• LillyPip@lemmy.ca
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        8 months ago

        Get a job programming video codecs. Then you get to feel superior and inferior at the same time. Also eternally frustrated by doing things that help everyone and no one, and that you can never finish. It’s the best of all worlds.

    • cabron_offsets@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      For real. I made the life mistake of getting a PhD but managed to turn it into an asset by doing fairly straightforward finance programming shit that scares people.

      • Rolando@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        doing fairly straightforward finance programming shit that scares people.

        The reason it’s straightforward to you and scary to others is because you have a PhD. Even if it’s not in finance, you gained abilities in reading documents, extracting useful information, integrating knowledge, teaching yourself skills, building tools, and generating reports. To most people, those are difficult things.

        • Liz@midwest.social
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          8 months ago

          If only there was a way these people could teach themselves these skills, even without access to a doctorate program!

          • Rolando@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            People absolutely can. It’s just a lot easier when you have guidance from an expert advisor, multiple peers to help you out, and an established pathway to focus several years of your life on doing so.

            • cabron_offsets@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              To be clear, my PhD “advisor” was a hindrance to my education, work, life, and career. I succeeded despite my ”advisor” and broke all contact upon my defense.

              1/3 of my entering cohort left without degrees. Not atypical.

    • muzzle@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      That’s what I did, in the end. But in the mean while I got to study something I am passionate about.