... is some other beginning's end. The line is cheesy as all fuck, but it is completely true.
As I've mentioned in a reply to animal_cookie's announcement that she's going back to school-- grats once again, by the way
-- I've also recently decided to go back to school. I suspect that I'm a bit less along in the application/admissions process as she is, as I'm still compiling my applications package and figuring out the details of how each school handles applications.
But Dave, you're a professional in your field, working in an exciting young company at a critical time, and are actually earning a salary! A salary that will only continue to increase in time! Why on earth would you want to go back to school?
Well, it's been something that I've been turning over in my head for a while now, and I've wanted to put metaphorical pen to metaphorical paper in order to more closely examine my motivations. Yes, I'm working as a professional chemist, at a job where there is at least the semblance of research, with only a bachelor's degree in chemistry. That is, frankly, all but unheard of where I am. Due to a number of factors, including: dominance of engineering as a profession in virtually all technical fields, the increasing popularity of applied 'degrees', and the watering down of both admissions and undergrad programs (in order to increase admissions, to have enough tuition to stay afloat, due to the government's policy of incremental defunding of education); a bachelor's degree in science is considered to be equivalent to a 2-year applied technician's diploma in industry. In many cases, it is actually considered to be less attractive than a diploma, as fewer practical skills are taught, as there is still a focus on theory and research at the undergrad level.
Due to this, it took me a year to get the job that I currently have, and even then I was only able to find it because I was connected to the founder of the startup. And it was not a pleasant job to start. Poorly paid, with little to do, and what little there was to do could have been done by a high-school student. Not grad. Student. Still, I slogged along for a bit, and in time -- partly due to said founder leaving the company, and taking various invisible hierarchies and prejudices along -- the job improved somewhat. Late last year, I'd almost say that I was even working close to the level to which my education had prepared me: doing some self-directed research, experimental design and execution, and writing technical reports. They weren't ever going to see the light of day outside the company, much less be reviewed and published, but it was something.
But there have been philosophical issues with industry, that have bothered me from the start. Research is based, by and large, on a gift economy. I borrow use of so-and-so's spectrophotometer, and down the road they may ask to 'borrow' some of an esoteric compound that I used to use. Reciprocity is implied, but not necessarily expected. A big part of this is publication; people are paid nothing when they submit to a journal. They are giving away the information, putting it into the public domain-- albeit behind paywalls these days, but the principle is there. Why give it away? So that others can build on it. Simple as that. That is how research is able to progress.
Now, while the following may not be true of every situation in industry, it is certainly true as a broad-stroke generalization: industry is by and large parasitic on this gift economy. Businesses operate on the idea that any money spent needs to have a monetary return, else it is wasted. Since much of research involves failure, it is anathema to this principle. So rather than funding original research, most industrial outfits will take what academics have given to the public domain, tweak it just enough to be patentable, and then lock it up. Once locked, they'll squeeze as much utility out of the idea as possible, while spending as little as possible to develop the underlying concepts further. Any new developments are kept internal, locked away from other eyes that might use it, even if the application has nothing to do with what the company in question is doing. Knowing what advances that have been made during my tenure, and knowing that it'll never be published, makes me really wonder at what amazing things have been found in industry, but are rotting in some tech's lab notebook, never to be seen.
Never mind the fact that for many companies, the only 'research' that is done is funded externally, while holding on to all rights to the IP. That's a screed for another day. To sum that up in one sentence: it is wrong for shareholders to expect to have exclusive rights to the fruits of research, unless they are willing to fund the work that produced it exclusively. This is rarely done-- not just in the company in which I work, but several others across industry. But since most people in government (at least where I am) were business people first and foremost, they're all about channeling wealth from public coffers into private industry.
So that is why I am going back to school. Because I am sick of spending my days trying to attach a clock to someone else's radio and call that a new idea, and because I am sick of having to go begging to public institutions to pay for the privilege of doing so, despite the fact that the bulk of the financial reward of the work will go to a bunch of rich fat old men.
