An Aspiring Scientist’s Frustration with Modern-Day Academia
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Submission timeline
2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
First comments on top threads
HN comment orderIt's kind of hard to get through this, not because the points ring untrue (I agree with many), but because they seem a bit naive. I think there's a certain type of person that is particularly attracted to advanced work in science and technology -- the systems purist, who believes strongly that the world "should" work in mostly objective ways. This is a strength in that the world doesn't change very much without these idealists pushing for their vision, but…
90% of everything is crap. And there's no guarantee that the other 10% isn't crap as well. I get it, we need the social dialogue, so that people know how and why it's crap, but really the only way forward that doesn't result in eternal loss of control of your efforts to sociopaths with no interest in your happiness or society's well-being is to blaze your own path forward. Academia is crap. Most jobs are crap. Most people do not…
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 2
- Total points
- 380
- Total comments
- 253
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013-09-09 | An Aspiring Scientist’s Frustration with Modern-Day AcademiaFirst breakout · Best thread | mad | 211 | 155 |
| 2015-04-23 | An Aspiring Scientist’s Frustration with Modern-Day Academia (2013)Latest 20+ point return | otto_pankrock | 166 | 98 |
| 2018-02-22 | An aspiring scientist’s frustration with modern-day academia (2013) | lorenz_li | 3 | 0 |