To give a bit more context: I’ve specifically seen some ML PhDs work out fine, but feel like I’ve seen almost every other type of PhD work out badly, with my sense being that the person was not in a substantially better epistemic or career position after their PhD, especially compared to them having worked an industry job in the direction they would have liked to go into, or just independently writing blogposts.
More than half of the PhDs I have heard of were aborted in the middle, with the person going through a major depressive period or something similar like it during it, and the levels of regret afterwards being quite high.
ML PhDs seem somewhat better, in particular at places like CHAI where my sense is that people are working on stuff that’s a lot more aligned with their goals. Though I think the track record is still pretty bad.
To give a bit more context: I’ve specifically seen some ML PhDs work out fine, but feel like I’ve seen almost every other type of PhD work out badly, with my sense being that the person was not in a substantially better epistemic or career position after their PhD, especially compared to them having worked an industry job in the direction they would have liked to go into, or just independently writing blogposts.
More than half of the PhDs I have heard of were aborted in the middle, with the person going through a major depressive period or something similar like it during it, and the levels of regret afterwards being quite high.
ML PhDs seem somewhat better, in particular at places like CHAI where my sense is that people are working on stuff that’s a lot more aligned with their goals. Though I think the track record is still pretty bad.