

Decision: To continue working on the start-up or go to grad school? - sgibson12

My business partner and I have been plugging away for the past 6 weeks on getting our web start-up going. Now he's deciding whether or not to continue on or stop and go to grad school. We're so close to launching and then would need a few 3-6 months to see if it has any potential in the market. We all know Paul Graham's opinion on going to grad school verses seeing your startup through to completion. I thought some friendly encouragement from the y-combinator crowd might help illuminate his decision. Ironically, our "start-up" is a decision making tool, and he has posted a decision page listing all the pros and cons. It's a wiki so anyone can add their two cents. It's still in pre alpha stage but here's a direct link if anyone wants to help steer this sorry fellow from a sad life of grad school at 'cough cough' Indiana State University, verses doing what he always deep in his heart wanted to do. (Actually, he's always wanted both, hence the conflict, but I digress.) All feedback on this discussion board or on the site is most appreciated.<p>http://decisionero.com/43t_friends/San_Francisco_or_Indiana%3F<p>Cheers!
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mechanical_fish
IMHO, if your partner can't look at his page on your site and see how
_completely obvious_ it is that he should stay in SF... he might as well move
to Indiana, because your product is useless. ;)

I can't figure out whether or not I can draw all over that decisionero page
without ruining it, so let me riff on it here:

 _San Francisco is a city that fits me, where the possibility of wonderful new
connection is everywhere._

Then perhaps you should... live there? :)

 _San Francisco might be a poor place for me to study for a degree: all that
possibility for connection is also possibility for distraction._

Yes! _Thank god_! You know why I'm here on news.yc in the first place? Because
Philip Greenspun distracted me from grad school.

The entire point of grad school is the distractions. I learned this far too
late, but at least I learned it.

 _Indiana's comp sci department has said that they cannot fund me for
2008-9..._

Warning sign.

 _The professor at Indiana who I like is right now getting into the line of
research that I want to pursue. Virtually everyone else to whom I've told this
research idea to has said it's a terrible idea and can't work. This fellow
"gets it". This year is probably the best time to get started on it, just as
he is ramping up_

 _Big_ warning sign.

If you want to be a professor you need two things as you come out of grad
school: A stellar recommendation letter from someone well established in the
field [1], and the ability to get your grants funded. Working for a relatively
new guy is dangerous, as is settling for a guy at a less-than-top-tier school
-- his recommendations aren't worth as much. Going to work on a problem that
most other profs think is a waste of time is _incredibly_ foolish, because
those other profs are the ones who will be reviewing your grant proposals and
interviewing you for your next academic job. If everyone tells you up front
that your idea won't work, and it doesn't (which is the most likely
possibility), you won't exactly look like a genius. Even if your idea _does_
work, many of those people won't get it. Or they might just refuse to listen
to you out of spite. (If you think that can't happen because it would just be
too petty and unfair, you know nothing about academia. ;)

 _I think professorship is really what I'm made for, and Indiana looks like
the best path for that. That's the one place where I've met a professor who
seems on my wavelength..._

Wait -- you think being a prof is a good idea _despite_ the fact that only one
prof in the world seems to be on your wavelength?

Being a prof is entirely about making other profs happy so that they'll vote
to give you funding. If you don't enjoy playing political games with other
professors, you won't enjoy being a professor.

 _A master's degree from SFSU would likely lead straight to a Ph.D. from
Berkeley or Stanford. And a Ph.D. from Berkeley or Stanford are better tickets
to professorship at a research university than a Ph.D. from Indiana._

Amen. This is not only 100% correct, it's the most important factor by an
order of magnitude.

If you seriously want to be a prof, _never_ settle for a second-tier school so
long as there are top-tier schools in the running. Berkeley or Stanford profs
have better reputations, better connections, and better locations. Remember:
academic hiring is more subjective than objective. It's as much about
marketing, connections, and politics as it is about research talent and
results, even if you're Knuth.

[1] Actually, you need _three_ recommendation letters. Yet another argument
for attending a university with at least three well-respected, well-known
faculty members that you can interact with... and for studying a topic that
these three people will understand and respect.

~~~
sgibson12
Thank you for the thoughtful reply. Especially for the incite into the world
of academia. Minor aside, being able to post comments like this on our website
is on our TODO list. Placing your comments here in the meantime was the best
option. The fact that you had to do so will bump that up in priority. ;)

~~~
mechanical_fish
Yeah. I noticed that it seemed to be a wiki, and was tempted to try it out...
but I'm sure you can understand why I was reluctant to paste this giant glob
of opinions all over your outline page. :)

Incidentally, no discussion of this topic is complete without an
administration of the Greenspun test. Read the link I posted here, and the
comments:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117378>

If your partner can read all that and _still_ be sure that he wants to be a
professor... he needs to at least try going to grad school, because he's truly
in love. ;) But I still recommend SF over Indiana, despite the fact that I
grew up in Ohio and should really be sticking up for the Midwest...

~~~
mechanical_fish
Oh, and I almost forgot! An important book to read is _A Ph.D. is Not Enough!
A Guide to Survival in Science_ :

[http://www.amazon.com/PhD-Not-Enough-Survival-
Science/dp/020...](http://www.amazon.com/PhD-Not-Enough-Survival-
Science/dp/0201626632)

It's a bit dated, but it's quite valuable.

~~~
sgibson12
Cool.. that's all very helpful. Especially the links and extra reference
material. That's all we do these days is pass books back and forth. haha.

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arockwell
If there's no financial pressure to stop doing the startup right now I say go
for it. Grad school will always be there later in the future.

~~~
bkovitz
Well, how about this: an investor just popped out of the woodwork, looking to
put $15K into the site.

I don't have enough savings to last a year, so I was a little worried about my
finances if I do decisionero. This bit of news definitely shifts the balance.

------
edw519
Just my 2 cents:

a. no matter how much formal education you have, you already have enough

b. if doesn't matter where you live

c. go with your gut (you know you want to)

------
rms
Defer, Defer, Defer

