I’d say: don’t do grad school unless you have a really good reason to. It takes several of the best years of your life and a lot of money, and unless you know exactly what you want to do there and why it may be time wasted.
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Replying to @Meaningness @spencerjpeters
OTOH, if you do want to do fundamental research, it’s nearly impossible without at least a Master’s degree and probably a PhD. Not quite impossible though!
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Replying to @Meaningness
No worries! This is hardly the venue for maximal specificity ;) My interests are all over the place anyway. I'm just trying to figure out how to do the most important and interesting work I can. I'm leaning towards grad school because I like using/building mathematical systems.
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Replying to @spencerjpeters @Meaningness
Examples: I can pick systems like abstract interpretation up very quickly. I just did an NSF fellowship proposal on assessing the quality of nanodevice simulations, but I also wrote a proposal describing an IDE for mathematical reasoning.
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Replying to @spencerjpeters @Meaningness
Outside grad school, I can't find a clear path for developing these kinds of skills and earning credibility. Startups look extremely difficult, and engineering jobs seem like mostly writing glue code! As a grad student, I can do research internships, take time to just learn...
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Replying to @spencerjpeters @Meaningness
But maybe I should attempt an "entrepreneurial" path through industry--try to get a rep for building useful systems and work my way up to more important and interesting projects. I know you don't have enough details, but what's your gut reaction to this analysis?
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Replying to @spencerjpeters
Yes your interests do sound like a better match for grad school. Maybe look for an interdisciplinary program? The MIT Media Lab comes to mind. (It’s not particularly about media.)
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Replying to @Meaningness
I think that is a very good idea! I've probably been too focused on artificial intelligence programs, which belies a bit wishful thinking about the specificity of my interests ;) I will go investigate the MIT Media Lab and look into other interdisciplinary programs.
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Replying to @spencerjpeters
Well if you want to do AI, then go for it! Presumably you know which schools have strong programs in the area
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Replying to @Meaningness
I think so! I'm just a little bit concerned about the culture of evaluating ideas by their performance metrics on challenge datasets--it seems like a recipe for hacks and premature optimization. I'm trying to find groups working from a more first-principles perspective.
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Good (imo). I think the current round of ML enthusiasm will have run out before you’d finish grad school, so better not to hitch your wagon to it.
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