I've posted a few things seeking career advice with mixed success. In this case I have a more concrete question and if you feel like commenting, I'd appreciate it. I think it helps me to hear what a community of others thinks from a rational perspective because there are often many components to a decision that I had not anticipated.
I am currently a grad student working in computer vision. I dislike the way that my current adviser focuses only on projects that have short-term commercial gains. I want to study more fundamental, theoretical research which may take more time to develop but will also be more aesthetically pleasing to me. For me, the only reason to agree to be paid so little as a graduate student is to gain the opportunity to work freely on high risk projects that happen to be of personal interest. Practical considerations are not interesting to me as motivation for a Ph.D. On the other hand, it has felt nearly impossible to actually find faculty willing to have students work on theory. Rather than grinding away with no dental insurance for 3 more years, followed by low paying post-docs, etc., perhaps seeking a job will be better.
I have some interesting job prospects that are all with larger companies. The jobs are basically business analytics, including scientific computing, data mining, and machine learning. I'm sure the problems to work on are not that great; not going to be Earth shattering, but at the same time they sound a lot more interesting to me than hedge fund data analysis or military research labs (I have working experience at a government lab and I did not enjoy it). The hours would be better; the pay is fair and it would be a good living. I could pursue some things as serious hobbies outside work.
At the same time though, there feels like a nagging opportunity cost. I am not naive enough to believe there will be a nice faculty job waiting for me even if I finish my Ph.D. However, I really enjoy theoretical and mathematical physics, machine learning, computational complexity, and scientific computing, and various philosophical considerations generated by these. Being able to teach about them, research them, and work on them professionally seems incredibly appealing. Am I making a big mistake if I leave? How can one pursue philosophical interests and desires to work in theory outside of a typical job? Or should I even worry about such a thing?
As far as I can tell you identify two options: 1) continue doing the PhD you don't really enjoy 2) get a job you won't really enjoy.
Surely you have more options!
3) You can just do a PhD in theoretical computer vision at a different university.
4) You can work 2 days a week at a company and do your research at home for the remaining 4 days
5) Become unemployed and focus on your research full time
6) Save some money and then move to Asia, South America or any other place with very low cost of living so you can do a few years of research full time.
7) Join a startup company that is doing groundbreaking computer vision work
8) See if there is something else that you can be passionate about and do that.
Life's too short to do something you don't enjoy and you're now at a point in your life where the decisions you make are going to have real consequences. So do some soul searching and figure out what you really want and then figure out what you have to do to make it happen. That's life 101.
When you're spending the majority of your time doing something you don't really enjoy you have a big problem. This is the only life you have and it's easy to waste it 5 years at the time! Maybe your true dream is to work on the next Pixar movie, or to design special effects for the next CGI blockbuster! But if you aren't going to explore your options seriously you're not going to find out what you really want to do in life. If, on the other hand, you're absolutely sure you want to do theoretical computer vision research, then JUST DO THAT. There are thousands of universities with good computer vision departments. So unless you got a 1000 rejection letters on your desk you haven't even seriously explored your options yet.
(PS: Forget about doing research in the evenings after you get home from a day job. It doesn't work. Many people do this and then they figure out that after a full day's work you don't have the energy anymore to do really difficult stuff. Your lifestyle will change and you'll grow dependent on your job. Then as you get older you'll look back and call it a "silly dream" and wisely observe that you have to make compromises in life and that your ability to compromise on what you want makes you a responsible adult.)
(PPS: I'm trying to convey that being unhappy with your job should trigger "hair on fire" like panic.)
I am fascinated by this idea in principle, but do you know anyone who has actually done it? I fear there are many nonobvious details that would derail the plan. Maybe we should create an LW outpost in Saigon or Bangalore or some other inexpensive place, since there are many people here who are excited about the idea of living inexpensively to free up more time for Big Thinking.