

A Grad Student's Day - mhb
http://philip.greenspun.com/humor/graduate-student-emotion-check-list.text

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tsally
10:30am Wakeup and lie awake in Bed

10:31 Realize that you went to grad school because you're intellectually
curious, not because you want to incrementally increase Man's knowledge.

10:35 Web drop yourself from all your courses and buy a plane ticket to the
Valley to start a startup.

~~~
asciilifeform
Intellectual curiosity and startups? _Derisive laughter._

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tsally
My implication was going to grad school for the wrong reasons. It wasn't about
intellectual curiosity having anything to do with startups. But as long as
we're on the subject, your understanding of intellectual curiosity as it
relates to startups is flawed. It's a better essential element of a great
hacker, and great hackers are essential elements of successful startups.

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vlad
On a related note, if you had the option to attend a pretty good grad school
for free, taking two grad classes a semester, (and on top of that, get paid a
half-time stipend for 20 hours a week as Teaching Assistant or Research
Assistant, which should be enough to live on), would you? Should I do it? I
would be finishing a B.S. in Computer Science and Mathematics next Spring. It
sounds like it would be a great way to challenge my mind while trying to
create shareware apps or web apps. Should I do it?

~~~
tsally
If you're talking about a PhD:

As the typical advice goes with this sort of question: make sure you know what
you're getting into. It sounds like you have a pretty good deal in terms of
funding, but remember that regardless you need to write a dissertation. Now,
you could take the funding and leave after you get your masters, but you'd
have to decide if you're morally comfortable with misleading the University.

~~~
blackguardx
I have actually talked to many professors about this. There is no contract.
There is no implicit agreement. People leave all the time for various reasons.
Sure, it is kind of crummy to apply for a PhD program knowing you only want a
masters, but that is life.

If you leaving early had such a terrible impact on the university, they would
make you sign a contract.

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jlees
ah, the phdcomics style of 'oh god life is so terrible as a grad student yet
also strangely appealing'.

it's not really like that.

~~~
ibsulon
I don't know... I watch my Ph.D candidate boyfriend (in a non-science
discipline, mind you) and it's close minus the coming in to the office bit.

More time on facebook, less time on tetris. Update for 2009 as necessary.

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GeneralMaximus
Is that what grad students do? I'm doing that right now! Dang.

Note to self: don't go to grad school. You're likely to fail.

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quantumhobbit
The eternal procrastinating grad student. Only now there are even more ways of
wasting time on the internet.

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andr
That's older than the internet.

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hiteshiitk
Awesomely written.

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juliusdavies
Last-Modified: Fri, 23 Jun 2000 00:51:40 GMT

~~~
bigbang
Somethings dont change. So much true even today :)

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yef
This is hacker news?

