Response to: The Value of Theoretical Research
Reading paulfchristiano's article the other day, I realized that I had had many similar discussions with myself, and have been guilty of motivated stopping and poor answers to all of them.
However, one major roadblock in my pursuing better answers, is that I feel that I have been "locked in" to my current path.
I am currently a mathematics Ph.D. student. I did not have a minor. I don't have significant programming skills or employment experience. I know nothing about finance. I know a lot about mathematics.
Paul says:
There is a shortage of intelligent, rational people in pretty much every area of human activity. I would go so far as to claim this is the limiting input for most fields.
However, "most fields" is not a very good tool for narrowing my search space; I have spent my entire life in school, and I like having structures and schedules that tell me when I'm doing productive things and that I've progressed to certain stages. I'm not ready to drop out and do whatever, and I don't have a particular idea of what whatever might be.
On the other hand, I currently have a variety of resources available to me. For example, I have a steady income (a grad student stipend isn't much, but it's plenty for me to live on), and I have the ability to take undergraduate classes for free (though not the spare time at the moment.)
My current intent is to continue and finish my Ph.D., but to attempt to take classes in other subjects, such as linguistics, biology and chemistry, and computer science which might lead to other interesting career paths.
Has anybody else had a similar feeling of being "locked in"? How have you responded to it? For those who have studied mathematics, are you still? If you continued, what helped you make that decision? If you stopped, what about that? What did you end up doing? How did you decide on it?
I got an undergrad degree in math and realized that I needed to do a lot of maturing if I were to succeed in grad school. So I got a job which locked me in for 3 years (due to the intricacies of vesting), and since I work nights, I eventually decided that I needed a house so I could actually get sleep, which has locked me in to my situation for at least 3 more years (because of a requirement of the housing credit).
So yeah, I am currently stuck right where I am.
However, my job is at the university, which means that I can take free classes. That's how I learned about income tax. I tried to jump into stats grad classes, but I think taking Bayesian Statistics at the same time as its prerequisites was a bit too much to handle at once. I'm now working on getting a CS degree, since the Bayes class is only offered every other aeon. I also decided that I had too little practical knowledge, so I took up a metal smithing class, and do a little construction on the side in the summers. Thus, while I am nominally stuck, I have steadfastly refused to stick to one thing.
I have no real idea what I'm going to do with my life. I don't feel like I have Something To Protect,, which bothers me, but I have a strong urge to Become Stronger. My decisions have been without long-term aim. Even as an undergrad, I switched between majors from CS to Psych to History before settling on math, mostly because I felt that it would close the fewest future doors.
So in short, I have been guided by a sense of biding my time, trying to gain financial resilience, and trying to help friends and family also gain resilience. I have yet to decide what I will be doing.