you think it was actually good for you.
What do you mean by toxic content? What he says are some dark truth about academia. Maybe you dont agree with his perspective that doesn't mean its toxic 😑
@HellRaiZOR13 they're trying to protect a toxic culture by going after anyone who shines a light on the reality.
Expect it to increase as more people work on increasing the transparency.
Academics in the institution try to keep the public out and the money flow to them.. accountability means less money for bad behavior.
Jee, try a PhD in civ engineering. Cry me a river (I'm in hydraulics)
Понятно. Челик не получил финансирование и слился, а теперь ноет, что это называют ошибкой
Andi had a negative experience and now spreads his biased opinion. Take it critically.
It is precisely the perspective that someone who is struggling with their PhD will likely need. I'm dealing with almost every single point he made.
Keep upholding that ponzi scheme and calling your students lazy video game playing slackers. Screwing them out of poorly compensated labor in the prime years of their lives is what your careers depend on.
Get that cheap labor now and put them on welfare and then shit on the people who raise awareness of your bad behavior and exploitation.
We do, able to think for ourselves, no need to tell us what to do 🙄. His perception is valid though!
He sounds optimistic
A degree after all..! Doesn't necessarily make you a superior person ?
Unfortunately the degree per se..is enough to scare the less educated.
The consequences ?
The world will think ten times.. before accusing a "PhD" for a possible crime.
Bringing this up because I had , I can say the worst experience of my life..by wrongly placing my trust in one such academic in India.
The woman in question, happens to be a Professor of English in one of the most reputed institutes.
What is less known.. is that SHE HAPPENS TO BE ONE OF THE ACE CYBER CRIMINALS OF THE COUNTRY (Could even be the world!)
So much I had to put up with.. simply because.. I UTTERLY MISJUDGED..ONE SUCH PhD.
(It's not only me that she attacked with her Cyber skills, the list is endless..of the victims who paid a heavy price..for placing their trust in a wrong person. BEWARE !
Sir is your household income 200k dollars a year? Plz reply in yes or no. Thanks a lot.