Nisan comments on Welcome to Less Wrong! (5th thread, March 2013) - Less Wrong

27 Post author: orthonormal 01 April 2013 04:19PM

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Comment author: Nisan 02 April 2013 12:20:22AM *  3 points [-]

Welcome! I like your username.

EDIT: I know several people in this community who dropped out of math grad school, and most of them were happy with the decision. I'm choosing to graduate with a PhD in a useless field because I find myself in a situation where I can get one in exchange for a few months of work. I know someone who switched to algebraic statistics, which is a surprisingly useful field that involves algebraic geometry.

Comment author: John_Maxwell_IV 02 April 2013 09:01:04AM 2 points [-]

I haven't looked at this issue in detail, but I seem to recall that not getting more education was one of the more common regrets among "Terman's geniuses", whoever those are. Link.

Comment author: Adele_L 02 April 2013 03:37:11AM 1 point [-]

I know several people in this community who dropped out of math grad school, and most of them were happy with the decision.

What is their reasoning?

Comment author: Nisan 02 April 2013 04:03:20AM 4 points [-]

I can't speak for them, but I expect it's something like this: One can make more money, do more good, have a more fun career, and have more freedom in where one lives by dropping out than by going into academia. And having a PhD when hunting for non-academic jobs is not worth spending several years as a grad student doing what one feels is non-valuable work for little pay.

You'd have to speak to someone who successfully dropped out to get more details; and of course even if all their judgments are correct, they may not be correct for you.

Comment author: Adele_L 02 April 2013 12:29:21AM 0 points [-]

Thanks, it's just my name and last initial.

Comment author: Nisan 02 April 2013 12:35:06AM 2 points [-]

Ah, I thought it was a math-flavored pseudonym. Also, I added an addendum to my comment above.