As I've mentioned in a reply to animal_cookie's announcement that she's going back to school-- grats once again, by the way
-- I've also recently decided to go back to school. I suspect that I'm a bit less along in the application/admissions process as she is, as I'm still compiling my applications package and figuring out the details of how each school handles applications.But Dave, you're a professional in your field, working in an exciting young company at a critical time, and are actually earning a salary! A salary that will only continue to increase in time! Why on earth would you want to go back to school?
Well, it's been something that I've been turning over in my head for a while now, and I've wanted to put metaphorical pen to metaphorical paper in order to more closely examine my motivations. Yes, I'm working as a professional chemist, at a job where there is at least the semblance of research, with only a bachelor's degree in chemistry. That is, frankly, all but unheard of where I am. Due to a number of factors, including: dominance of engineering as a profession in virtually all technical fields, the increasing popularity of applied 'degrees', and the watering down of both admissions and undergrad programs (in order to increase admissions, to have enough tuition to stay afloat, due to the government's policy of incremental defunding of education); a bachelor's degree in science is considered to be equivalent to a 2-year applied technician's diploma in industry. In many cases, it is actually considered to be less attractive than a diploma, as fewer practical skills are taught, as there is still a focus on theory and research at the undergrad level.
Due to this, it took me a year to get the job that I currently have, and even then I was only able to find it because I was connected to the founder of the startup. And it was not a pleasant job to start. Poorly paid, with little to do, and what little there was to do could have been done by a high-school student. Not grad. Student. Still, I slogged along for a bit, and in time -- partly due to said founder leaving the company, and taking various invisible hierarchies and prejudices along -- the job improved somewhat. Late last year, I'd almost say that I was even working close to the level to which my education had prepared me: doing some self-directed research, experimental design and execution, and writing technical reports. They weren't ever going to see the light of day outside the company, much less be reviewed and published, but it was something.
But there have been philosophical issues with industry, that have bothered me from the start. Research is based, by and large, on a gift economy. I borrow use of so-and-so's spectrophotometer, and down the road they may ask to 'borrow' some of an esoteric compound that I used to use. Reciprocity is implied, but not necessarily expected. A big part of this is publication; people are paid nothing when they submit to a journal. They are giving away the information, putting it into the public domain-- albeit behind paywalls these days, but the principle is there. Why give it away? So that others can build on it. Simple as that. That is how research is able to progress.
Now, while the following may not be true of every situation in industry, it is certainly true as a broad-stroke generalization: industry is by and large parasitic on this gift economy. Businesses operate on the idea that any money spent needs to have a monetary return, else it is wasted. Since much of research involves failure, it is anathema to this principle. So rather than funding original research, most industrial outfits will take what academics have given to the public domain, tweak it just enough to be patentable, and then lock it up. Once locked, they'll squeeze as much utility out of the idea as possible, while spending as little as possible to develop the underlying concepts further. Any new developments are kept internal, locked away from other eyes that might use it, even if the application has nothing to do with what the company in question is doing. Knowing what advances that have been made during my tenure, and knowing that it'll never be published, makes me really wonder at what amazing things have been found in industry, but are rotting in some tech's lab notebook, never to be seen.
Never mind the fact that for many companies, the only 'research' that is done is funded externally, while holding on to all rights to the IP. That's a screed for another day. To sum that up in one sentence: it is wrong for shareholders to expect to have exclusive rights to the fruits of research, unless they are willing to fund the work that produced it exclusively. This is rarely done-- not just in the company in which I work, but several others across industry. But since most people in government (at least where I am) were business people first and foremost, they're all about channeling wealth from public coffers into private industry.
So that is why I am going back to school. Because I am sick of spending my days trying to attach a clock to someone else's radio and call that a new idea, and because I am sick of having to go begging to public institutions to pay for the privilege of doing so, despite the fact that the bulk of the financial reward of the work will go to a bunch of rich fat old men.
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
