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I particularly like the advice Audiophile gave: Where do you see yourself in 5yrs? This might really guide some of your decision making.

Also, it doesn’t really sound like you have any concrete options — you’re thinking about options that you might have. I say you should loosely rank order your options and explore them, i.e. ask for applications to PhD programs, ask around for contacts at Google/MSR/PARC/CSR, …

It may turn out that some of them are just not feasible, or in the process of finding out what’s involved in attaining those ends, you may find more clarity. Just a thought…

Posted by mfk on 23 May 2004 @ 6pm

The PhD is a tough one. I’ve thought about it many times as well, since I am a reasonably theoretical person (also I like teaching, and research). All in all, I’ve decided against it in the short term because the opportunity cost is extremely high — add to this, that in any system whose requirements are set by external forces your life upgrade path is well-defined but slow.

When I look back at the last 6 years, while no subject I worked on got to the depth that a PhD offers, it was made up for in dimensionality of experience.

So I’m probably biased in saying this, but I would look into trying to launch a business. Life transition points are good for this because you needn’t overcome the financial gravity well of an established career. To this point, I would challenge the idea that you need a ton of capital to start a business.

Startup capital is only necessary if your business has significant capital costs, or you need to scale in such a way that you can support a sizable workforce. I don’t really think this is the case in your situation. If you look at a company like Adaptive Path, they really don’t need to do more than 1 million/year (supersmall cap) in business because they need only support *seven* people (actually 9, but whatever).

Compare that to Trilogy, where presales needed to close scores of 2-5 million dollar deals every quarter just to keep everyone’s heads above water.

If I were you, I’d take my time — set aside a couple months to send out resumes — but mostly spend that time enjoying life and working on the projects that motivate you most.

You might be surprised about how feasible it is to make a living or even start a business when you rely on your own brain.

Posted by Tom Chi on 28 May 2004 @ 1am

Get a PhD if you want to teach in a university. Otherwise get outside the Ivory Tower, choose life and do something that other people actually find useful. You don’t need another 4 years of school to teach you that. In fact if you really want to do research, find a job at the Patent Office — you get more money and less politics. Remember that in university douchebags with tenure will be with you FOR THE REST OF YOUR NATURAL LIFE. That’s a long, long, long time, old chum.

Posted by jmalm on 31 May 2004 @ 3am