The idea that you don't deserve your PhD after running a research lab for half a decade and writing about a dozen papers exploring and significantly extending the world's knowledge about an interesting and important topic in your chosen field is essentially bullshit, and if you'd like, you can call me and I will tell you this again, because <3, Dave.
Also, I know a ton of people at Google (and elsewhere) who do really awesome work, but I am not sure I would accept an assessment of any of them as "high-powered people who very much have their shit together", because in this life the jigsaw puzzle of shit does not actually ever fit together that cleanly, and even in the best cases, either the whole thing's about to burst in a panic or all the gaps are caked over with glue or there are five unseen people sawing away at the rough corners. And you will see this plainly enough after you've spent a few weeks really looking at things, and then you will figure out what to do.
Motivation is a tricky thing, but I would not assume that problems as a student will necessarily carry over to a regular job. For one, you'll be doing something completely different. For another, the scope of the problems you get to work on as a programmer — especially the new programmer on a project! — is completely different from the scope of problems you get to work on as an academic. And for another, people will be paying attention to you, and expecting progress from you, in very different ways.
Anyway, I am glad to hear that you are here; we should get together.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2013-08-27 01:21 am (UTC)Also, I know a ton of people at Google (and elsewhere) who do really awesome work, but I am not sure I would accept an assessment of any of them as "high-powered people who very much have their shit together", because in this life the jigsaw puzzle of shit does not actually ever fit together that cleanly, and even in the best cases, either the whole thing's about to burst in a panic or all the gaps are caked over with glue or there are five unseen people sawing away at the rough corners. And you will see this plainly enough after you've spent a few weeks really looking at things, and then you will figure out what to do.
Motivation is a tricky thing, but I would not assume that problems as a student will necessarily carry over to a regular job. For one, you'll be doing something completely different. For another, the scope of the problems you get to work on as a programmer — especially the new programmer on a project! — is completely different from the scope of problems you get to work on as an academic. And for another, people will be paying attention to you, and expecting progress from you, in very different ways.
Anyway, I am glad to hear that you are here; we should get together.